A very special Spitfire ...

[Head in the clouds]

This Spitfire has recently been given a position of honour at the Royal Airforce Museum in Hendon, England.

 

It holds that lofty position because there's something very special about it - from the photos below can anyone spot what it is?

 

I'm sure you could find it on the net but don't be a spoiler, study the photos carefully and see if you can find the remarkable aspect that makes it so special.

 

Unless anyone comes up with the correct answer earlier, I'll post the rest of the photos and the story in a couple of days -

 

 

 

 

 

 

[Downunder]

Hmmm.....looking, looking......

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

It is a model not a full size original.....I even think it is RC

 

 

[Head in the clouds]

Oh well, that didn't last long ... ;-)

 

Yes, it is a model but it's not RC - here's the story and other pics ...

 

A Beautiful Masterpiece from a very talented man

 

Below are pictures of a scratch built 1/5th scale Supermarine Spitfire MK 1 by an English model builder. It's hard to imagine such infinite detail can be accomplished even with super human devotion and dexterity. The pictures and accompanying text are by the model maker, David Glen.

 

If anyone asked me why I set out to build a Spitfire in one-fifth scale, and detailed to the last rivet and fastener, I would probably be hard-pushed for a practical or even sensible answer. Perhaps the closest I can get is that since a small child I have been awe inspired by R. J. Mitchell’s elliptical winged masterpiece, and that to build a small replica is the closest I will ever aspire to possession.

 

The job took me well over eleven years, during which there were times I very nearly came to giving the project up for lost. The sheer amount of work involved, countless hours, proved almost too much, were it not for a serendipitous encounter at my flying club in Cambridge with Dr Michael Fopp, Director General of the Royal Air Force Museum in England.

 

Seeing the near complete fuselage, he urged me to go on and finish the model, promising that he would put it on display. I was flabbergasted, for when I started I had no inkling that my work would end up in a position of honour in one of the world’s premier aviation museums.

 

As I write, the case for the model is being prepared, having been specially commissioned by the museum with a case-maker in Sweden. I have not yet seen it, but from what I hear, it is enormous!

 

In one respect the story has gone full circle, since it was at Hendon where I started my research in earnest, sourcing Microfilm copies of many original Supermarine drawings, without which such a detailed build would not have been possible.

 

The model is skinned with litho plate over a balsa core and has been left in bare metal at the suggestion of Michael Fopp, so that the structure is seen to best advantage. The rivets are real and many are pushed into drilled holes in the skin and underlying balsa, but many more are actual mechanical fixings. I have no accurate count, but I suspect that there are at least 19,000!

 

All interior detail is built from a combination of Supermarine drawings and workshop manuals, plus countless photographs of my own, many of them taken opportunistically when I was a volunteer at the Duxford Aviation Society based at Duxford Airfield, home of the incomparable Imperial War Museum collection in Cambridgeshire, England. Spitfires, in various marks are, dare I say, a common feature there!

 

The degree of detail is probably obsessive: The needles of the dials in the cockpit actually stand proud of the instrument faces, but you have to look hard to see it!

 

Why the flat canopy? Well, the early Mk.Is had them, and I had no means to blow a bubble hood, so it was convenient. Similarly the covers over the wheels were another early feature and they saved me a challenging task of replicating the wheel castings.

 

The model has its mistakes, but I’ll leave the experts to spot them, as they most certainly will, plus others I don’t even know about. I don’t pretend the little Spitfire is perfect, but I do hope it has captured something of the spirit and incomparable beauty of this magnificent fighter – perhaps the closest to a union that art and technology have ever come – a killing machine with lines that are almost sublime.

 

So, with the model now in its magnificent new home, what comes next?

 

Well, I’m planning a book that will have a lot to say about its genesis and perhaps just a little about me and those dear to me, including a long suffering but understanding and supportive wife. And then there’s the Mustang… Yes, a 1/5th scale P-51D is already taking shape in my workshop. How long will it take? I’ve no idea, but what I am sure of is that at my age (58) I can’t expect to be building many of them!

 

David Glen

 

Whaddon, Cambridge

 

 

 

 

 

[Kyle Communications]

I saw this maybe a year or 2 ago...I remember the inside of the cockpit well so knew what it was straight off but the pics you just posted reminded me of the externals too....just a beautifull recreation.

 

Mark

 

 

[pmccarthy1]

Quite remarkable - I didn't pick it.

 

 

[Mick]

I saw this last year when I visited Hendon. It is no less impressive in the flesh than in the photos.

 

 

[Litespeed]

Very nice.

 

But what if someone made a all metal rc aircraft that is just like the real one- you know solid rivets, no fake stuff, no balsa and all parts made like a real full size?

 

I present the 40% scale Beaver

 

check this puppy out.....................pure magic

 

http://www.mhm-scale-aircraft.com/menue03.php?search=F0

 

Watch the full photo sequence.

 

lovely.

 

 

[Downunder]

I present the 40% scale Beaver

Can't help but think that if you were going that far (the jig for turning the fuse is a work of art itself!), go to 60 or 70 percent for an ultralight?

 

 

[Litespeed]

I would go big enough to fly. But he has a much bigger market and charges just as much.

 

 

[Gnarly Gnu]

Can't help but think that if you were going that far (the jig for turning the fuse is a work of art itself!), go to 60 or 70 percent for an ultralight?

75% of a Beaver is a Murphy Moose, way past an ultralight in size. This thing must be bigger than a cri-cri.

 

 

[Litespeed]

Yes, similar size in some respects but a lot lower speeds and naturally a lower MTOW as no pilot needed. For me I would build a cri cri and have lots of fun.

 

specs for 40% Beaver

 

Scale: 1:2.5 (40%)

 

Wingspan: 5.85 m

 

Length: 3.69 m

 

Height: 1.10 m

 

Empty Weight: 87.1 kg

 

Takeoff Weight: 91.3 kg

 

Speed range: 20 to 60 mph

 

Radio: Futaba FX-30 2.4 GHz

 

Engine: Moki S400 5-cylinder radial (4-stroke gasoline engine)

 

Cri Cri

 

• 
   
  Crew: one
   
  
• Length: 3.9 m (12 ft 10 in)
   
  
• Wingspan: 4.9 m (16 ft 1 in)
   
  
• Wing area: 3.1 m2 (33 sq ft)
   
  
• Airfoil: Wortmann 21.7
   
  
• Empty weight: 78 kg (172 lb)
   
  
• Max takeoff weight: 170 kg (375 lb)
   
  
• Powerplant: 2 × JPX PUL 212 single-cylinder piston engines, 11 kW (15 hp) each
   
  
• Propellers: 2-bladed
   
  

 

Performance

 

• Maximum speed: 220 km/h (137 mph; 119 kn)
   
  
• Cruise speed: 185 km/h; 115 mph (100 kn)
   
  
• Range: 463 km; 288 mi (250 nmi)
   
  
• Service ceiling: 3,700 m (12,139 ft)
   
  
• Rate of climb: 6.6 m/s (1,300 ft/min)
   
  
• Wing loading: 55 kg/m2 (11 lb/sq ft)