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80 Today!

Jo Sharp

Jo Sharp

Pulls on doors marked push
Happy birthday to the Supermarine Spitfire, which flew its maiden flight from Eastleigh, Hampshire on 5th March 1936. The test pilot, Mutt Summers, is reported as having said after the flight "don't touch anything", referring to the success of the design. Sadly her designer, RJ Mitchell, died a few months later and never saw the stunning success in action of his brainchild.
 
I sat in one at Historic Flying Limited, Duxford, a few years ago. I was ok until I slid the canopy forward.... Quite an emotional moment.

A beautiful aircraft from every angle, fitted with great engines, and flown by some extremely brave guys. Happy Birthday, Spit!
 
I hear the crackle of Merlin engines over my office several times a week during the summer, but hearing one again on BBC Radio 4 last evening still had the power to make me feel very emotional. That soundtrack would certainly be one of Desert Island Discs.
 
I was fortunate to have a tour round the BBE memorial flight at RAF Coningsby last week.The aircraft appear, to this untrained eye, meticulously maintained. The historian's words evoked images of a time that most of us probably couldn't contemplate.

This week I had a tour of the P & A Wood Rolls Royce and Bentley showroom near Dunmow in Essex. There's a Merlin engine in the showroom hand restored by Andy Wood, who I was fortunate to talk to for quite some time. His view of the new Rolls Royces was perhaps fairly predictable: 'Plastic!'
 
Today is also the anniversary of the first flight of the Gloster Meteor, in 1943. A world away in such a short time, and still in use when I joined the RAF in 1981!
 
Tony Lockhart said:
I sat in one at Historic Flying Limited, Duxford, a few years ago. I was ok until I slid the canopy forward.... Quite an emotional moment.

A beautiful aircraft from every angle, fitted with great engines, and flown by some extremely brave guys. Happy Birthday, Spit!
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+1

If it look right, it flies right, never truer than with a Spitfire, there's also something about the Merlin, that makes the hairs stand up on your neck whenever one flies past.

An emotional machine.
 
Ginger said:
This week I had a tour of the P & A Wood Rolls Royce and Bentley showroom near Dunmow in Essex. There's a Merlin engine in the showroom hand restored by Andy Wood, who I was fortunate to talk to for quite some time. His view of the new Rolls Royces was perhaps fairly predictable: 'Plastic!'
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Lucky bugger. Are you buying? I have known Paul & Andy for more years than I care to think. My father helped them to find their first workshop, an ex-WW1 RFC hangar from North Weald which had been relocated to nearby Moreton and used as a traction engine shed since the 1930s. They were doing their apprenticeships with RR, and worked on their first restorations through the night. My father's R Type Bentley was one of their earliest projects. It threw a conrod taking me to my first term at prep school, and they rebuilt it in their increasingly sparse moments of spare time. It was finished in time to collect me from my last day at school, 10 years later! By then they had moved to larger premises in Great Bardfield, following which they commissioned their amazing current premises in Great Easton.

Some years ago they actually had a Spitfire rather incongruously 'at dispersal' amongst the Rollers in their showroom. I was fortunate enough to sit in it, which, as Tony says, is pretty head-spinning. They sometimes fire up the Merlin, which, particularly in the enclosed space outside the immaculate workshops, is an auditory experience of some note!
 
^ Interesting read, I first had dealings with them in 1990, and they were absolute gentlemen. A pleasure to deal with, but then I was also in awe of their work on Merlin engines so it was a humbling experience for me.

Spitfires, and the people around them, are a special place. For me they represent a quintessentially British phenomenon, albeit I absolutely acknowledge that this is most likely 99% rose tinted nostalgia on my part, but somehow it is an aircraft and a project that crossed all sorts of boundaries, whether it was the dashing pilots, or the dedicated ground crews and builders or the female delivery pilots there are so many interesting facets of life connected with it.

Despite having grown up around aircraft until I left home, it is hard not to get a lump in my throat or a moist eye whenever I hear or see one. In the very early days of the Goodwood festival of Speed, before the ridiculous glitzy commercial spectacle that it has become, March used to organise a beat up of the grounds which was sensational. Seeing a Spitfire low level through the trees was a sight never to forget, and of course Ray Hannah blatting down the straight at Goodwood circuit for the Revival. I knew at the time that would never happen again.
 
Am I buying? Good God no! I'm not in that league. A friend has a new Wraith from Woods though and expects me to have a drive. I've declined not because I don't want to but I just couldn't deal with the aftermth should an accident occur!

I found Andy's life story fascinating and him to be an incredibly nice man. He told me that he and his brother purchased their first restortion project when they were 14 years old and living in East London. Not many 14 year olds today with that sort of drive.

I admire the cars in the showroom and the history attached to some of them. Probably not the done thing to discuss individual cars being restored on here but a couple of very significant pieces of history in the workshops. I wasn't aware previously, but they're the only Rolls Royce approved restorer.

Andy showed me a Rolls engine that was designed to power an airship and thus had to be light. All stripped down on the bench. Incredibly thin cylinder walls and a vey thin water jacket welded around each cylinder. Quite unlike other engines I've seen, no block as such. Hard to imagine theose thin cylinder walls withstanding hours and hours of running, but clearly they did.
 
Jo Sharp said:
Happy birthday to the Supermarine Spitfire, which flew its maiden flight from Eastleigh, Hampshire on 5th March 1936. The test pilot, Mutt Summers, is reported as having said after the flight "don't touch anything", referring to the success of the design. Sadly her designer, RJ Mitchell, died a few months later and never saw the stunning success in action of his brainchild.
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Good job they ignored him.

Without the "Tilly Orifice" it wouldn't have been half as effective against the Bosche.
 
Gentlemen indeed, extraordinarily hard workers, and completely unspoilt by their success. It is perfectly normal to see Andy in his overalls.

A decade or so ago they threw a party at Great Easton to celebrate their 40th anniversary, and that (rather earlier) of the RR Silver Ghost. It was a terrific day to which dad and I were honoured to be invited, one which combined extraordinary generosity with their complete modesty. It featured a private show of the BBMF, the longest display that I have ever seen from them. Photographs here, including the Merlin running..

http://www.pa-wood.co.uk/window/ghost-anniversary.htm
 
My late father was the CO of RAF II(AC) Squadron at Buckeburg when it converted from Griffon engined Spitfire XIVs and XIXs to Meteor FR9's and PR10s in 1950/51. One of the Squadron Spitfires is now part of the Battle of Britain Memorial flight.

Tugs on the old heart strings!
 
A bit surprised that in the news about this I haven't heard mention of the Spitfire's direct ancestors - the Supermarine Schneider trophy racers culminating in the S6b
 
sp25 said:
A bit surprised that in the news about this I haven't heard mention of the Spitfire's direct ancestors - the Supermarine Schneider trophy racers culminating in the S6b
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I suppose the assumption is that anyone is interested in the lineage they'll find it on the net. Those flying heat-dissipators were amazing beasts.
 
A magnificent design and achievement, can remember as a kid running round the house with a small model of one going eeeeyyyyooowwwwwswwwwoooooopppp
 
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