Shortly after I went to work at Cavanaugh's way back in '94, he bought Spitfire MK VIII s/n MT719 which had been flying the air show circuit in Europe. Upon the purchase the incomparable Dick Melton, dissassebled it, put it in a Conex container and shipped it from England to Addison, TX. It arrived at the hangar the day prior to our departure for Oshkosh that year so we basically opened the box and made sure that it made the trans-Atlantic journey ok, then closed it up and went to Oshkosh. Upon our return we proceeded to begin work on reassembling and somewhat restoring it. Jim wanted to give the inside of the entire fuselage a fresh coat of paint. At the time I was a brand new A&P fresh out of school and the Air Force. I was also quite a few pounds lighter than I am now so I fit in the fuselage. Guess who got to crawl inside and start sanding the existing paint in preparation for a new coat? My knees ache just typing about it. Jim had arranged for Dick Melton to come over and assist us (Mike and I) reassembling the Spit. For those of you who don't know who Dick Melton is, he is, in my opinion, the Spitfire guru. At the time, he was building a later mark Spit in his shop in England from scratch using original drawings, and had approval from the authorities for it to be the next Spit off of the assembly line - 50 some years later!! (remember this was in '94). I'm ashamed to say that I lost track of Dick over the years. I hope he's still around. You'll see pictures of him and his assistant Jason in the pictures that follow. If anyone knows what happend to Dick Melton in the last 15 years or so, let me know. I'd love to know if he ever finished that Spitfire.
Anyway, this forum is for photo intensive posts so here goes. I'll try to describe what's what as we go along. Forgive the quality of the pictures, this was WAY before digital cameras were affordable, and I went to A&P school, not photography school.
Fresh out of the box
Dowty Rotol Props made of wood to save the crankshaft in case of prop strike
Rudder and air filter
Instrument panel with center panel removed.
Remember what I said about not going to photography school?
While it was all apart we scrubbed the inside of the wings to get all of the dirt out. I'll never forget working beside Jim (a multi-millionaire) cleaning out the inside of the wings. He got just as dirty as the rest of us.
We moved the project down the street to what was then E.U.A. Air Support because they had more room in thier hangar.
There's Dick Melton, I don't think he was picking his nose....
As you can see the tail feathers are on.
Jason (in the red), Dick and one of the EUA guys checking out the front spar attach fittings. Each one was hand made.
Prop assembly
Bringing the wings down the road on a B-1 stand!
Funny I didn't even think of it at the time, old and new together Spitfire and a Hawker biz jet.
I don't think that's they way the guys at Supermarine installed wings, but you use what you have!
On her gear. Note the seat on the floor and the escape prybar on the door.
Jason and Dick
Howard Pardue came out to do the initial test flights. Remember, back in the '90's when everyone and their brother was importing Russian Mig's and stuff and the FAA put a moratorium on giving Airworthiness Certificates to any non-US built planes? Yeah, here I come, the ink is barely dry on my A&P license trying to get Spit certified! I had to first convince the FAA that Spitfires weren't built in the US!!! Anyway, the FAA wanted us to put a certain number of test flight hours on it, so ok we'll fly it!!
"First" exhaust stain's on the cowling!
Here I am on the wing (hat and the stupid 'stache), Jim Cavanaugh in the cockpit and Kevin Rauliy (forgive me if I mis-spell your name Kevin) on the starboard wing.
Since then she has had problems with her tail wheel not extending, so they fixed it down permanently like a Mark V. Also note that she has a Rolls Royce Merlin - not a Packard. It was last overhauled by RR too. That is one sweet sounding engine, better than a Mustang in my opinion.
I have to say that this is the project that I am proudest of so far in my aviation career. I was merely a helper, Dick, Jason and Mike did most of the work, but I was just glad to be in the hangar. I hope to top that with getting Chuckie back in the air and flying on a regular basis.
I hope you all enjoyed the pictures. Keep 'em flying and I'll see you around the hangar!
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