Spitfire Archives - Golf Hotel Whiskey

The ultimate British race: A Spitfire vs. a Range Rover

Ahead of this weekend’s Goodwood Festival of Speed, FortyOneSix.com organized this unique race between two British legends – the Supermarine Spitfire and the Range Rover:

The Vickers Supermarine Spitfire (piloted by Matt Jones from the Boultbee Flight Academy) was a 1945-vintage model powered by a 1,750-bhp V12 Merlin engine with a maximum airspeed of 400 mph or 644 kmh while the All-New Range Rover Sport was a 5.0-litre supercharged V8 model with 510 hp driven by Mike Cross, Jaguar Land Rover’s Chief Vehicle Integrity Engineer.

The race took place on a grass airstrip at the Goodwood Aerodrome in Sussex and involved a straight drag run down and back on the runway along with a U-turn. However, grass terrain is considered to be one of the most challenging terrains for a vehicle to gain traction as well as to accelerate or brake on. Nevertheless, Cross still manage to hit speeds of 130 mph or 209 kmh before having to brake for the mid-race turn.

Own a 1/10th share of an original Supermarine Spitfire

The Boultbee Flight Academy, the only accredited Spitfire training academy in the world located at the Goodwood Aerodrome in Chichester (West Sussex), has just announced a unique opportunity for pilots to purchase a 1/10th share in an original Supermarine Spitfire in flying condition.

Any syndicate members who wish to undertake training to fly the aircraft themselves will need to hold a current Private Pilots License and then learn to fly on one of the academy’s two seat Spitfire TR9s. Once an owner has mastered the basics, he or she can complete further training in order to display the aircraft at their own private events or even airshows.

The Spitfire itself will be based at the Goodwood Aerodrome, formerly RAF Westhampnett, which had been a Hurricane and Spitfire base during the Battle of Britain and World War II. Each share is expected to cost in the £250,000 (around US$380,500) range and can be purchased by pilots and non-pilots alike. And since the Spitfire is classified as a wasting asset, it will avoid capital gains taxes.

A quick look at BoultbeeFlightAcademy.co.uk reveals a number of cool resources, including the following short video:

And if owning a 1/10th share of a Spitfire is beyond your budget right now, a price list for learning how to fly one (or other aircraft like a Tiger Moth) along with a list of related merchandise is available here.

The Welsh Spitfire Museum is set to open on Sunday

Don’t have any plans for this coming Sunday? The Welsh Spitfire Museum near Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire, Wales, is set to hold its open day starting at 10 am.

Expect to be entertained by the Army, Pembrokeshire’s Air Cadets, classic and vintage cars, bikes and tractors plus an original steam engine. For nostalgic attendees, there will Forties music from Sandy Sparkle and there is no need to bring a packed lunch as there will be a BBQ, and Salad Bar. In addition, a special ale called Welsh Roundel from the Gwaun Valley Brewery that was brewed just for the event will be available. Finally, the whole event will be watched over by the soldiers of the Glamorgan Home Guard.

The Welsh Spitfire Museum’s aim is to restore vintage aircraft and currently they are involved in the restoration of a MK VIII Spitfire that saw little action during the war and ended up in Australia.

The museum is open to visitors from 10 to 4 on Friday, Saturday and Sunday.

Directions:
For the airport, take the A40 towards Fishguard.
The airfield entrance is two miles outside Haverfordwest on the right hand side (East).
[GPS Co-ordinates: 51.830706,-4.96951]

Chasing Spitfires in Burma: A fool’s errand?

We have already noted the quest to find Spitfires in Burma, now known as Myanmar, but now there are reports that there could be as many as 140 or three to four times the number of airworthy ones known to exist and just waiting to be dug up in the country. Moreover, the Spitfires are believed to be rare Mark XIV fighters equipped with the more powerful Griffon type of engine rather than the more famous Rolls-Royce Merlin engine.

The Spitfires had been brought to what is now Myanmar near the end of the war inside crates about 12.2 meters (40 feet) long, 3.4 meters (11 feet) high and 2.7 meters (9 feet) wide but the war ended before they could be unpacked and put into action against the Japanese. It was actually the US army that was in charge of burying the aircraft and British aviation enthusiast David J. Cundall, who has been leading the search for them, has apparently interviewed over 1,000 mostly American war veterans to try and determine their fate.

After searching since 1999 for the locations of the Spitfires, Cundall has since negotiated a two-year contract to recover 60 planes in the first phase with any others to be recovered in a second phase while the Myanmar government will get one plane for display at a museum along with half of the remaining total. DJC, a private company that Cundall heads, will get 30% of the total while his Myanmar partners will get 20%.

Of course, I do have to be skeptical as to how well any crate has held up after being buried for close to 70 years in a tropical country with a monsoon season plus one has to wonder whether any locals have gotten to the sites first when the country was largely isolated from the world to sell anything they found for scrap. And if they only find a few Spitfires in good condition, who gets to keep those – Cundall, his local business partners or the Myanmar government? In such a case, things could get rather messy.

Hence, we want to ask you our readers what you think: Will they find any Spitfires in pristine condition or a pile of rust/rot or nothing at all or just end up squabbling among themselves over what is found? Tell us what you think in the comments section below and we would love to hear from anyone who served or had a close relative or acquaintance who served in Burma.

Resurrecting RAF Spitfires in Burma

Last Saturday, there was an article in The Telegraph about Spitfires (apparently Mark XIVs) buried in Burma (now Myanmar) that could turn out to be in near mint condition as they were buried inside their crates. Apparently, David Cundall, a 62 year old farmer from Scunthorpe, North Lincs, had spent 15 years and made over 12 trips to Burma at a cost of £130,000 in order to eventually locate them at a former RAF base there using radar imaging technology.

With Burma now opening up to the outside world, Prime Minister Cameron secured a deal on his recent trip there that will allow for the aircraft to be dug up and returned to the UK. In fact, a UK team is expecting to begin the excavation soon which will cost around £500,000 and is being funded by the Chichester-based Boultbee Flight Acadamy.

Originally, the Spitfires had been shipped to Burma and then transported by rail to the RAF base during the war but advances in technology along with the emergence of better combat aircraft jets meant that they were never used and were simply abandoned before the end of the war. According to Cundall:

“They were just buried there in transport crates. They were waxed, wrapped in greased paper and their joints tarred. They will be in near perfect condition.”

On the other hand, they have yet to dig up aircraft and I do have to wonder just what kind of condition they will be in given Burma’s no doubt hot, humid and wet climate.

Meanwhile, Paul Bertorelli recently wrote about the find on AVWeb and pointed out that recent auctions and for-sale offerings have valued the Merlin versions between $2 and $3 million while documented combat history makes one even more valuable. Of course, there will likely be a cost to restore the aircraft plus they will need to get them out of Burma.

Nevertheless and if all goes well, Cundall hopes to not only get his money back but to be able to put together a flying Spitfire squadron for air shows – a sight that would be worth seeing and no doubt worth all of his troubles.

Build your own Spitfire

Owning a genuine airworthy Spitfire would be out of reach for most aviators but nevertheless, there is another option available: You can build your own Spitfire. In fact, General Aviation News has a lengthy article where Mike O’Sullivan, the CEO and founder of Supermarine Aircraft, talks about the kits his company sells which allow would-be fighter pilots to build a 90% scale replica Spitfire.

Mike noted that if you wanted to find an original Spitfire, you might need to pay as much as $300 million but his replicas cost closer to $300,000 and take an average of about 1,200 hours to build. Moreover, all of the prefabricated metal components are pre-cut and pre-drilled using a computer-controlled cutter to ensure uniformity of all parts – making the aircraft easy to assemble.

SMA

However, cockpit instrumentation is completely up to the builder who can even opt to install a glass cockpit into their Spitfire but apparently most builders stick to more authentic steam gauges. Likewise, paint is also up to the builder with most choosing a known design that was used during the war.

As for Mike’s aircraft, his is blue and it has an American flag and the name High Lady emblazoned on the side. Apparently, the aircraft pays homage to a Spitfire that was the first one to fly over Berlin on March 6, 1944 right after the first American bombing raid on the city.

Moreover, it may come as a surprise to many World War II buffs that Americans were flying Spitfires during the war. In fact, High Lady flew as part of an American squadron that had 250 Spitfires – all flown by Americans.

If you want to learn more about how you can build your own Spitfire, check out the website of Mike’s company at SuperMarineAircraft.com. Also included on the website are plenty of pictures and videos.