Walkaround Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries throughout the Second World War. It was produced in greater numbers than any other British aircraft and was the only British fighter in production throughout the war. The Spitfire was designed as a short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft by R. J. Mitchell, chief designer at Supermarine Aviation Works (since 1928 a subsidiary of Vickers-Armstrong). Mitchell continued to refine the design until his death from cancer in 1937, whereupon his colleague Joseph Smith became chief designer. The Spitfire's elliptical wing had a thin cross-section, allowing a higher top speed than several contemporary fighters, including the Hawker Hurricane. Speed was seen as essential to carry out the mission of home defence against enemy bombers during the Battle of Britain. Many variants were developed, being considerable different from the first one! It got more powerful Merlin and the later Rolls-Royce Griffon engines; the latter was eventually able to produce 2,035 hp (1,520 kW)
More info on http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spitfire_plane
Dutch Spitfire mk. IX (Royal Netherlands Air Force / Koninklijke Luchtmacht scheme)
This Spitfire has a civil registration PH-OUQ in small lettering below stabilizer. Has the c/n CBAF.IX.1732.
The aircraft is operated by the 'Stichting Koninklijke Luchtmacht Historische Vlucht' and is painted in the colors the Spit flew for the Royal Netherlands Air Force.
It operates from Gilze-Rijen airfield, The Netherlands with the Royal Netherlands Air Force Historic Flight (www.skhv.nl)
The Spitfire Mk. IX version came from June, 1942 and was issued in two wing versions. This particular Spit was built at Castle Bromwich early 1942 from where she went to RAF 39 MU (Maintenance Unit) on March 8. It arrived on April 25 the same year. In October 1944 she was with 1 CRU (Civilian Repair Unit) and went into storage with 39 MU January 1945 for disposal.
In June 1948 sold to the Royal Netherlands Air Force where the plane joined 322 Sqn as H-25 in the Dutch East Indies. After returning back to the Netherlands the Spitfire was stored before being assigned to the Dutch "Jacht Vlieg School" / fighter training school. After a landing accident she went to Fokker for repairs in November 1949 after she went to 322 Sqn in April 1951 and being reserialled 3W-17. She retired in September 1953 and was relegated to decoy use in June 1954 until 14 (RAFG) Sqn acquired it as the 124 Wing Trophy at Oldenburg in Germany. She was airfreighted to the UK in 1969 and went to RAF Coltishall as spares for the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight in October 1974.
Her remains went back to 322 Sqn at Leeuwarden in March 1984 and got stored at Gilze-Rijen in November 1985, where she would stay to join the Dutch Spitfire Flight 1991 for complete restoration. Her final re-assembly took place in the UK as G-HVDM, and her first flight was made June 10, 1993. She was again delivered to the Dutch Spitfire Flight in July 1993.
On August 27, 1995 she had a landing accident with major damage on both her airframe and propeller. She was once again restored to flying condition but suffered another landing accident due to the gear not being locked at Volkel during a display on May 19, 1996. This caused minor damage to the airframe and engine but major damage to the propeller. Her engine got overhauled and a new airworthy certificate was obtained in 1997. Once again her propeller got damaged, this time possibly by an exploding tailwheel of DHC2 Beaver (G-BUVF) in July 1998. She had a take-off accident (prop-strike) at RAF Manston during a display in March 1999, the damage was discovered by maintenance personnel upon arrival at Gilze-Rijen and the damaged prop blades changed with new ones.
In March 2000 this aircraft got an overall silver color scheme as 3W-17 and fitted with clipped wings. Registered G-HVDM , it was transferred to the Dutch Civil Register as PH-OUQ in October 2000, with first flight as PH-OUQ on 26th June 2001. In 2007 she was once again damaged in a landing accident when she made a ground loop at her home base Gilze-Rijen.
Photographed August 2010 by Cees Hendriks (C) Copyright IPMS Nederland
PART ONE OF THE PHOTO GALLERY (180 photo's):
PART TWO OF THE PHOTO GALLERY (20 photo's):
Spitfire HF Mk IX / T Mk IX
This Spitfire was built by Vickers Armstrong, Castle Bromwich, in 1944 as Spitfire Mk IX. After a brief RAF service SM520 was sold to the South African Air Force (SAAF). The remains of SM520 survived at the scrap yardand some were taken to the SAAF Museum, Snake Valley AB. Parts were sold and returned to the UK. By Classic Aero Engineering Ltd. (CAE) at Thruxton UK restored "SM520" to a T Mk IX dual trainer.
This restored SM520 flew again October 2008 from Thruxton. It once had the Dutch code H-99 but now Code KJ-I, civil registration G-ILDA.
This aircraft was photographed at the Texel Air Show 2012.
Photographed July 2012 by Cees Hendriks (C) Copyright IPMS Nederland
Spitfire mk. XIV with Griffon engine
This Spifire mk. XIV has a Griffon engine and was photographed at the Palm Springs museum. It is an aircraft that flew with 414 squadron during world war II and after the war went to Belgium.
Photographed November 2013 by Cees Hendriks (C) Copyright IPMS Nederland
Many scale models exist of the Spitfire, too much to list!