Is this the ultimate rebuild/restoration project?

[Lankan]

Anybody watched the Channel 4 documentary about the project to bring a Spitfire Mark 1, shot down over Dunkirk during WWII, back to life: Guy Martin's Spitfire (Video)

The televised account was quite fascinating to watch, and the attention to detail in preserving the aircraft's originality was quite impressive.

World War II aircraft are another passion of mine, especially fighter aircraft, and of course the Spitfire is one of the best from that era.

PS: Didn't realise until later on that GM actually owns a Rolls Royce Merlin engine himself! LINK

Speaking about revving the engine in his workshop, he says that "It took off in the workshop......but one day it will go in my front room, be bolted to the floor".

Mad or what!

 

[Brett]

Caught abit of his programme. Looked pretty good and probably the most interesting thing on tv all week. I for one love that era of engineering so am usually fixated to the screen while them sort of programmes are on.
As incredible as that plane and restoration was, and I might be wrong here, but doesn't aviation standards stipulate work has to be to that level of perfection anyway? If so, its abit hard to call it the best one in the world when pretty much all of them have had full nut 'n' bolt rebuild treatment too. That makes it no less incredible though. They are one of the most beautiful things man has made to move. An age where if things looked right, then they must be right.
A very well off friend of my dad has a Merlin engine sitting in a barn on an original Rolls Royce engine stand. Every other year he has it bench tested and serviced. I remember as a kid of about 8 playing next to it and dad telling me what it was. It probably stood 3 times my height at the time and looked very menacing. Like Guy Martin, he had it purely as a working artefact of Britain at its best.

As a side note. On Goodwood's official Facebook page, there is a breakdown of the annual costs to run a Spitfire. It's completly horrifying! They now only ever run a maximum of 1/3rd throttle and boost and if they ever exceed that, the engine needs rebuilding on a much MUCH more regular basis at a circa £120,000. If they exceed 4.5g whilst flying then the plane must also be partially stripped and inspected at a huge cost! . . . . I'd still have one though. [smilie=thanks.gif]

 

[Will]

I watched it on Sunday, it was a good, interesting program and the engineering on display was brilliant. The only bit I slightly struggle with is they never actually said how much of the original plane they managed to salvage. From that point of view it was a bit 'Trigger's Broom' as how much realistically of the original N3200 could they actually use given how long it had spent in the sand and salt water.

 

[Lankan]

I watched it on Sunday, it was a good, interesting program and the engineering on display was brilliant. The only bit I slightly struggle with is they never actually said how much of the original plane they managed to salvage. From that point of view it was a bit 'Trigger's Broom' as how much realistically of the original N3200 could they actually use given how long it had spent in the sand and salt water.

I watched the programme on Monday night, and now have it saved away - always record documentaries as I cannot stand ad breaks.
Given that the aircraft was buried for best part of 70 years, and exposed to salt water, it was evident that there was little to none that could be salvaged from the original N3200 . As such, the USP for me was the lengths the team went to, presumably at enormous expense, in recreating/fabricating every single part to be an exact replica of the original as possible.

As a side note. On Goodwood's official Facebook page, there is a breakdown of the annual costs to run a Spitfire. It's completly horrifying! They now only ever run a maximum of 1/3rd throttle and boost and if they ever exceed that, the engine needs rebuilding on a much MUCH more regular basis at a circa £120,000. If they exceed 4.5g whilst flying then the plane must also be partially stripped and inspected at a huge cost! . . . . I'd still have one though.

Thanks for the heads up Brett - I wish I had the means to acquire and run one of these beasts. The Spitfire Mark IX and the P-51D Mustang were my favourite WWII fighters. Actually the cannon (20mm if I remember right) GM test fired in the programme, which destroyed the BMW 5-series, was similar to those fitted to the Mark IX.

Shame this project wasn't on display when we visited Duxford in June 2013 for a meet organised by Cliosport.

When I was young, I was more into aircraft than I was into cars, and had quite an extensive library to refer to courtesy of my father, who as an ex-army electronics engineer, who was interested in the avionics, radar etc. No Google, internet or web in those days, so one had to read books! Gosh that seems such a long time ago................how times have changed.

 

[Lankan]

Brett, as you pointed out, this is quite cool: Spitfire Buying Guide

Also found this: How to fly a Spitfire (like you stole it!)

"Remember that a Mk IX Spitfire was designed for a total flying life of just 200 hours" [smilie=icon_eek.gif]