What a beauty, If only…..

Shame about the ventral element of the tail fin, otherwise she’d have rivalled the DeH Albatross as one of the best looking aircraft designs ever….IMO anyway.

Paul F

Amazing…

Just watched the clip on the office PC, which has no sound card. Apart from taxiing for t/o and the final circuit/landing it looks so realistic – I could imagine the sound of a RR Merlin. Such a “polished” display too, I had to keep reminding myself that I was watching a R/C model, and not a real Spitfire.

No doubt the sound is all wrong, (will watch it on home PC again tonight to check) but I think I know what’s going on my Christmas list……..

Paul F

My First Airfix memories..

Watching my dad build the (first?)Airfix 1/72 Bf 109, and having to decide whether to fit the European or tropical-style air filter.

Then helping him build the 1/72 Auster Antarctic – and agonising over whether to fit it with wheels, floats or skis, as the kit came with all three options. Opted for skis….. Many many years later after various repaints and much abuse the kit was consigned to the dustbin.

So many choices….who else remembers the old folded paper “narrative” type instruction leaflets. “Glue the radio set into the fuselage….” etc. Long before those often less than helpful “international” instruction leaflets that came along later.

My first 1/144 Skyking was the Boeing 707 (BOAC Colours), followed by a Vickers Vanguard (BEA colours) and then the 747 (BOAC Colours G-BOAC) – what a drag it was punching all those window holes into the decal stripes with those fiddly little hole punches!

My early efforst also sufferred the usual glue-smeared canopies, glue-shrunken joints and dodgy anhedral angles, plus broken/crooked decals and bent undercarriages, aerials and prop blades. Oh, and propellors which were either so tight they didn’t turn, or so loose they hung limply out of the fuselage/nacelles…

Fun days, too little time to build them nowadays, it’s easier to buy the ready finished Corgi Aviation Archive Diecasts, though it’s not quite the same not having built them yourself 🙁

Paul F

Kermit Weeks’ Example

Heres a photo of the last example to have flown in UK. then sold to Fantasy Of Flight Collection, owned by Kermit Weeks, Polk City, Florida.

Photo was taken in April of this year, IIRC she was sold to USA in the late 1980’s. She has flown in USA since being flown over there, but can’t remember details. When we visited in April they were showing video footage of her flying out of the lake alongside Polk City airfield, so she has flown since Kermit W relocated the museum to Polk City.

Paul F

Editted to clarify notes re her flying in USA. Paul F

Just a question (from a non-engineer), if the airframe is being hung upside down, then will not the loads/stresses on the undercarriage fixings be working in the wrong directions. Normally the weight/load will be such that the aircraft is “sitting” on the undercarriage attachement points rather than hanging from them, so all loads will be working in the reverse direction to that they were designed to handle :confused: .

I guess removal of the engine will reduce overall weight, but I still think the loads will be operating in the wrong direction at the attachement points…..I assume RAFM have done the calculations to check that the airframe will not be damaged by being hung upside down?

Or am I being too critical? I too would rather see an airframe “hung”, thus allowing space for others beneath it, than to see the others left outside exposed to the elements. At leats hanging it upside down allows visitors to get a different view, and may help generate more interest/income.

Paul F