"later versions" more difficult to restore than "earlier versions"

Obviously.

Can’t you put a different engine in? Wasn’t the Tempest designed for this in the first place?

Tempest MkI – Sabre IV, wing radiators
Tempest Mk II – Centaurus
Tempest Mk III – Griffon, later Sabre VIII, later Fury prototype
Tempest MkIV – Griffon, not built
Tempest Mk V – Sabre II, chin radiator (some tested with annular radiators)
Tempest Mk VI – Sabre V, chin and wing radiator

Have I missed any?

They all looked rather different up front though and only the MkII of the non-Sabre variants would be representative of operational versions

I think the Tempest V is probably on a bit of a go-slow as the chances of getting a running Sabre are about nil so it’ll never fly however well it’s restored.

Obviously.

Can’t you put a different engine in? Wasn’t the Tempest designed for this in the first place?

More of a very in depth overhaul than what would today be regarded as a complete “rivet replacing” rebuild. That’s not to say they didn’t do a good job though. According to the engineers I’ve spoken to in the past who were involved with the work it was a very tidy aeroplane.

G

Were any pics taken before/during/after overhaul? There seem to be very little pics of the aircraft. I only know the pic in the Spitfire Survivors book and the mentioned Aeroplane pic

Cees

PK350

More of a very in depth overhaul than what would today be regarded as a complete “rivet replacing” rebuild. That’s not to say they didn’t do a good job though. According to the engineers I’ve spoken to in the past who were involved with the work it was a very tidy aeroplane.

G

Lastest Aeroplane had an in flight pic of Jack Malloch’s Mk 22 Sptifire which was taken shortly before it was destroyed in a crash. It was mentioned that it was restored by his own engineers. Any info on the conditon of the airframe at the time? And was it an overhaul or a full restoration?
Any pics
Cheers

Cees

The BOTTOM LINE I guess is the answer here, i.e. the willingness and depth of pocket of a private individual to fund a rebuild. In the case of Spits early marks always more desirable than the later marks.

Same goes for twins (ie Hornet, Mossie etc) keeping a pair of Merlins etc fed and water as opposed to a single, expensive stuff.

Anything can be done if you throw enough money at it, airframe wise. Biggest prob though is always going to be power-plants, as XN923 rightfully points out the chances of getting a Sabre running pretty slim. Thus you are kind of limited by those readily available Merlin, Griffon, Allison etc.

Sure you can shoe-horm some other sort of engine into say a FW190 but in aint ever going to be a proper BMW / JUMO, Thus not to be taken seriously by those with the dosh!

Chumpy.

slightly off topic i know, but how on Earth did all the Hornets get scrapped??- you’d think that SOMEONE would’ve thought ‘this is a beautiful aeroplane, we should keep one!!’ (unless i’m the only one who thinks it was beautiful!!)

I think the Tempest V is probably on a bit of a go-slow as the chances of getting a running Sabre are about nil so it’ll never fly however well it’s restored.

The few Tempest IIs have a better chance as there are running Centauruses around, and the wing has a lot of commonality with the Sea Fury. My guess is that once we see one Tempest, we’ll see several more soon after.

OK, really hankering for a flying Tempest now.

The Spitfire 21 and 22/24 fuselage shouldn’t be a problem back to the tail joint but AFAIK nobody’s rebuilt one to fly so the tail and wings would be a different matter.

There was the J McCulloch (?) Spitfire 22 that was rebuilt to fly, but crashed, back in the 1980s.

TFC, I believe, have theirs on the back-burner for the time being.

I guess it would.

If jigs are needed for Spitfires, Mustangs and Hurricanes, whilst not kept in every aviation engineering company, you’ve still got a choice of people to rebuild your aeroplane.

The Spitfire 21 and 22/24 fuselage shouldn’t be a problem back to the tail joint but AFAIK nobody’s rebuilt one to fly so the tail and wings would be a different matter. Tempest same problem – first build a jig.