Another Spitfire takes to the skies, a MK I this time.

Mk1 Supermarine Spitfire

Matt

PS, Don't rip into the article, it is the Daily Mail, just pity the poor standard of journalism, a reflection of to days education (that they harp on about all the time, shame they can't use a grammar and spell checker)

Hagar wrote on Apr 5^th, 2012 at 5:22am:



They must have cleaned it up since this morning. Spelling was dreadful and at nine this morning it was a Supermarine Spitfire jet aircraft

Matt

Sooo when is this beaut coming to my side of the pond for a tour?? 
A MkI, words cannot describe how fantastic that is. I have never seen a real MkI. Seems like all we have over here is re-hashed late variants.

I wonder where the Queen keeps her Mk.I? As I understand it the BBMF have a Mk.II which is the only flying survivor of the BoB...

Since the Spitfire is such an iconic BRITISH aircraft, the Brits should get first-dibs on them. However, the US could use a healthy dose of our Allies' planes from any era. I have seen a few spits at Oshkosh, but I have never seen one fly. They fly in for the show and are put on static. Mean while, P-51s are dang near everywhere!!! I like the Mustang, but common, last time I checked the FAA N# registry for type, there were 170-180 Mustangs with only a handful at best of other iconic warbirds. Sometimes it irritates me that the Mustang has stolen the spot light from ssooo many planes, like the Spitfire!

The USAAF did fly Spitfires during the war. I think the reason so many Mustangs survive is that they come from much later in the war and with the dawning of the jet age many were either sold to other countries, private individuals for air racing or moth balled "just in case" whereas at the end of the war Britain was destitute and anything no longer serviceable for a combat role was melted down to make stuff. Tragic but true... hence why so few Spits and the like. There are only 2 flying Lancasters left, now that's rare! I believe a Blenheim is currently under restoration that'll make it the only one flying and I also know about a Ju-88 restoration. Slowly some non-flyers are being returned to the air for our joy.

ozzy72 wrote on Apr 6^th, 2012 at 9:18am:


The lancaster is another plane I am dying to see fly. I have the A2A Lancaster from Wings of Power in FS2004, but nothing replaces the real thing
You Brits used your Spits and Mosquitoes until the mid-late '50s albeit limited service.  With a decent amount of countries having used Spits I expect more to be flying. I do have to say though that there is group producing replica fighters at the moment. Usually (maybe all) are slightly scaled down (~3/4) but aerodynamically and structurally they are very close to the real deal:
http://www.waraircraftreplicas.com/
I have seen a ~3/4 scale Spit at Oshkosh many times, beautiful aircraft, but I have not even seen that replica fly.

The 3/4s scale model is probably a Marcel Jurca design.
To see a Mossie fly you'll need to either visit Canada or New Zealand. There are ones of each being rebuilt to fly there at the moment. The Canadian one is closest to getting into the wild blue yonder