I clearly should have charged MUCH more for the prop blades I supplied for the project!!

As to price, I think the Burma Spitfire famine and Vol II of the Spitfire Survivors book must have caused a bit of a ‘spike’ in the value of project starter-kits. 🙂

Surely it would be cheaper to wait for one of the Burmese Spitfires and cut the front off of one of them instead, or, if the idea catches on, cut them all up………

I think that is a reference to earlier in the film when the police call round because of infringement of the blackout regulations, the lady of the house says that she always leaves a light on to help the pilots.

As the sun is out I decided to make sure my Spitfire replica bits fitted together. My garage is too small to do this inside.

That’s a nice project you’ve got there Robert, are you building a complete Spitfire or just a fuselage? is it all aluminium or a mixture of materials? what are you going to do with it when it is finished? (if you don’t mind me asking)

I don’t have a problem with the display,(was it yours Flying Saucer?) just the disproportionate appraisal ;i.e “far more effort and thought” I was thinking in terms of the shear amout of physical hard work associated with loading cockpits onto trailers, and towing them long distances, trying to pre empt all impending disasters.

It is because of the above, that I sometimes attend with a smaller display, and as such I am much the same as anyone else in hangar 2; I don’t believe I have been mentioned in dispaches or won any prizes, but it has enabled me to attend the event without making a humongous effort every year.

It wasn’t my intention to criticise the display, (or anyone elses with an aviation theme) I do however wonder about some of the non aviation/military/ re enactment stuff, but I’ve ruffled enough feathers for now. (pun intended)

“Hello there “KNIFEY”, and what exactly did “YOU” decide to display to contribute to this years Cockpitfest? “

I decided to bring my C119 cockpit, but unfortunately due to family comitments I was unable to do so; however I have attended 8 events with several different exhibits, in the past (probably not as many as you though)

With regard to the collection of magazines on the table, if anyone thinks there is the remotest connection between dragging a cockpit hundreds of miles to the fest, (or indeed assembling a cockpit display in the hangar only to have to break it all down again and cram it in the back of a car; let alone all of the hundreds of hours repairing and painting and fabricating etc) they, are a fool…… oh and BTW I was the one that moved the chunk of Tornado from Sussex to N Wales (and bl00dy heavy it was too)

I have to say the aviator chair in brown leather looks good, and at £375 quite a good price; not sure about the riveting though looks to be 1″ centres and Spitfires were 3/4″ centres……(probably ruined the positive vibe now haven’t I?)

I did read not so long ago that spitfire Mk 1a AR213 was sold for just below £3m which is far more original than P9374

Ah yes but did it have a book written about it? you can’t put a price on that (but I know a man who ca……..)

I seem to remember that Mitchell chose the position because it was low drag; there was a huge effort made to reduce the drag even further, the design (pioneered by Meredith at the RAE) produced thrust by squeezing the hot air with the rad flaps.

It has been discussed before, but an aeroplane is designed to fly, therefore priority is given to its handling characteristics in the air, and not on the ground; if overheating occurred on the ground , that was as a result of poor management i.e starting the machines and holding them too long.

The radiator is within the arc of the propellor and so benefits from prop wash, but being much more compact, doesn’t have the surface area exposed (to that wash) that the Hurricane has.