Ahh shot down by Flak into Dieppe Harbour – F/Sgt C B Watson PoW

Thats the one!

shame it will head to the US but I’d walk up to Duxford to see it before it goes….

fantastic looking beast…..

No need to walk that far – its at Booker!

If I could afford to buy a rivet for rivet recreation of a Spitfire, that could fly I think I would… and judging by the number of people that build replicas in 80% scale and others, I think I’m not alone.

Ric – if you could afford a ‘rivet for rivet’ recreation of a Spitfire than you can afford to restore an original Spitfire and would be well advised to go for that as it will be worth rather more than a ‘repro’. 🙂

The people that build reduced size replicas do so (in the UK) in order to reduce costs, operate the aircraft on a PFA permit, not have to buy an expensive RR Merlin, not have to use expensive original or replacement parts, buy in to a pre-designed ‘kit’ etc etc.

Why would you need a serial number? You might need a construction number, but that would be something that would mean something to you, chosen by you, like when building a “new” car.

I’m sure there is a way that it would be accepted or there would never be a new aircraft built anywhere.

Ric, the issue is that the Spitfire is/was a military aircraft and has never had a civilian version created by the original manufacturer. As such there is no ‘type certificate’ for civilian manufacture and operation. The only way you can operate a Spitfire registrered in the UK is as an ex-military aircraft on a CAA ‘Permit to Fly’ basis.

It is not beyond possibility that someone could take the Spitfire airframe design right through the approval process as a ‘new design’ and perhaps achieve approval for series production – but who would spend such vast amounts of time and money this would require in order to obtain consent to build an aircraft that would be less valuable (as a new product) than its historic cousins?

The real-world restoration of historic WWII fighters in the UK is driven by this legislative framework – you simply cannot make them new and probably would not want to either due to the lower perceived value of the end product.

They are accepting new built Spitfires as new nowadays so there should be no problem in that.

:confused:

All planes have a fatigue life

Yes they all have a fatique life

Are you chaps talking military jet aircraft, you dont actually mean all aircraft or even all ex military aircraft do you?

Whilst we have one flyable Lancaster in the country I rate the incremental benefit of having a second as being pretty minimal.

If the Pantons wish to do it, more power to their elbow. But it isn’t something that would be getting me bouncing up and down with excitement.

Moggy

Such a statement seems to me to be completely incomprehensible, coming form a historic aviation enthusiast such as yourself.

So is it worth going ?

Definately.

These days, I would say there is more emphasis on the historic types than modern at Shoreham (although maybe I am a bit biased). You are probably almost as close to the parked aircraft as you would be on the Flightline walk at DX, so yes – you are pretty close (although there is a barrier).