Anyone else like Birds AND planes? (5 Viewers)

[West End Birder]

Today at Pagham we had aeros from a P51 Mustang. I had seen the Hudbrel prior to this but thankfully the P51 spooked it and it flew off with two normal flavour Whimbrels - two white rumps and one not - cracking!

 

[Farnboro John]

The Spitfire and Mustang are being used by the Boultbee Academy - rock up with your two-and-a-half grand and you too can have a flight and some stick time in a Spit or a P51D!

The Mustang flushed the Hudbrel yesterday as well, sending it from an inaccessible position in the channel back to its regular bit of mudflat. Much appreciated!

John

 

[DST]

"The Spitfire and Mustang are being used by the Boultbee Academy - rock up with your two-and-a-half grand and you too can have a flight and some stick time in a Spit or a P51D!"

I'm on my way...

D)

 

[West End Birder]

Blimey £2500? How long is that for and where are they out of Goodwood or Shoreham? Going to Google it

 

[Farnboro John]

Blimey £2500? How long is that for and where are they out of Goodwood or Shoreham? Going to Google it

I saw them going in and out of Goodwood - that is the old RAF Westhampnett.

John

 

[West End Birder]

Yes based at Goodwood

http://www.boultbeeflightacademy.co.uk/

 

[Geoff Pain]

Just had what looked like one of these past the house,anybody know if its at a air show somewhere?

 

[Farnboro John]

These are night birds, they leave the nest at dusk for their hunting. Interesting that its heading North.

Speaking of night birds, some B2A Spirits and B52H Stratofortresses at Fairford for your entertainment.

John

 

[Chris D]

Just had what looked like one of these past the house,anybody know if its at a air show somewhere?

You can hear them from quite far away. Unique sound.

 

[KenM]

As I was down on the beach at Old Felixstowe (Suffolk) yesterday, I didn't hear it coming until it came overhead, quickly raised the camera, but unfortunately it went in a straight line, thus only giving me a back view. I'm assuming that this is one of the later Spitfires (wing-clipped) can someone confirm or otherwise?

Cheers

 

[MJB]

As I was down on the beach at Old Felixstowe (Suffolk) yesterday, I didn't hear it coming until it came overhead, quickly raised the camera, but unfortunately it went in a straight line, thus only giving me a back view. I'm assuming that this is one of the later Spitfires (wing-clipped) can someone confirm or otherwise?

Cheers

P51 Mustang?
MJB

 

[Peter C.]

P51 Mustang?
MJB

Yes - central radiator scoop is a good field mark, eliminates Spitfire at least. Also, seems to have that rather squared-off rear fuselage section, can't think of any other fighter of that vintage that had that.

 

[KenM]

Yes - central radiator scoop is a good field mark, eliminates Spitfire at least. Also, seems to have that rather squared-off rear fuselage section, can't think of any other fighter of that vintage that had that.

:t:

 

[Richard Prior]

:t:

Looks like a Gos to me Ken

 

[MJB]

Looks like a Gos to me Ken

Richard,
You mean the Horten Ho II L Habicht, the test prototype for the Horten series of tailless designs in WWII? Or not...
MJB

 

[KenM]

Looks like a Gos to me Ken

Certainly structured for the ''offensive sortie'' Richard!

 

[West End Birder]

The greatest plane in the world

 

[Farnboro John]

The greatest plane in the world

Steady on....

Just to clear up the clipped wing business: From the Spitfire Mk V onwards numbers of Spitfires replaced the beautiful round wingtips with straight ones, losing a couple of feet of wingspan. This increased the roll rate particularly at low-level and was an attempt to regain air superiority in the face of Germany's new "Butcherbird" the Focke-Wulf FW190. For the Spit V at least it was not particularly successful and the first Spitfire to fight the 190 on level or advantageous terms was the IX, which replaced the Merlin 45 of the earlier version with a two-stage, two-speed supercharged Merlin 61 shoehorned into a Mk V airframe.

However, the increased roll rate at low level was adjudged to be useful and Spit IX, XII (an emergency early Rolls-Royce Griffon version) and subsequent Marks all had variants with the squared off wingtips. Several Merlin- and Griffon-engined Spitfires flying today have these wingtips. Personally I don't like them, give me a full-span Spit any day.

BTW the De Havilland Mosquito is the greatest plane in the world!

John

There's one clipped wing Spit (A Vb) in the formation of eleven in the pic.

 

[West End Birder]

I like the Mossie but the P51 wins for me. I am always amused / impressed, that years ago on my desk I had a calendar of transport and the P51 was one of the months - the biog of it said that from first drawing to first flight took 126 days. Working in one of the most highly regulated industries (medical devices) it would take that long just to come up with a compliant project name these days.

 

[MJB]

Steady on....

Just to clear up the clipped wing business: From the Spitfire Mk V onwards numbers of Spitfires replaced the beautiful round wingtips with straight ones, losing a couple of feet of wingspan. This increased the roll rate particularly at low-level and was an attempt to regain air superiority in the face of Germany's new "Butcherbird" the Focke-Wulf FW190. For the Spit V at least it was not particularly successful and the first Spitfire to fight the 190 on level or advantageous terms was the IX, which replaced the Merlin 45 of the earlier version with a two-stage, two-speed supercharged Merlin 61 shoehorned into a Mk V airframe. However, the increased roll rate at low level was adjudged to be useful and Spit IX, XII (an emergency early Rolls-Royce Griffon version) and subsequent Marks all had variants with the squared off wingtips. Several Merlin- and Griffon-engined Spitfires flying today have these wingtips. Personally I don't like them, give me a full-span Spit any day.

BTW the De Havilland Mosquito is the greatest plane in the world!
John

John, just to add to your neat summary, from the Mk 21 onwards, the Spitfire (and Seafire) had a new design of elliptical wing, elegant, but not as much as the early Marks. It was this design that was revised to add extended wingtips for high-altitude work.

Keeping to the theme of extended wings for high altitude, the Mosquito PR32 had extended wings and, I seem to remember, Hamilton Standard 4-blade propellors for excellent high-altitude performance. Eight were built, and were lightened as much as possible, although additional fuel capacity was added. Three were at RAF Leuchars for some time, and undertook several long-distance recce missions along the Russian front, landing in Italy where the allies had secured airfields south of the Gothic line. After refuelling, the next day they returned to Leuchars, usually filming over the western front and probably via RAF Benson, which had air film processing capabilities and was close to RAF Medmenham where the Allied Reconnassance Interpretation Unit could analyse the images.
MJB