John Young could make you smell and hear the aeroplanes he painted. R.I.P.

Regarding that spinner:

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_t does appear to be of the German-designed VDM (Vereinigte Deutsche Metalwerke) type – i.e. a spun dome ‘cap’ with a hole where the spindle attached for manufacture and a sheet rear section, riveted at a join which also attached via a reinforcing ring to the prop boss (although this whole ring is curiously missing here). However, this was widely used under licence by propeller manufacturers around the world, including the Russians, Americans and both de Havilland and Rotol at different times via British subcontractors, largest of whom was cheeky enough to call themselves VDM spinners Ltd, and imply they owned the patent:

This particular spinner does not share the profile of any 109 model I have found – G and E types below:

Note the ‘E’ type is one-piece, not of the VDM patented type at all, with no join or rivet line. The ‘G’ type did have a reinforcing ring and a riveted join, but looked completely different in profile.

If anything, this looks most like a – potentially more interesting – TA-152 spinner:
[ATTACH=JSON]{“alt”:”Click image for larger version Name:t152.png Views:t0 Size:t161.6 KB ID:t3853620″,”data-align”:”none”,”data-attachmentid”:”3853620″,”data-size”:”full”,”title”:”152.png”}[/ATTACH]
..or even, though the odds against must surely be enormous, one of these:

But on balance no, not 109. It could be from any number of things, not even necessarily German, and one of the least likely candidates is 109.

Farewell and Blue Skies, Tim. A very sad day – many of us on this forum will have had contact with this gentleman – and I use the word very deliberately – and will be deeply saddened by this news. My thoughts are with Mr. Elkington’s family and friends.

Don’t get me wrong, In trying to understand what the unusual thing I am looking at here actually is does not mean I am excited about it being that particular aeroplane. In fact I have never understood why it has obsessed so many people more than any other aviation accident.. They messed up, many people have. I am interested to find out what those divers actually found – it’s an intriguing image.

Ant, I had forgotten that! Yes – because the ground was so soft I recall all the remains were in the ‘right’ place relative to each other. Certainly several Brownings came out. I also recall a lot of instrumentation and things from the cockpit area, and I have a vague memory of a control surface. I guess the main spar would have been in there too, if the guns were in place. The preservation was superb, with that anoxic black soil keeping fabric and webbing completely ‘as new’.

At the time the SAS was drowning in Spitfire and Hurricane remains, having visited several sites related to the fighter OTU’s at Aston Down (the attrition rate was very high in 1940-42), and so we might have been a bit blase about where things ended up (looked at with hindsight).