supradibbs Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 I live near brighton and today is the shoreham air show which is about 2 miles from my house was stood in my back garden and 2 spitfires just flew over in formation what a sound!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
supradibbs Posted September 16, 2006 Author Share Posted September 16, 2006 sweet just been joined by 3 others and all flew close formation and buzzed my house at about 700 ft ahhh my own privite air show:d Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Ewen Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 Anarak time ! The Spitfire is my favorite aeroplane. Its shape just does something for me, cant explain it. The sound is a bonus and I've been lucky enough to hear and see a few in the flesh. The XIVE and XVII variants with the bubble canopy and pointed tail fins are the best looking single engined plane that ever flew. The P-51D Mustang looks great, but the Spitfire is beautiful. What were they thinking when they developed the Spiteful, with the laminar flow wing ? The eliptical wing is where its at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrAngry Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 The Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane have just left here to come down there Wayne Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraStar 3000 Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 The Merlin is the most astounding engine in the world. P-51, Spitfire, Hurrican (Mk2 Merlin), Lancaster, Mosquito event the Chieftain tank (AFAIK) owns it success to that powerplant. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagman Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 I once worked on the Merlin engines in a lancaster,they were actually packhard engines from the US -packhard used to make them under licence during the war and they have loads of them as war surplus still wrapped up in the States. absolutely awesome to stand 20 foot away from one running,if you look at the exhausts they are about 6 inches long! and spit flames during start,the whole ground shakes around you Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SUPRALOOPY Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 got one of these engines at work.. they are mahoooosive Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaoriFan Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 P-51's were better for high altitude escort work and were useful for ground strafing, primarily their op's were on h/a Bomber escort. the Allison engined P51's were better suited to ground attack work, as their engine performed better lower down. a lot of the early P51 were redesignated 'A' for 'attack' as they were used for ground attack work. the merlin does have a unique sound, especially 4 on the go at once personally, the P51 was the better all round a/c in WW2, as it had the range for full escort work to Berlin and back, where the Spitfire did not have the range problem for both the P51 and Spitfire was the susceptability to ground fire, whereas the P47 and other radial engine planes were better able to withstand ground fire. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KaoriFan Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 I live near brighton and today is the shoreham air show which is about 2 miles from my house was stood in my back garden and 2 spitfires just flew over in formation what a sound!!!! i missed this one, this year, thought it was last week, lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraStar 3000 Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 iconic names! Spitfire and Merlin. With names like that on our side well couldn't loose the war! Mind you, Fucker Wolf is kinda intimidating Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jagman Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 A Hawker hampster ,would not really have instilled fear in the enemy,and filled the pilot with bravado----- could of confused the Germans though --achtung hampster!!!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraStar 3000 Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 actually, the Spitfire was originally named the Shrew! LOL Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
paul mac Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 i'me a definate spit fan, but if you are talking power then i'me afraid the Merlin aint even at the races, theres only one engine in it the Napire Sabre, at a time when the Merlin was producing 1200hp the Sabre was hitting 2400hp, 37 litre 24 cylinders the last variant (jet engines killed it) produced 4000hp, now could i shoehorn one in a supra:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
RobSheffield Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 My uncle is in the RAF as an airframe technician, about 15 years ago he put his name down for the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) and 2 years ago, it finally came up! He flew with them for 6 months to airshows and generally enjoyed his time there Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrAngry Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 Not a great quality picture, but this was the view from my office window this morning. Shame it was the Griffon engined spitfire they brought. It just doesn't sound quite as nice as a merlin. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Homer Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 Not a great quality picture, but this was the view from my office window this morning. Shame it was the Griffon engined spitfire they brought. It just doesn't sound quite as nice as a merlin. Yep, you're right, saw this one at Fairford this yeah and was quite disapointed really Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SupraStar 3000 Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 For those who havn't seen it before, check out this low flying Spitfire: http://video.google.co.uk/videoplay?docid=1215637693043681535&q=spitfire Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
heckler Posted September 16, 2006 Share Posted September 16, 2006 Wayne - your a geek Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
chilli Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 yesterday (sunday) a big 4 prop war plane came over (Burgess Hill) in the afternoon (around 2 ish I think) - it was escorted by two smaller spitfire like planes. Was flying real low, sound was amazing. Guess the larger plane may have been a lancaster bomber? (I know nuffin' bout planes). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kranz Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 I used to work at Ricardo in Shoreham where the battle of Britain memorial flight engines are rebuilt. I had the pleasure of running up the merlins on the testbed for running in & comissioning. Its a lovely sound, but when its 10 feet away screaming at full chat it don't half hurt your ears even with ear plugs & ear defenders. The scream of the supercharger could be heard nearly a mile away. A superb piece of British engineering. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 We went to Brighton for the weekend, on the way there, driving along the A27, an old fighter plane marked up with German logos went zooming low over the road closely followed by a pair of Spitfires - brilliant... Turned out to be the airshow (Sat) so we changed plans and went there on the Sunday ! Great day... Spitfires etc were great and the Sunday dogfight was briliant. My ears are still ringing from being near a Harrier when it went through pre-flight tests, but the start of the show was the new Eurofighter, the Typhoon. I was prepared not to like it (as it's name starts with Euro) but it was awesome.... It was earsplitingly loud and turned on a sixpence. Great show as well, quite a few car clubs, Cobra's, Morgans Capri's etc. PS.. Brighton on a Saturday night is deffo the place for young lady spotting... :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Gerry Posted September 18, 2006 Share Posted September 18, 2006 A couple of pics... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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