Spitfire Running Costs

The good news is that nobody’s numbers came up, so it’s a rollover again. 😀

Nor mine. 🙁

Especially if your numbers came up on Euromillions last night.

Mine didn’t. 🙁

Moggy

If you compare it to running a Mustang with a Roush engine you are looking at 500hrs for heads and banks, 1000tbo for the bottom end.

Jim

I thought it was automatic that the Merlin came out for a rebuild at 500 hrs. Can it continue to operate in service beyond 500 hrs. with an inspection? I always wondered how many horses had escaped after 500 hrs. and is there a noticeable drop in performance at the 500 hr. mark?

Joe – 500, then its on condition. 200 quid per hour to the engine fund is about right.

What’s the TBO on a Merlin these days?

I guess you would need to put in £200 to £300 / hr in just for the engine fund.

Seeing as a Spit has a RR engine, I’ll give you the RR answer. “If you have to ask, you can’t afford” Enough said.

Thanks very much, people!

if its availability to ‘rent’ means that the usage goes up, then the actual per/hour cost comes down

The costs vary enormously depending on the utilization of the aircraft and the scenario its operated in.

Totally depends on how many hours you fly

I think you have your answer.

A lot of money, the amount varying with the number of hours it clocks up during the year.

Moggy

Totally depends on how many hours you fly, if you fly over say 10 hours and do 10 hr inspections, then it will differ to those that fly 10 hours and can combine the 10 hour check with the annual… If that makes sense. As one requires 2 inspection a year and the other 1.

avarage £2.5 k per hour I would think.
Insurance, fuel, maint, hangarage. and .
still air

I heard somewhere that a Spitfire burns about a gallon of fuel a minute.

They get about 5mpg at cruise… or maybe I’m thinking of P51’s…

The costs vary enormously depending on the utilization of the aircraft and the scenario its operated in.

And don’t forget insurance. I have heard tales of £40K for a Spitfire valued at around the million, so even if you get 40 hrs utilisation in a year, which is going it a bit if you don’t get a couple of foreign shows, is £1000 per hour. You could reduce this by not insuring the airframe and just having third party but I don’t think I would be brave enough to do that.

Clicky the ‘PRICES’ link at the top of the boultbeeflightacademy.co.uk page.

Brian

I heard somewhere that a Spitfire burns about a gallon of fuel a minute. A spitfire IX holds around 115 gallons of fuel and 5 gallons of oil, fully loaded. AVGAS is around £2-3 per litre. And on top of that are maintenance costs.

Well the recent article on flying the Boultbee 2-seater said it was charged out at $5,500/hr which equates to about £3,500/hr.

Presumably there is an element of profit in that, but if its availability to ‘rent’ means that the usage goes up, then the actual per/hour cost comes down as all the fixed annual costs are amortised over the greater number of flying hours.

Moggy