Guy Martin's Spitfire

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andya700

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You just cannot keep a good man down, and Guy Martin is at it again (or rather he has been hard at it for the past two years). In this Channel 4 programme on Sunday 12th October (next Sunday), he joins the restoration team at work on a recovered Spitfire.

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/guy-martins-spitfire

I know that there will be a few folks on here keen to see this programme.
 
Yep! Me for one.
Recorder set as I will be out.
 
Cheers, it's on 4HD in a few days.
 
oooh. Sky+ set
 
did I miss a bit when i went for a wee, but how is the complete new fabricated one, an original Mk I? (Or a spit)... love how he has a merlin v12 in his living room though (as you do!) - there was me looking at a v8 coffee table, but he had to see and raise!
 
did I miss a bit when i went for a wee, but how is the complete new fabricated one, an original Mk I? (Or a spit).
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It seems that using 2 oil pipe unions is enough to make the several 1000 other bits into an 'original' spitfire.

Not sure that falls into my definition of original, but if the owner wants to call it that, who are we to argue.

However, it does look very nice!

15358104097_5dd4217f41_b.jpg
 
so, playing devil's advocate.. as long as i used one original bit, whatever it may be, it could be classed as an original?
 
Blimey, it's a MkI (built at Eastleigh) - very rare indeed.

If my maths is correct that's the 41st Spitfire ever to enter service.
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Small point, but the first ones were not built at Eastleigh, they were bvuilt at Supermarine Woolston on the banks of the river Ichin in Southampton. About 600 yards from where I am typing this in fact.

They were then transferred to Eastliegh, as Woolston doesn't (and never has had) have an airfield.
 
not knocking him at all, just wondering as to what makes it an "original"
 
I thought the same, it was an interesting program but it was pushing credibility to say the finished Spit was original when 99.99999...% was newly fabricated*.
The title was Guy Martins Spitfire and that's pretty much the way it came across, not a program about building a Spit but about Guy Martin being amazed and getting to use lathes etc. They did do a nice job of bringing the restoration and history together but I'd have liked to have seen more about the build process over a few episodes perhaps.

*Mind you even the original probably wasn't that original, having likely had many parts replaced through wear and damage.
 
indeed, it did come across as "I've been using this same broom for 30 years, I'm on the 3rd head and 4th handle"

However I would still sell my wife, first born and a kidney for a back seat ride!
 
The title was Guy Martins Spitfire and that's pretty much the way it came across, not a program about building a Spit but about Guy Martin being amazed and getting to use lathes etc. They did do a nice job of bringing the restoration and history together but I'd have liked to have seen more about the build process over a few episodes perhaps.
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I agree, it would have been interesting to see how they remake the components now.

The original, was pretty much original. The airframe and wings wouldn't be changed, perhaps the engine, but the rest would be cosmetic. If damage was much more than that then they'd chuck it away, it wasn't manpower effective in wartime to do heavy maintenance.
 
At the end of the day they made a mk1 spitfire. Whether original or not that's still pretty cool. It was an interesting watch, I enjoyed the beemer bit lol, and I think the did a good job of the program. As for Guy Martin, he's ace.
 
Bernie174 said:
Small point, but the first ones were not built at Eastleigh ...
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It's not the 41st either - silly me, I forgot to count the first two pages!

As for terminology, since the only major 1940s-built part was the reconditioned Merlin I'd call it a replica and not a restoration.
 
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Ozei said:
It's the latest in-house aircon system :D
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beats what i have, Where does one acquire such a piece of innovation?
 
I thought the title of the program was a bit misleading as Guy didn't appear to do very much of the building. Two years to build one aircraft when they were knocking them out at 85 per week in the war! I suspect the quality of finish on this one might just be a bit better than the originals!
 
Bernie174 said:
It seems that using 2 oil pipe unions is enough to make the several 1000 other bits into an 'original' spitfire.

Not sure that falls into my definition of original, but if the owner wants to call it that, who
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Triggers broom, 10 heads & 5 handles, its my original broom
 
Lynton said:
so, playing devil's advocate.. as long as i used one original bit, whatever it may be, it could be classed as an original?
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This is the way the Ffestiniog Railway have classed their 'rebuilds' ever since the 1860s. 'Taliesin' from 1870 was rebuilt in 1999 despite the original loco being scrapped in the 30s - using an original reversing lever and nameplates! It was rebuilt again in 2005 (I helped).The 1863 engines are original by virtue of having the opriginal....err whistle I believe, possibly the cylinder blocks and maybe fragments of the chassis... I don't think there is anything original left of 'Merddin Emrys' though it still carries it's rebuild plates! ...
 
f1charlie said:
I thought the title of the program was a bit misleading as Guy didn't appear to do very much of the building. Two years to build one aircraft when they were knocking them out at 85 per week in the war! I suspect the quality of finish on this one might just be a bit better than the originals!
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These guys built the whole plane though. In a factory setting where you have a team building wings while another team builds the chassis, another undercarage etc etc is going to take a lot less time.
 
Lynton said:
indeed, it did come across as "I've been using this same broom for 30 years, I'm on the 3rd head and 4th handle"

However I would still sell my wife, first born and a kidney for a back seat ride!
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Try Boultbee flight acadamy, Goodwood aerodrome, West Sussex. Recent change in CAA regs allows this to happen. £2450 for half hour flight in 2 seat Spitfire
 
Raptor Mike said:
These guys built the whole plane though. In a factory setting where you have a team building wings while another team builds the chassis, another undercarage etc etc is going to take a lot less time.
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I know, but I'm sure the quality of finish of this one will much higher than when it left the production line.
 
f1charlie said:
I know, but I'm sure the quality of finish of this one will much higher than when it left the production line.
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Yeh, ocd engineers :rolleyes: Like you say I bet they werent that fussy. But from what I remember of the Battle of Britain film the problem wasnt the number of aircraft but the number of pilots.
 
Gaz J said:
Try Boultbee flight acadamy, Goodwood aerodrome, West Sussex. Recent change in CAA regs allows this to happen. £2450 for half hour flight in 2 seat Spitfire
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when the euromillions comes up, sounds a plan!
 
The problem with the film was that there were sufficient Spitfires and ME109's, but not enough Hurricanes.
If you look closely, some of the hurricane formations had ME109's 'acting' like hurricanes at the back.

There were probably plenty of service Spitfire Pilots laying about in 1968 ish when it was filmed. The spitfires last operational flights, as in front line were in 1951. Some remained in second line service for quite a while after.
 
Bernie174 said:
The problem with the film was that there were sufficient Spitfires and ME109's, but not enough Hurricanes.
If you look closely, some of the hurricane formations had ME109's 'acting' like hurricanes at the back.

There were probably plenty of service Spitfire Pilots laying about in 1968 ish when it was filmed. The spitfires last operational flights, as in front line were in 1951. Some remained in second line service for quite a while after.
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From memory didn't the Irish Air Corps and the Israelis have Spitfires into the mid 50s. Memory might be weak but going back 45 years when I was in the Air Cadets we had a visit from a Hunter pilot who flew Spis and p51s towards the end lf the war and after.

Steve
 
Hugh Jarse said:
From memory didn't the Irish Air Corps and the Israelis have Spitfires into the mid 50s. Memory might be weak but going back 45 years when I was in the Air Cadets we had a visit from a Hunter pilot who flew Spis and p51s towards the end lf the war and after.

Steve
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This is a good source for dates and other data regarding the Spitfire (and Seafire).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire

The last operational flight by an RAF Spitfire was in 1954.
In 1952 a Spifire in the far East climbed to around 50,000 feet, went into a dive and probably reached a speed of around 690MPH (Mach 0.96).
 
andy700 said:
This is a good source for dates and other data regarding the Spitfire (and Seafire).

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Supermarine_Spitfire

The last operational flight by an RAF Spitfire was in 1954.
In 1952 a Spifire in the far East climbed to around 50,000 feet, went into a dive and probably reached a speed of around 690MPH (Mach 0.96).
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Useful listing

Listed as retired from tge Irish Air Corps in 1961!

They then had Vampires.

My favourite WWII RAF planes were the Hawker Typhoon and Tempest.

Steve
 
In 1952 a Spifire in the far East climbed to around 50,000 feet, went into a dive and probably reached a speed of around 690MPH (Mach 0.96).
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I heard from a number of sources, mostly drunken RAFP old WO's and FS's, that they went a tad faster than that in a dive. A member of the one winged not quite master race also told me the same thing. As a Nav has never said anything praiseworthy of a driver in the history of the RAF, I suspect it may have had some truth.

The 2 seat spitfires that run around are all ex IAC. I think they are an abomination!

Typhoon (original version) and Tempest? Tat! The original MRCA, the Mosquito rules!
 
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