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Spitfire Gauges (Read 261 times)

May 24^th, 2005 at 2:59pm

Springer6 Offline
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Does anyone know a source of authentic looking Spitfire/Hurricane gauges ?

Nearly all those available have an airspeed indicator with a double scale that finishes at 350 MPH , whereas even the prototype and Mk I Spits had asi's calibrated up to 400 mph ( necessary when in dives).

Also invariably the Spit panel designers include a double needle tachometer (RPM gauge). Nearly all real Spitfires and Hurricanes had a original equipment single needle rpm gauges calibrated from 1600 to 4000 rpm

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Reply #1 - May 24^th, 2005 at 4:29pm

ozzy72 Offline
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Hi Springer, well you could try the Spitfire panel in our panel downloads section, that should have most of the gauges you want.
The double handed RPM gauge was fitted to most Spits from the IX onwards, it is the same one as used in the Mossie, Lanc etc.
The ASI is a pain and something that has done my head in for ages, most designers have only seen pics of K5054s cockpit hence the 350MPH gauge as that is what she and the two-bladed prop MkIs were fitted with (these things are like rocking horse poo for collectors these days Shocked

)
You could also try the CFS2 downloads, some of those models (such as Paul Rebuffats Spits) would have suitable gauges Wink

Ozzy (Spitfire crazy Grin

)

There are two types of aeroplane, Spitfires and everything else that wishes it was a Spitfire!

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Reply #2 - May 25^th, 2005 at 3:12pm

Springer6 Offline
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Thanks Ozzy,

You are right the twin needle rpm gauges were fitted after about MkIX ( I have an orig photo of a Mk VII with a single needle tachometer 1000-5000 rpm & its asi 60-480 mph)

However Mk Is do seem to have had the asi calibrated up to 400 mph. The are many published photos of MkI cockpits ( verified as genuine by their manual undercarriage pumps ) which clearly show this together with single needle tachos calibrated from 1600-4000 rpm.

Jeffrey Quill ( the main Supermarine based Spitfire test pilot) in his autobiography makes several mentions of diving the prototype at an indicated 380 mph ( equiv to an actual of 465 corrected for altitude. All photo's of the early prototype cockpit show non standard instrumentation but are not clear enough to read the calibrations. However in Quill's book there also appears a photo of the prototype's cockpit after guns and a standard RAF blind flying panel had been installed. This shows clearly the asi marked from 60-400mph and tacho from 1600-4000 rpm.

I think that many gauge developers have based their designs on the early Spits declared LEVEL FLIGHT max airspeed of 349 mph forgetting that the speed to be measured in a dive would be considerably more. They may also be influenced by looking at modern day warbird cockpits which often have replacement instruments with the asi calibrated in knots and double needle tachos.

On your suggestion I have checked CFS2 and the "hurricane_1 " gauges are more suitable, but do not have the same high visual quality of specific FS9 gauges.

Can you remember what the instruments were like in that (Mk IX Irish Air Corps ?) trainer that you sat in ?

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Reply #3 - May 26^th, 2005 at 2:25am

ozzy72 Offline
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Yup, it's a slightly modified MkIX panel, once my PC is running again (hopefully today) I'll PM you and I can send some hi-res shots to you by email if you like Wink

There are two types of aeroplane, Spitfires and everything else that wishes it was a Spitfire!

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Reply #4 - May 26^th, 2005 at 9:09am

Springer6 Offline
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Cheers that would be interesting

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Reply #5 - May 30^th, 2005 at 4:38pm

Springer6 Offline
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Still no reasonable airspeed indicator gauge in sight for the Spitfire. i.e. one that has a double scale calibrated from 60-480(reduced to 400 for earlier models).

A reasonable single needle tachometer gauge can be made by re-painting the FS9 Bf109e tacho.

The Hurricane asi from CFS2 goes up to 400mph but is of poor visual quality and cannot be re-painted very well as it has a low pixel size.

There must be someone out there who has done some authentic gauges for this popular aircraft ( even A H use a 0-350 asi in their payware aircraft)

Does anyone know how hard it would be to build an asi from scratch? Can existing gauges be modified to allow higher speed readings ( if so the faces could be re-painted) ?

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