Home Made MkIX Spit

[Steve T]

Tony--

Yep, good memory; Mr DeFord and Mr Diemert shared initials, evidently. The Diemert Hurricane, 5377/CF-SMI (later G-AWLW "P3308" and ultimately the late lamented C-GCWH/"P3069" lost in the 1993 hangar fire at Mt.Hope; it also flew in the film "Battle Of Britain") was probably the most by-the-book rebuild of the several carried out by Bob Diemert, and it did, indeed, wear his initials RE:D as its code letters until it went to the UK for film work. Mr Diemert also did a P-40 that was in some ways a sort of mirror-image counterpart to Bob DeFord's Allison Spit: the P-40 was basically a full-size replica, incorporating some original P-40 sections, and powered by a Merlin out of either a York or a North Star! After a forced landing during its delivery flight to the States it was eventually rebuilt again into a genuine P-40, and I think it is still operational as such.

One can have a great deal of fun looking at the various Bob Diemert threads here on WIX and elsewhere; there are some good photos of some of his, um, hot-rod Warbird projects, like the Merlin-powered troop-transport Firefly or the four-seat Mustang...not to mention the Zero and Aichi D3A-2 made flyable behind ex-Mitchell R2600s...

The colours on Mr DeFord's superb lookalike Spit suggest to me that he must've seen Jerry Billing in action in the Cliff Robertson Spit MK923/N521R back in the day: green/grey uppers, bright Sky unders, white code letters and postwar-hued roundels are all just like that Spit, of which so many of us in the Great Lakes region have such fond memories. Only the black spinner is different; Robertson's bird had a yellow nose.

S.

[Triplane102]

Thank You Steve, for that great input ! It's always good to read something that shakes up the 'ol cob webs upstairs ! Yes ! you are spot on, on the colors of the Spit. I knew it reminded me of one I've seen before, & I JUST saw an older movie with Mr. Robertson in it , that reminded me of his Spitfire ! Thanks again, Steve , any news on the Y2K (V.W.C) one yet ? I hear it's getting closer to being complete !

[Zac Yates]

From memory of the 2004 Classic Wings article on the build, the mainwheels and brakes were ex-King Air and the prop a re-profiled DC-3 unit? I'll try and track down the issue tonight.

[DH82EH]

Thanks Zac, for the input.
He says it's a DC-3 prop in the video.
I'd appreciate info from that article if you can find it.
Neat stuff!

Andy

[bdk]

That first shot made me wonder what Mr. Duford used for undercarriage legs.
As far as I understand real ones are quite sought after.

Claus Colling fabricated the landing gear.

[DH82EH]

Thanks BDK
Some clever and skilled folks out there.

Andy

[Zac Yates]

I finally went out to the garage/Man-Cave this morning before work and found the mag! Sorry Andy, it's actually lighter on details than I remember:
- Allison up front
- DC-3 prop
- Queen Air mains
- "off the shelf" tailwheel and tyre
- steel tube fuse as opposed to wood framing
- baggage hatch behind the pilot
- in 2004 "owed him less than US$250,000" and he chose not to insure it as he wanted something he could fly at the weekend

[Ztex]

Saw it at Oshkosh last year...amazing machine!

[DH82EH]

Thanks Zac, for the info.
Thanks Zane, for the pic.

Andy

[bdk]

Thanks BDK
Some clever and skilled folks out there.

Andy

A friend of mine was involved in building some of the flight control components. A very stout design and the stress analysis was approved by the French authorities.

[Warbird Kid]

I love this Spit! Especially considering it's a full-size "homebuilt". With the slow emergence of 1:1 scale replicas, I believe things are only going to get more interesting. So the questions begs to be asked.... what other 1:1 scale homebuilt WWII fighters will we see? I know of an FW-190 in Germany (Not Flug-Werk) and a few other Spitfire projects. Anything else?

[kalamazookid]

I love this Spit! Especially considering it's a full-size "homebuilt". With the slow emergence of 1:1 scale replicas, I believe things are only going to get more interesting. So the questions begs to be asked.... what other 1:1 scale homebuilt WWII fighters will we see? I know of an FW-190 in Germany (Not Flug-Werk) and a few other Spitfire projects. Anything else?

Not a fighter, but the Potez 63 is my personal favorite:

http://www.historynet.com/potez-replica ... flight.htm

[C VEICH]

Anything else?

How about the Caudron JN-760 replica in France?

[Zac Yates]

The German FW-190 is another Jurca design, using (from memory) an 1830 and prop from a DC-3. Looking at it in flight many wouldn't know the difference: http://www.marcel-jurca.com/index.php?o ... 42&lang=en

Garric's Potez is an amazing accomplishment and a real passion project of his. What a machine!

It is indeed an exciting time! WIXer Nathan has teased a Buffalo/B339 replica build, I wonder what else is out there.

[Chris Brame]

WIXer David at VCS had started a P-35 replica, but the project is now for sale.

Then there's DryMartini's B-17C project, much of which will be new-build.