Battle of Britain 75th anniversary flypast

It was especially poignant because where I was walking was almost exactly the spot where over 40 years ago the remains of a spitfire were unearthed and taken to Chilham for the Battle of Britain museum.

I've been told by those who lived close by back then that there are two others nearby that are buried deep and have never been recovered.  Supposedly one was from much later in the war as we're right on the path of the V1s that came over from France to London.  The fighters would try to shoot them down and of that failed, tip them over, sometimes with tragic consequences.  Many years back I was repairing a fence and starting digging up brass shell cases - I found a bunch of them for 50 yards almost parallel to the fence - and of course I realised that they must have been from a fighter probably trying to shoot down a V1...

Four planes off the Brighton seafront, a little difficult to identify with the sun so close, but fabulous sound. Amazing that so many gathered at Goodwood what with the difficulty of keeping such aircraft airworthy.

I was up on the roof of County Hall in Chichester, where we had a great view of the planes taking off from Goodwood. They were turning righit above our heads, which was amazing. 

The last "flight" over Tunbridge Wells .

Sneaky, I think you completely missed the point of Richard's post!

+1 & then some.  Sneaky  this thread relates to a very significant WW-II memorial day for the 75th anniversary of The Battle of Britain.  It commemorates a time when UK stood alone against sustained daily aerial attacks from 10 July to 30 October 1940.  

The old war birds in the photos are those that took part in this battle,  maybe better to delete your posts.    

Mike-B I was going say the same thing but you have already done so, admittedly a lot more diplomatically than I would have.

God I *LOVE* the sound of the old Merlins!

It's very well known that I'm a petrolhead and even in my 20's I had a 3.5l Rover V8 lump sat on the bench in my garage just so that I could start it up and listen to it but those Merlins are simply awesome and clothed in something as achingly beautiful as the Spitfire - oh man! It's a shame that something so gorgeous was built for the purpose that it was.

Phil

Duxford air museum is fabulous.  I throughly enjoy myself every time I visit. Highly recommended. 

Irrelevant aircraft photos removed.

Agreed. What is it about the sound of the Merlin that's brings people close to tears. There's something very, very evocative about it, even though I was born 20 years after WWII. It's almost as though it's entered the gene pool and we're programmed to react to it. I was lucky enough last year to do a taxi run in the Lancaster at East Kirby, 2 merlins on either side

Here's Guy Martin running an engine in his garage.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s_A9m21drwY

I can't make up my mind whether I prefer the Mk IV or the Mk XIV.

Richard

During 1965 - 1970 I served a Toolmakers apprenticeship at Vickers in Swindon where Spitfires were built during the war.

I was one of about 20 apprentices under instruction who spent some time restoring a Spitfire to flyable condition over a 3 year period. The plane was on display in front of the factory for about 5 years and then someone bought it and off it went.

The thing that surprised me was how small and basic it was. The cockpit was really small and you had to squeeze yourself into the seat. I would imagine no one weighing over 11 stone could ever get into the thing. The bodywork was an assembly of dozens of small panels all riveted together and it amazed me how it all held to together. You could imagine that just one bullet could bring the thing down because it seemed so flimsy.

When I hit 20 years I was assigned to the estimating dept and I spent 3 months going through spitfire drawings and manufacturing schedules to learn how to become a cost engineer.

Despite all that, I have never seen one fly and doubt if I ever will.

Regards

Mick

Don't you mean the mark IX? I don't think the mark IV saw much service.

There wasn't a Mk IV in service.  They went from Mk-III to Mk-V

But in the BoB they were all Mk-I & Mk-II,  the first Mk-II was delivered in August 1940 when the battle was well under way.  The Mk-III didn't really get into service & most squadrons went from Mk-II to Mk-V long after BoB.   

Sorry, meant Mk IX

MK IX is my favourite too, the slightly longer nose more shapely spinner and the symmetrical radiators do it for me.

Mind you any thing with a Merlin or 2 or 4 does set the neck hairs up.

P51D is another superb looking plane, also with a Merlin (Packard built), and then the Mosquito etc etc.

We really must actually stop at Duxford again soon, seem to pass by a lot.

For anyone interested,  this is the performance details of the most populous Spitfire Mk's in service in WW-II.  Under all this is a huge number of variants with prototypes & mixes of all sorts.  Its interesting to see how the performance changed over the time.....

You really do have to love the guy don't you?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9wkxrQOkNdc

Phil

I agree - here is picture I took that I was really pleased with -  a Spitfire and Mustang flying in close formation at one of the last Rougham airshows in Suffolk - I just wish my shutter had been slightly slower for the props

Wehad these two fly over on Tuesday at about 2 30pm they were part of Green Flight (perhaps all of Green  Flight), they appeared to be following the A3 north

 

Camera

E-M1

Focal Length

85mm

Aperture

f/5

Exposure

1/2500s

ISO

200

 

Camera

E-M1

Focal Length

85mm

Aperture

f/5

Exposure

1/2500s

ISO

200

Interesting seeing the development,  changing of supercharging pressures, new fuels (leaded,  100+ octane petrol) and an increase of to 37 litres for the Griffon +10 on the Merlins.

Merlins or other named versions (Meteor) were in tanks, and in later life bloody powerful tractors.