Spitfire Armour Plate – Key Publishing

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By: QldSpitty - 8th June 2015 at 07:09

All good up here for one mate so Matt is all yours 😉

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By: JollyGreenSlugg - 8th June 2015 at 06:14

Did somebody say Beaufort?

I know a fella who has a Beaufort nose project on the go, rather slowly, but on the go. I reckon you’d have an enthusiastic bloke willing to give that armor plate a home! That is, if it’s not eagerly sought after elsewhere. Otherwise, measurements might be very helpful.

Cheers,
Matt

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By: powerandpassion - 8th June 2015 at 05:46

Beaufort 🙂

Thanks Spitty, makes sense now. Needed up there?

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By: Arabella-Cox - 7th June 2015 at 11:54

Thank you all for the various replies, and PMs are sent. P&P, I an NO authority on such plates, but to my own eye it does not seem to resemble the drawings for the Spitfire which I have here. That should not be understood to say that it is not Spitfire related; it is simply not to my limited knowledge.

I have discovered since the first post that the thickness of the armour-glass internal windscreen is 1 1/2″ (38 mm). Mike, I agree that the sheet thicknesses are likely to be similar, so thank you kindly for those figures.

However, in investigating this matter further I have discovered the same lack of information for several other RAF fighters (Hurricane, Typhoon, etc). Does anyone know if there is a deliberate reason for this ‘un-documentation’? Was armour thickness regarded by the AM as Secret? It looks to my eye to be quite odd when AM diagrams show these figures very clearly for the Mustang I, for example, but not for an otherwise similarly detailed illustration of the Hurri Mk II cocpkit.

Curious this.

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By: Arabella-Cox - 7th June 2015 at 06:09

Hi NII VVS

You have a PM.

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By: QldSpitty - 7th June 2015 at 01:49

Beaufort 🙂

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By: powerandpassion - 6th June 2015 at 05:36

NII VVS,
Can you check if this is Spitfire armour plate, it’s something out of Australia :

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?132613-ID-armour-plate&highlight=

Happy to measure it up accurately if it helps,
Thanks,
Ed

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By: Adrian Barrell - 5th June 2015 at 17:17

Main fuel tank and pilots back for Mk1 were both 3/16″.

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By: MikeHoulder - 5th June 2015 at 13:28

These are the values for the Lancaster’s pilot seat There’s a good chance they are the same for the Spitfire.
They are given in Metric mm by Avro themselves. All de-magnetised,

Pilot seat
Thickness 6 mm
last amended 30-5-43

Pilot backrest
Thickness bottom half 6 mm
Thickness top half 9 mm
last amended 17-11-44

Seat Head Plate
Thickness 9 mm
last amended 23-2-42

Hope that helps
Mike