Jack Roethlisberger's Spitfire A/c Company Project (+photos)

[flightsimer]

A few months back, there was a thread about replicas being built and I shared some photos in there about this Spit project. I have continually been taking pictures of it and decided to make a thread of its own of it to share them.

Jack is a member of Air Heritage Inc and his project has been located in our main hangar since last fall. He is a retired USAir Pilot, but is also an AP. He is known around the world for his award winning Stearmen Restorations and this past summer delivered one of his stearmens to Switzerland, I believe it was.

His Spit project has been in the works for the last few years at his house, but he sold his own Stearmen last year to work full time on his spit. The craftsmanship he has put into this project is simply amazing. From a distance, you will not be able to tell it is not a real spit. Even up close, the average person probably will not be able to tell. It does not replicate a specific Mark Variant, but he said it will most closely resemble a Mk IX.

He bought the plans from the creator in England, but ended up having them slightly changed by an aeronautical engineer as he wanted the plane to be beef up a little. IIRC, this entailed him having the spars thickened and adding metal plating to the side of the fuselage to give it more strength against the torque of the engine.

The plane has been constructed all from scratch out of wood with the exception of the metal plating added to the fuselage, the various subsystems, the control surfaces which he decided to do in metal and the engine cowling which he has made out of Carbon Fibre. The landing gear struts are Stearmen struts that have been reworked to allow them to retract. The wheels and brakes are from a Cessna Twin, 340 I believe he said. He also had two custom radiators made for it.

The Allison V-12 engine is the right hand engine off of a Lockheed P-38 Lightning, though I am not sure which variant. He plans on running a toothpick C-47 propeller on it that will have been completely re-profiled.

The dash is made from all original Spitfire gauges. He is also placing a jumpseat in behind the pilots seat to take riders along.

He is hoping to have the wings finished and covered by the end of winter as well as the engine completely finished and the plumbing finished. He is targeting a first engine run sometime next year in the summer or fall.


I am going to post the photos starting with the first reply so the basic information can be kept separate in case anyone has questions and wants to quote the info.

Last edited by flightsimer on Sun Dec 14, 2014 4:05 pm, edited 1 time in total.

[flightsimer]

Early photos when it first arrived.



Main Spar and fitting it.





The Cockpit

[flightsimer]

And let the work begin



Look at all the bolts that hold these wings together!




Main Landing gear attachpoints


Another shot of the cockpit

[flightsimer]

The wings




The Heart of the the Beast!




Custom made Exaust Stacks


Part of the Carbon Fiber Cowl. This is just the rough cast.

[flightsimer]

The Custom Engine mount finally came back from the welder and was painted and the engine was hung!





That is Jack standing there



Nice Side picture





This is the compressor for the Supercharger

Here he finally has it installed on the engine

[flightsimer]

And Finally, shots from the tail...

Here you can see the two custom radiators under the elevator.








Here is an almost complete left elevator.





And finally, this is how he is planning on painting it. The only difference is he will not be putting Czech markings on it.

[Fouga23]

Wow, that is one great looking Spitfire!

[JohnB]

Neat project...but this thread will probably be bumped into the General Aviation section.

[C VEICH]

Neat project...but this thread will probably be bumped into the General Aviation section.

I don't see why it would. While it is a replica it is still a replica of a warbird. Besides, there are lots of threads here in this section which have to do with replicas. I for one am certainly looking forward to updates here as I think the project is phenomenal and can only have great respect and admiration for anyone willing and capable of creating such a work of art. Hopefully Mr. Roethlisberger has been in contact with Bob Deford who has completed a similar Allison powered Spitfire replica and can, I'm sure, offer some valuable insight.

[Michel Lemieux]

Wow......

That is one seriously home built warbird project.........

Tks for sharing!!!!!!

If you want one......just do it.

This really shows how much passion and vision can carry you.

And YES it does belong here....how many threat did we have one the replica FW190, ME109 & Oscar's!!!!!!

Being made out of wood and not up to alumina specs does not make it any less worthy.

My 2 Canadian centavos Worth!

Michel

[flightsimer]

Neat project...but this thread will probably be bumped into the General Aviation section.

I don't see why it would. While it is a replica it is still a replica of a warbird. Besides, there are lots of threads here in this section which have to do with replicas. I for one am certainly looking forward to updates here as I think the project is phenomenal and can only have great respect and admiration for anyone willing and capable of creating such a work of art. Hopefully Mr. Roethlisberger has been in contact with Bob Deford who has completed a similar Allison powered Spitfire replica and can, I'm sure, offer some valuable insight.

Just looked that plane up and it is a 75%. The Spitfire A/c Company plans are of a 100% scale.

http://www.spitfireaircraftco.com/techniques.html

I happened to just pull up and look at the site and saw this page. Pretty much, this plane ISO be built using techniques that was employed on the Mossy. It is supposed to be around 2,000lbs lighter than a real Mk9, but his might be a little heavier than advertised. What is astounding is the +10 G load it has been stressed for!

[Ryan Harris]

Bob DeFord's replica (the one in the photo) is not 75%. It is 1:1 size with an Allison up front. No way an Allison could fit in a 3/4 scale Spitfire. The DeFord replica uses Jurca plans.

[DH82EH]

Neat project...but this thread will probably be bumped into the General Aviation section.

Lots of Spitfires that are flying today are replicas!

The Allison powered, wood wing Spitfire, makes for quite a convincing, and I'm sure, more affordable warbird.
I'd love to read a comparison from someone who has had the chance to fly both the real thing and the relica.

One question that came to mind is, why are the control surfaces being covered with alloy instead of the usual fabric?

Nice looking project. Thanks for posting all those photos.

Andy Scott

[C VEICH]

Just looked that plane up and it is a 75%. The Spitfire A/c Company plans are of a 100% scale.

Having seen Mr. Deford's Spitfire replica up close and in person on numerous occassions I can assure you that it is full scale. As noted by Ryan Harris there is no way you could shoe horn an Allison into a 3/4 scale Spit. Deford's airplane uses the same Allison/DC-3 prop combination that Mr. Roethlisberger is proposing for his replica.

[Sopwith]

Yes I'd like to know how they compare to the real thing too with regards handling and performance. I appreciate that the wing is wooden but do you know if it has the same wing section and washout as the genuine article? Some very fine looking workmanship going into it, what a fantastic project. Do you know who in England the plans came from, was it Clive Du Cross?
Thanks for posting all the pictures, really nice to see.