“There will be some inevitable comparision of this aircraft with the quality of restoration done in the west. But it has to be remembered that the entire restoration of the Spitfire was done completely on a voluntary basis by the men of 41R&SU and at ‘zero’ cost. i.e. all the material used in the activity was surplus and would not have been put to any other use. Considering that fibreglass Spitfire replicas in the west can sometimes go into six figures (in dollars), having a near-complete spitfire with a iron-clad provenance at no-cost is a bargain any day!
And the whole process has not only preserved the original wreckage – but also the amazing story of MV459’s discovery for days to come.”
I think the quote above explains eloquently enough why this Spitfire has not reached the same standards as those in the west. They have done their best with absolutely nothing in the way of resources.
In the ‘Spitfire rich’ environment we live in it seems somewhat absurd to me that people are happier criticising than praising the efforts of 41RSU for what they have actually achieved. I wonder whether European restorers efforts would be any different if they had similar resources and finances to the team in India?
Regards,
kev35
With respect Kev, I’m not buying that line. They clearly had enough material to “fill in the gaps”, and the meanest amount of research would have given them the correct shapes (nose profile and cockpit area being the most obvious failings). They finished it, but it’s completely the wrong shape. I may be missing something, but how would striving for an accurate shape use up more money or manpower? The only thing it might take more of would be time. If that was for some reason an issue, then fair enough. The failure here would appear to be in the amount of research undertaken – could this not have been done beforehand? I realise that it’s easy to criticise from our “first-world” position, but I don’t see why anyone else in the world shouldn’t hold themselves to some very basic standards. It is, of course, theirs to restore as they feel able and see fit. But when you put yourself and your work in the public domain, you must expect criticism. I hope they and others take it on board and learn from it. As someone said, it’s entirely possible to improve upon it in future; perhaps these guys were indeed working to some imposed deadline… in which case, well done. If time was not an issue, then… much of the criticism here and elsewhere is justified, I’m afraid.
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