Spitfires AB910 and AR501

It seems I was right to suggest that whoever had writtian out the Form 700 originaly presumed that AB910 was fitted with a Merlin 45 without checking.
Thank you to all for your inputs.

Jay

It seems I was right to suggest that whoever had writtian out the Form 700 originaly presumed that AB910 was fitted with a Merlin 45 without checking.
Thank you to all for your inputs.

Jay

Yes Mark, thats what we were told, her 55M was replaced by the 35, because the BBMF had far more spares and they wanted the whole fleet to have interchangerable units ?

Jules

Yes Mark, thats what we were told, her 55M was replaced by the 35, because the BBMF had far more spares and they wanted the whole fleet to have interchangerable units ?

Jules

My records:-

G-AISU was despatchd from South Marston to Farnborough on 21 July 1949 fitted with a Merlin 45.

Fitted with four blade prop and Merlin 55M at EastLeigh as at May 1950.

The Merlin 55 with six stub exhaust was in the aircraft as at 1954.

I have another note that early in 1969 a Merlin (presumbably a 35) was fitted from Sea Balliol WP***.

Mark

My records:-

G-AISU was despatchd from South Marston to Farnborough on 21 July 1949 fitted with a Merlin 45.

Fitted with four blade prop and Merlin 55M at EastLeigh as at May 1950.

The Merlin 55 with six stub exhaust was in the aircraft as at 1954.

I have another note that early in 1969 a Merlin (presumbably a 35) was fitted from Sea Balliol WP***.

Mark

Heres the scans of the Form 4802 we obtained from RR
it shows AB910’s Merlin was installed in May 1955 and removed in November 1972 by which time it had run for 516.05 hours.

All interesting stuff!

so to answer the original question, AB910 flew in the BofB film with a
Merlin 55M number 36249/A216538

Jules

Heres the scans of the Form 4802 we obtained from RR
it shows AB910’s Merlin was installed in May 1955 and removed in November 1972 by which time it had run for 516.05 hours.

All interesting stuff!

so to answer the original question, AB910 flew in the BofB film with a
Merlin 55M number 36249/A216538

Jules

Hi,
As you can see from the attached photographs of the form 700 it clearly states Merlin 45 and with both military and civilian registrations recorded on the back, maybe someone from the BBMF can comment?

Hi,
As you can see from the attached photographs of the form 700 it clearly states Merlin 45 and with both military and civilian registrations recorded on the back, maybe someone from the BBMF can comment?

I can confirm that AB910 flew in her early days with a Merlin 55M, i know because i had it, it was taken out by the BBMF (1970’s/80’s) to fit its current engine ? we had it (with all its paperwork) to put in BL370, so it is now hanging in the roof of the National D Day Museum, New Orleans !

Jules

There was a letter from Allen Wheeler in Aeroplane in the late 1970s (I have it somewhere) where he described getting the Spitfire and a subsequent engine change. He had tendered for a Mark IX but when he arrived to collect it found it had been scrapped along with the rest of the batch it was part of. He was then offered a Mark V for £250 but didn’t want that because spares would be harder to get so he was offered the Mark I (AR213) for spares at a tenner. Sometime later he found metal in the oil of the Mark V and so went to the RAF for another engine but all that was available was two stage Merlins. He had one for £10, sold the crate to came in to someone for £10 and had his engineer back engineer the 60-series Merlin by taking the supercharger and intercooler off and replacing it with the back end of the original engine. The ‘Frankenengine’ was then passed to someone (possibly RR) as an apprentice training tool.

It is, therefore, quite possible that the engine fitted to AB910 prior to the Bof B film was a hybrid.

The mystery deepens, is the form 700 wrong ie did the engineer who wrote it out put merlin 45 instead of merlin 55 thinking as a MkV is should have that mark of Engine OR did the engineer mix up the form 700 between AB910 &
AR501 and put merlin 45 in AB’s form 700 instead of AR’s form 700?

Or am I just digging a hole for myself 😀

if memory serves me right, ABs Merlin 45 is in RR heritage trust now. i think its engine was changed prior to delivery to BBMF.

Mick

I believe that AB910 retained its Merlin 55M (originally installed at Eastleigh in May 1950).

To the best of my knowledge AR501 was transferred by road to Henlow on 29/11/67 and restored to fly by Simpsons Aero Services (G-AWII) on the power of its Merlin 45M which had been installed by Air Service Training Ltd between 22/9/44 and 23/11/44.

(It’s all in the book …)

Hi
I was under the same impression until the weekend when I was shown the Form 700E which was used for G-AISU AB910 dated 18-5-68 during the making of the film. In section 2 it states the engine as Merlin 45, interesting enough in section 6 on the 5th July 1968 at 1710 hrs the pilot reports port brake indicates but does not hold followed by the port wing tip and pitot head damaged at same time.

HI everybody,

I know someone will have the answer to this question, did AB910 fly in the Battle of Britain film with a Merlin 45 engine? or was it AR501 who flew with the Merlin 45?

Regards

Jay

I believe that AB910 retained its Merlin 55M (originally installed at Eastleigh in May 1950).

To the best of my knowledge AR501 was transferred by road to Henlow on 29/11/67 and restored to fly by Simpsons Aero Services (G-AWII) on the power of its Merlin 45M which had been installed by Air Service Training Ltd between 22/9/44 and 23/11/44.

(It’s all in the book …)