Was that a flight IN or WITH a Spitfire? Where doyoutake your birthday present---Biggin Hill or Westhampnet? (aka Goodwood)
In the nicest possible way---you jammy bugger! I do not like flying, but if I could find the 'spare' money, I would love to do a flight in a Spit. Where we used to live in Felixstowe was right under the flight path from RAF Ben****ers to the coast (we were only a 5 minute walk from the sea) and, especially on bank-holiday days, I used to watch (and hear) Mrs Grace, who keeps her Spitfire at Ben****ers, in her 2-seater version take people for flights and acrobatics over the sea off Old Felixstowe. I could stand on the roof of my shed (it was a fairly big one) and get free "Spitfire time"---sometimes 3 times a day----bliss. When you have heard a Merlin, it is a sound that stays with you for the rest of your life.
Very cool! I'm jealous - I missed out on a (free) Mustang ride some years back b/c I had to be back home early.
Some day...
Interesting facts.
The prop blades on the Merlin engined Spit are made of wood!
I always thought metal. Nowadays they are made in Germany (irony) and cost £22k per blade! I guess if you have a ground strike the wood prop would not transmit as much damage as a metal prop. A British company has just got CAA approval for its wood blades so hopefully most operators will fit these when next required.
Engine out overhaul every 500 hours, base cost £125K, but more cost if anything requires it.
Ekk ! It's an expensive business!
Many years ago there was a story going around that a number of Spitfires had been delivered to a RAF base in Burma, and then buried, still in the crates. Despite an extensive 'dig' nothing was found, and in fact the official paperwork subsequantly found, the ground conditions and the equipment available at the time of the supposed burial have shown that the 'burial' was a myth.
Curious Droid just released a video about the Crecy, a 27 litre sleeve valve two-stroke, that was expected to double the power of the Merlin.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cxK_zWgw6gY
It was killed by turbojets, but this is what Rolls Royce had in mind to use the engine.
There is a similar story that many parts from the Birmingham (Castle Bromwich) were just buried complete with their storage protection grease/stuff. The dump site has never been found. If there ever was one.
Funnily enough there was a similar story about a Fiat plant off the Kylemore Road in Dublin, when they were closing up the factory a lot of inventory was dumped in a hole out the back and filled in, I've heard that from several sources including one chap who was an apprentice serving his time when it closed.
Doesn’t really matter how much power they have, they can’t go any faster with a propeller and by that time they where chasing super sonic flight, not achievable with a piston engine (unless you point it at the ground) also I understand it was a pretty unreliable project with a lot of failures and break downs.
They were looking at the same power as two Merlins from just one engine. I'm not so sure that was a great idea. How many Mosquitoes got home with one engine that would have been lost if they'd been in a plane with one Crecy. Begs the question as to why they bothered at all. The work done pre war by Stuart Tresilian showed that high revving engines could be just as reliable but considerably smaller. A 14 litre V12 running the same blower as a Merlin could make the same power if it turned at 6000rpm vs 3000. He was ignored.