Question on Preserved Spitfire's

…and we can’t re-engineer a tyre valve?

Mark[/QUOTE]

It’s not that it can’t be re-engineered I’m sure. If we can re-spar and make a lot of the airframe bits and even build new FW190’s then it rather smacks of: “Why go for the simple, cheaper and obvious option when this is an MOD contract and we can really cream off the tax-payer on this one and hey, we can even say there were ‘technical development problems’ and push the price up even further than the agreed tender” ! Isn’t this the standard practice with MOD contracts these days, oh and of course build in a few delays as well……. 😡

The limit on flying Spitfires is a few parts – IIRC Richard Paver said in an Aeroplane article that only the prop hub was not ‘makeable’ today. (I may be at fault with that – anyone?)

JDK,

I don’t know when he said it, but certainly Dowty Rotol made a bunch of four blade prop hubs in the 1980’s for the late Charles Church operation.

From memory I think the price was about £20k each. Talking to the CEO of Dowty a few years back he said the cost was twice the price!

…and we can’t re-engineer a tyre valve?

Mark

Hoping that the Spitfire guys can help me on this one. Ive been roped into doing a small talk on the Spitfire to celebrate its 70th.

Good luck. Some other things you might like to think about, and others may comment on here…

It’s not how much a Spitfire costs that’s important (the cliché about “if you need to ask you can’t afford one…” applies) but how much they cost and what they require to keep flying. And then you might touch on insurance – something that for people that can support all the other costs is a show stopper.

On cost, Spitfires are one of essentially only two frontline warbird types** that have a long way yet to go before the market reaches saturation. And because there’s so ‘many’ around the support means they are ‘cheaper’ and ‘easier’ to rebuild and maintain than almost any other British type – those are very relative terms, but a graph of flying Spitfires (reasonable double digits) against ANY other British warbird type’s numbers would be illuminating.

So there’ll be a lot more Spitfires rebuilt to fly, scale and maybe full size replicas (let’s nod to ‘dataplates’ and ‘TBRP’ ™* here) because there’s a lot more people who’ll support that. Unlike, say, Mosquitoes, Tempests, Hurricanes, etc…

Also, only the Spitfire and Hurricane as types are being rebuilt to UK CAA acceptable flying standard and ‘better than new’ condition on an almost production line – certainly factory level – approach by companies set up to do so; and only the Spitfire might show a real profit for the rebuiders of the two types. (Discuss!)

The limit on flying Spitfires is a few parts – IIRC Richard Paver said in an Aeroplane article that only the prop hub was not ‘makeable’ today. (I may be at fault with that – anyone?)

Oh, can I mention magnesium rivets?

Please point out, my personal pet peeve, that it’s not ‘how many Spitfires there are still flying’ but ‘how many are flying today’ or ‘how many have been restored to fly’. Without a dedicated volunteer-supported but professional industry, there’d be none; they’ve ALL been put back in the air by people who thought it important.

Why not talk to Historic Flying?

Hope that helps.

* Thin but robust provenance…

** The other is the Mustang, where there are several hundred flying worldwide. It’s interesting that one company is responsible for the most prevalent flying medium bomber, advanced trainer and fighter, with the B-25, T-6 and P-51. NAA got something right – several times!

I haven’t added MK923 to the list, since I’m not entirely sure she’s airworthy these days.

I am afraid you are correct in not adding this Spitfire to the list as she is no longer flown or considered airworthy by the owners.

I haven’t added MK923 to the list, since I’m not entirely sure she’s airworthy these days.

According to the Warbird Registry – Spitfire list she’s maintained in airworthy condition, but I seem to recall there being some discussion about this since the Spit would require more than just a bit of work. I’m happy to be proved wrong, of course.

If am not misstaken she is kept at the Museum of Flight Seattle. And has been there for a number of years.

Herman

I haven’t added MK923 to the list, since I’m not entirely sure she’s airworthy these days.

According to the Warbird Registry – Spitfire list she’s maintained in airworthy condition, but I seem to recall there being some discussion about this since the Spit would require more than just a bit of work. I’m happy to be proved wrong, of course.

Who owns VP441?

Mr Jim Smith

Or even VP441

Spotted – corrected 😉

Who owns VP447?

Ooh, musn’t forget the two Seafires that are currently flying in the world:

F.XVII SX336
FR.47 VP441

😉

Thank you Daz. I wasnt far off with the number of flyers. There was a few that I had missed but what defines a flyer. Just wanted to double check my info before I got up opened my mouth and then………………..promptly got shot down in flames. Cheers I know that wouldnt have been a quick message to send back. Really appreciated.

1) Historic Flying did have one of their Spitfires (the MkXVIII) for sale on eBay about six years ago (not long after they finished her) for about £1.5m, if I remember correctly. Of course, a Spit (or any warbird) is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it.

2) Any list you draw up will be debatable (depending on how you define “airworthy” (maintained but not flown would apply to a few)), but it should probably include the following:

MkII
P7350
MkV
AB910
AR501
AR614
BM597
EP120
JG891 (the most recent)
MkVIII
MT719
MT818
MV154
MV239
MkIX
MA793
MH367
MH434
MJ627
MJ730
MJ772 (debatable – I think this is maintained in airworthy condition but not flown)
MK356
MK732
MK912
MK959
ML407
ML417
PL344
PT462
PV202 (IAC 161)
TA805
TE308
TE554
MkXI
PL965
MkXIV
MV293
NH749
NH904
RN201
SM832
TZ138
MkXVI
SL721
TB863
TD248
TE184 (not flown for a few years (last flight was in 2004) but has just changed hands, so should hopefully be flying soon)
TE356 (on display, but maintained in airworthy condition)
TE392
TE476
MkXVIII
SM845
TP280
MkXIX
PM631
PS853
PS890
PS915

3) A lot! 😀