Warbird Information Exchange

Saville, I was thinking more of the rivet counters that used to frequent "The Spitfire Forum" in the U.K.
I love this homebuilt. It totally looks the business.

This airplane never totally turned me on personally, but it has always been clear to me that the owner-builder was living his dream of having a Spitfire in the best way he could afford.

And if you had a problem with a guy living his dream, there'd be something wrong with you!

May it go to someone else with the same dream!

August

I haven't seen anyone here have a problem with this airplane or with the way the guy lived his dream.

Even real Spitfires have trouble deciding whats original in them these days..A lot of details are still being rediscovered in the hunt for "originality" as many of them were mucked around with either at the factory,during its service or post restoration..Anyone who builds a Spit has my respect...

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If the CO ask,s you to be Tail End Charlie...Just Shoot Him..A Piece of Cake

i think the letters on the side are wrong, should be RE-D not R-ED, but its his plane so he can do want he wants.

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GOOD MORNING, WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Press "1" for English.
Press "2" to disconnect until you have learned to speak English.

If the paint scheme was done with complete authenticity in mind, the left-side codes are accurate as they currently are (RE-D), but the right-hand side should be D-RE instead (not R-ED).

yeah I've seen that on some planes...some planes have the letters left to right on both sides and some have the double letters always in front.

I don't think it makes a lot of difference. probably done both ways in the war.

I believe you'll find that it was completely authentic for RAF wing commanders and group captains to put their initials on the aircraft any way they chose.

e.g. Johnnie Johnson's MkXIV MV268:

https://ww2aircraft.net/forum/attachmen ... pg.545124/


Rolf Berg's Mk IXE PV181:

http://spitfiresite.com/uploaded_images/PV181_5.jpg


Have fun researching more examples!

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

DR-E might be correct, but then it wouldn't be his initials.

Thanks guys for putting me straight! In replying to Stoney's post, my thoughts were centered on how the code letters would be organized in a typical/conventional application during the war.

with D under the nose, i assumed that RE was a squadron ID and D was the A/C ID in the squadron, RE-D would be correct.

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GOOD MORNING, WELCOME TO THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Press "1" for English.
Press "2" to disconnect until you have learned to speak English.

For the first part of the war, presentation of the codes was typically RE-D on both sides. The roundel was even painted in staggered positions, further forward on the starboard side than port, at the factory to allow for this.

Later in the war, the roundel position ceased to be staggered and the D-RE presentation became more common, but the RE-D presentation sometimes still appeared. It could be challenging to squeeze the two-letter fuselage code between the Sky fuselage band and the roundel, but some units managed it. The one constant would be that the unit code, RE, would be in that order and unbroken, otherwise its purpose of identifying the unit would be defeated.

If we assume he is pretending to be Wing Commander, then almost anything goes. The order would be those of his initials, but it could be broken R-ED, RE-D, or not at all; some W/Cs kept their initials together, RED, usually in front of the roundel. He wouldn't even have to use his initials. One W/C, Geoff Northcott, just coded his Spitfire "JEFF" next to the roundel.

August

And for you bargain hunters out there, this Allison-powered Jurca Spitfire is being offered for less than half Mr. Deford's asking price:



https://en.arsaero.com/avions/SPITFIRE-REPLICA-JURCA

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.

Seems to have 270 flight hours on it. Has it been flying to airshows in France much? I was not aware of it, though I don't follow French airshows and my French language experience is limited to some high school French classes (many years ago).

Brandon, I'll confess I don't know much about the French example either...stumbled into it surfing this Marcel Jurca tribute site:

http://www.marcel-jurca.com/index.php/en-us/

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It was a good idea, it just didn't work.