When were Spitfire Seats Changed to Bakelite?

How about seats in Seafires? When did they change?

There were at least two variants of the Spitfire panel in Paxolin.

Most versions seem to be a murky Brown/Black matt self colour finish.

The remnants of the panel on one of my Seafire projects however was high gloss self colour black.

Mark

Early instrument panels were aluminium, and painted black, or in some cases anodised.

Later ones were black paxolin – the black was a self colour.

Bruce

There are two types of this stuff, SRBF and SRBP.

SRBF = Synthetic Resin Bonded Fabric – this is the stuff used to make instrument panels and goes under a number of trade names such as Tufnol, Paxolin etc.

SRBP = Synthetic Resin Bonded Paper is similar but uses layers of paper instead of fabric in it’s construction. This is the stuff moulded into things like seats.

Both are generally very tough and stable but, as you can guess, the paper based version is the less durable of the two and, as Bruce says, can rot over time.

No, the instrument panels are Tufnol/Paxolin – thats a resin impregnated fibre product that doesnt degrade (much) over time.

The seats are paper, and do rot and degrade.

Bruce

Whas the instrument panel then painted? What colour should they be?

I knew you would know!

Bruce

SRPB – Synthetic Resin Bonded Paper was my understanding.

Mark

No, the instrument panels are Tufnol/Paxolin – thats a resin impregnated fibre product that doesnt degrade (much) over time.

The seats are paper, and do rot and degrade.

Bruce

Should be the same material as the Spitfire instrument panels.
Originally they are also red/brown.
Some name it Paxolin, Hadex, Pertinax, etc…..
Herbert

They arent Bakelite, or Tufnol – they are a form of resin impregnated paper, which is formed in a mould. The resin gives it the red/brown colour

Bruce

I concur

What I remember it was Feb 1940 the change took place.The material was a type of Bakelite called Tuffnol IIRC.A pressed fibre board which is impregnated in resin.With the rules with “Plastic” seats today is it the material or the mounting points for the side belts that are a worry?:confused:

Can anyone tell me when the seats where changed from Metal seats to Bakelite please?

Hi ollie, not sure about bakelite seats, but when I was at Historic Flying earlier this year i noticed they had 1 made of carbon fibre. Also they were making a seat for P9374 the MK1 they are doing. This 1 is metal & P9374 is from feb 1940 so seat change must be after that.