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Thread: New Replica Spitfire

  1. #1

    Join Date
    Jul 2011
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    New Replica Spitfire

    I saw some photos of a new replica of a Spitfire being built. It's nice looking. This is a whole step up in a homebuilt from a Lancair or RV.. It looks fairly authentic on the exterior, although only perhaps 5%, the instrument panel and perhaps the canopy, maybe windscreen are original. Most of it is other material or other sources, the whole airframe is wood instead of metal, different engine, not a Merlin, exhaust stacks, different prop, spinner, gear wheels,tires etc. Its hard to tell from the photos but is seems full size doesnt look 3/4, The wing looks , at least in the photos quite a bit thicker than original, maybe that is to give extra strenght to the wooden box spar which looks pretty beefy. The relatively thin wing of a Spitfire is part of its performance, but not easy to build with all the taper of spar and ribs. They have a metal prop instead of wood, and I think the Allison is heavier than a single stage Merlin so weight and balance will have to be carefully computed. It looks like a mind boggling amount of work, but if it flys ok and especially if it handles well on the ground like a Spitfire it will be quite something.
    The only real weak point of genuine Spitfire are lack of fuel capacity and not ideal cooling on the ground. This photos dont give any amount of fuel in this replaca, but they may be able to put in a little more, say 120 gal or so. The strong points are of course handling and maybe this one will have the same wing specs as origianal so good handling.
    Last edited by Bill Greenwood; 06-13-2017 at 09:20 AM.

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