Another consideration would be that as aluminium dissipates heat really well and the engine is all alloy, how well are the fibreglass cowings going to stand up ; I had a Reliant Scimitar (don’t laugh) and the bonnet on that was cracked and crazed ,and it was double skinned.

A mk III Seafire (SR483) was involved in an “incident” during which the pilot blacked out ,the A/C went into a steep dive during which it was estimated to have reached 531 mph and about 11g; the A/C recovered on its own (miraculously)and the pilot survived.

Pretty much every thing was starting to fail, the lower wing fold pins, the rear fuselage, the wing spars, even the prop blade laminations had started to open up, so I would say that allowing a 10% margin for error, “the speed not to exceed” is 477.9 mph, or don’t go off the clock on a 480mph asi because beyond that “there be dragons”!!

The pilots notes for the mkV Spitfire, say maximum speed in a dive 450 mph, the airframe being basically the same to the mk I , and gravity being a constant , I would think it would be similar.

Whilst the hypothesis is that, in 1939 no RAF fighter could exceed 400mph in level flight, they all could in a dive ; the asi is a very useful instrument when you need something to tell you when the wings are going to come off!

It is quite possible, that the 480mph asi wasn’t fitted early on, to discourage competition between pilots looking for the fastest dive speed, and in so doing, “pull the wings off” at the bottom, once past 400mph, its just guess work.

I suppose it could be a laugh to see who can come up with the most outrageous listing on ebay, then close it before you get reported for inaccurate listing, it would probably be on most forums within minutes.:dev2:

How about a MkVIII Spitfire fitted with a Tank engine, that was flown by Tuck and Bader, with a few picks of them badly super imposed in the cockpit it just happened to be made of plastic and carry a tank engine because it was special model tested by the a couple of the top pilots. Start the bidding at 99p.
Do you think anyone would take it seriously???:rolleyes: I bet someone would and start slagging off the listing.
Maybe thats too accurate i believe Supermarine did test a Spit made out of Bakolite??? (a Wartime type of plastic)
Don’t think ill try it might get banned again:o !!!!!

Would be funny to see some imaginative ebay listings here though?

The “plastic” Spitfire was made from “aerolite” which was a mix of flax fibres and phenolic resin; it never flew , and so the first gate guardian was born!

I am given to understand that 4130 is the US equivilent of T50; obviously welding of tubing was possible in the 30’s and 40’s, but what grade of metal was used? the Anson wouldn’t have anywhere near the same stresses on it in use as a fighter.

I seem to remember the U/C indicator from oz made £800-; I think they are all overpriced ,ofcourse that may because I need one, but the high prices, mean that there will be more reproductons made,indeed I know of somebody who intends to make high quality reproductions for flying, once they start to appear (at significantly lower prices) the market will steady, and probably drop, (shame!)

I should point out that the advice given r.e the crankshaft grinding /rotation, was supplied by a major bearing manufacture; personally I would have thought that the finish on Rolls Royce crankshafts (as with other components) would make this less of a problem.

It was something that came up in conversation with Stan Grainger (at Rolls Royce heritage) r.e a source of usable crankshafts ,Pete says one is flying in the UK, thats good enough for me.