She is absolutely beautiful, the guys at Duxford did a remarkable job, bringing her back to life, their skills and attention to detail is outstanding and a credit to IWM 👍👏🏻
Great story and great to see there are some good people around who went out of their way to make this project happen. They deserve a medal for their efforts.
I read the book. The work on the rare early Merlin was incredible; reverse engineering including the pitch-change mechanism and the props. From the sad 'remains' that were rescued to the final result left me quite stunned.
Just wonderful. I love the fact that the aircraft is housed in the exact hangar it was in the day it left Duxford on that fateful mission. It is fantastic to see her flying every year (Covid permitting!) from Duxford. I wonder how many of those 'souvenir' parts, that were removed during the war, have ever come to light since and if any were returned and have been used in the restoration?
That’s an elegant beautiful airplane, I wish that they would reproduce them, we need to see more of them on a daily basis. I had a plastic model of one when I was a kid, I would love to have a real one. Great video, thank you
They have built them from essentially scratch. This example is not a restoration per se. It is a reconstruction. Not many bits of a plane buried in the surf zone can be qualified as flightworthy. But if you own a bit of one and know its identity (serial number) you can retain that identity as part of whatever you build. That's why there are "only" (LOL) FOUR Spitfire Mk Ia's flying!
Anyone else notice that the Spitfire shown starting up had a 4 bladed propeller and in the next shot we are back to a 3 bladed propeller. I kind of expected better from the IWM.
It's also got a bubble canopy, instead of the original one, and 6 exhausts instead of 3, each combining 2 cylinder exhausts. So clearly an older model, probably one of the last Merlin Spits.
Have you noticed on the early Spitfires they had those huge rather restrictive looking exhaust manifolds as opposed to the open tube ( header like ) exhaust on the later MK's ... the open exhaust had to be a big power gain cuz the engine could now breathe especially being supercharged ... other V12 powered aircraft such as the BF109's , American fighters with either the Allison or Merlin engines had the open exhaust and im sure others as well.. the 109's were fuel injected also and didnt have the problems the early carbureted Spits had in rolls and dives
I was surprised when he said there were 4 x Mk1As' flying. Prior to this video I didn't think there were any; the earliest marks were the 2 x Mk2s. Every day a school day.
This is not a restoration. This is essentially a brand new aircraft with the original aircrafts data plate and a tiny amount of pieces from the original aircraft.
For the benefit of the uninitiated, 'restoration' in these cases involves securing the airframe number then using the identity of the destroyed a/c as a legal basis for building up a new aircraft. No components are usable after sitting under the beach for that length of time. The word restoration is misleading as such, it's mainly remanufacturing. Some reconditioned secondhand parts will be used in the construction- this is unavoidable. We don't make the engines from scratch now (yet.......)
So what say "restored" at all? It's not the same aircraft - I respect that it has been "rebuilt" to the same standard - but I agree "restored is very misleading
@@pactrolsolutions Yeah, i agree. There's an even more misleading parallel in the car world- 'Bugatti replica' is used (mainly by people who are trying to sell them) when describing VW Beetle engined kits whose only likeness to a genuine Bugatti is the colour of the bodywork. Such is life!
Anybody who likes Spitfires needs to read First Light. by Geoffrey Wellum. Amazing autobiography of an 18 year old Spitfire pilot in 1940. Bits of it were turned into a well done, but low budget mini-movie.
The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has a Spitfire, I think, in a display of random aircraft hanging from their ceiling. Probably put there in the 40s. Bet they'd be willing to trade for something else if you're interesting in liberating a probably flyable Spitfire.
Just how much of the original aircraft is left, considering it was stripped of souvenirs, flooded out, buried in sand soaked in salt water for 40 yrs and then torn to bits by being dragged out the sand by a bulldozer? I think it’s a new build really.
id have a word with the guy who put the blades on the prop in the restoration , , it started with three ,,, then some one put an extra one on to get it started , but then it fell off again.
Yes it did. The sound is VERY likely a sound bye from a later SC'd motor added to this documentary hoping no one would notice. This is done ALL THE TIME. They think ALL of the viewership are stupid.
Look at Tangmere. My Dad lived in Pagham West Sussex and on a visit I checked out the site. My old mate from Perth was a tail gunner during the war and Tangmere was their divert landing strip. They had to land one time with a bomb hung up. They were told to land on the grass so that the runway was ok. I am a/was a tradesman and Bob wanted to call me Mr. I told him Mr was my Dad so he eventually was comfortable with calling me skipper. Last story. Skipper there is a plane catching us up and it doesn't have propellers. Skipper. Have you been drinking again. It was our meteor. You will never meet menlike that again in our life time. I am nearly 72. Bob died 1987
Its amazing it took 14 years to rebuild , when you look back it didnt take that long to build it from scratch . I know finding all original parts was the issue here but its funny how we make stuff fast then use it and it becomes out dated then one day we want it again and it takes more money and time to redo old technolog , were a funny species , we always want the newest tech then we get older and say remeber the way things used to be made ? I miss that ! , then we search for our past lol
When you English take on a job like this you go all out no stone left unturned, the quality of the finish product is better then when it left Castle Bromwich
This has just been flying over my house, we often have later spitfires flying over our but this has a distinct whistling sound while flying, Anyone able to explain why it has a whistling sound?
It has clearly been fitted with a supercharger (that is what is making the whistling sound), so the notion that this an original Mk 1a is bending the truth slightly.
So what actual parts of this aircraft are original , as I would have expected that 40+ year burried in wet salty sand would have rendered most of it unrefurbishable for flight ?
Some of the very early Battle of Britain Spitfires had two blade, wooden props! Interesting technical aside; the difference in power and take off weight, between the prototype Spitfire; K5054 and the last model of Spitfire; Mk47 Seafire, was the equivalent of the prototype taking off with 24 passengers and their luggage! Because of the Spitfire's stubby undercarriage, nearly all the Seafire's had four blade propellers, in order to absorb the enormous horsepower and keep the diameter down, to avoid 'pecking'. Just sayin'.
This was the Spitfire that Guy Martin helped to restore for Channel 4. Sqn Ldr Stephenson’s daughters were invited to see his Spitfire fly again. The rear view mirror was his own design taken from an MG sports car - an idea that was quickly copied. Great to see her fly again.
Nice plane, but be honest...it's a replica. It's a brand new plane carrying the maker's plate from the wartime crashed aircraft. Such a shame we have all these replicas now because they take the due credit away from the real Spitfires with actual combat history, like MH434.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 KJV, Jesus Christ is the only way
The description of it being the only flying blah blah blah is utter nonsense …. How much is actually original . 1-5% ? What you have sat there is a replica of the aircraft you describe .
She is absolutely beautiful, the guys at Duxford did a remarkable job, bringing her back to life, their skills and attention to detail is outstanding and a credit to IWM 👍👏🏻
The Spitfire and Mustang had to be the coolest designs for fighter planes in WW2.
Even in a time of peace, the noise of a Spitfire makes you tingle in awe and feel good. Imagine the boost it gave to British morale during the war...
Great story and great to see there are some good people around who went out of their way to make this project happen. They deserve a medal for their efforts.
There is something about the look and sound of the Merlin engined Spitfire that every time I see one it is such a moving sight!
What a graceful lady, the Spitfire.
I read the book. The work on the rare early Merlin was incredible; reverse engineering including the pitch-change mechanism and the props. From the sad 'remains' that were rescued to the final result left me quite stunned.
Amazing restoration with not very much to work with. I love the sound of that Merlin engine.
What a save!! Great Job Imperial War Museum!!
Laid stricken rotting on a beach until 1986...unbelievable. What a wonderful aircraft the Spitfire is.
I'm so glad to see these old warbirds brought back to life, love the old warplanes!
What an absolute beauty.........
Priceless.
Just wonderful. I love the fact that the aircraft is housed in the exact hangar it was in the day it left Duxford on that fateful mission. It is fantastic to see her flying every year (Covid permitting!) from Duxford. I wonder how many of those 'souvenir' parts, that were removed during the war, have ever come to light since and if any were returned and have been used in the restoration?
These pilots were really brave soldiers, nerves of steel
4 blade prop or 3 be thankful these old beauties....thoroughbreds are still flying and maintained well!!!!
Aside from the Supermarine S6, there has been and never will be an aeroplane with as much charisma as the Spitfire. God bless R.J. Mitchell
God Bless “The few.” They saved more than a country, they saved the world.
Beautiful machine, well done for the restoration... excellent job
Brilliant and beautiful, well to all of you.
Excellent restoration!
Incredible!
What a great story . We should always say even remember the past or would be destined to repeat it
Trigger: my brush is 20 yrs old; its had 15 new heads and 10 new handles!... the same applies here sadly.
How much of the original plane is left? Sounds to me like they built a new one and attached an old data plate to it.
That’s an elegant beautiful airplane, I wish that they would reproduce them, we need to see more of them on a daily basis. I had a plastic model of one when I was a kid, I would love to have a real one.
Great video, thank you
Start saving!!! 🙃
they are essentially reproducing them, this one is reproduced
You can get them for a few million dollars
They have built them from essentially scratch. This example is not a restoration per se. It is a reconstruction. Not many bits of a plane buried in the surf zone can be qualified as flightworthy. But if you own a bit of one and know its identity (serial number) you can retain that identity as part of whatever you build. That's why there are "only" (LOL) FOUR Spitfire Mk Ia's flying!
There is an Australian company who build replicas, minus a v12 engine unfortunately.
Geoffrey Stephenson survived the crash, but was killed in a plane crash in 1954 during a stay in USA.
Anyone else notice that the Spitfire shown starting up had a 4 bladed propeller and in the next shot we are back to a 3 bladed propeller. I kind of expected better from the IWM.
It's also got a bubble canopy, instead of the original one, and 6 exhausts instead of 3, each combining 2 cylinder exhausts. So clearly an older model, probably one of the last Merlin Spits.
Plus it was a Mk.XVI "Bubbletop" Spit. Not the Mk1
Must have been a different aircraft I don't know much about the spitfire my understanding is they had 3 blades
Have you noticed on the early Spitfires they had those huge rather restrictive looking exhaust manifolds as opposed to the open tube ( header like ) exhaust on the later MK's ... the open exhaust had to be a big power gain cuz the engine could now breathe especially being supercharged ... other V12 powered aircraft such as the BF109's , American fighters with either the Allison or Merlin engines had the open exhaust and im sure others as well.. the 109's were fuel injected also and didnt have the problems the early carbureted Spits had in rolls and dives
Yeah not this plane. 4 blades, not a Merlin, Bubble canopy. Hmm wonder which one it is?
I was surprised when he said there were 4 x Mk1As' flying. Prior to this video I didn't think there were any; the earliest marks were the 2 x Mk2s. Every day a school day.
Please show something of the restoration process!
Nice piece of history. Thanks
Keep um flyin. Thank you
not one photo of the restoration work?? disapppointed
This is not a restoration. This is essentially a brand new aircraft with the original aircrafts data plate and a tiny amount of pieces from the original aircraft.
EXCELLENT EXCELLENT EXCELLENT JOB WELL DONE 👏 ✔️ 👍 ...
Stunning !
Fantastic thanks!
the most beautiful sound in the world, the merlin engine !
For the benefit of the uninitiated, 'restoration' in these cases involves securing the airframe number then using the identity of the destroyed a/c as a legal basis for building up a new aircraft. No components are usable after sitting under the beach for that length of time.
The word restoration is misleading as such, it's mainly remanufacturing. Some reconditioned secondhand parts will be used in the construction- this is unavoidable. We don't make the engines from scratch now (yet.......)
My grandfather used to tell stories of the family axe; it's had ten new handles and two new heads but it is the same axe I used as a boy.
Robert King .... Mine was a hammer😉🤣
I didn't think there could have been much of the original craft left, even the engine would have been too corroded to be useful in any way.
So what say "restored" at all? It's not the same aircraft - I respect that it has been "rebuilt" to the same standard - but I agree "restored is very misleading
@@pactrolsolutions Yeah, i agree. There's an even more misleading parallel in the car world- 'Bugatti replica' is used (mainly by people who are trying to sell them) when describing VW Beetle engined kits whose only likeness to a genuine Bugatti is the colour of the bodywork. Such is life!
The Spitfire starting up : Four blade prop + bubble canopy is probably a Mk XVI.
Anybody who likes Spitfires needs to read First Light. by Geoffrey Wellum.
Amazing autobiography of an 18 year old Spitfire pilot in 1940.
Bits of it were turned into a well done, but low budget mini-movie.
Most 20 yr olds cant manage to drive a moderately powered car. Most of those twenty somethings back then didnt even hold a drivers licence.... Heros!
The only thing used on this spitfire that's original was the Data Plate. That's basically a brand new plane.
Fantastic !!! Thank you very much for sharing...Sir !
Saw this today. Very tidy 👌
Along Mustang P-51 the most outstanding Aircraft ever bulit!!
Don't forget the wonderful Wooden Wonder, the DH98 Mosquito!
Its lovely to see this 'one of the few' aircraft...I wonder how much of it is original from the recovered wreck?
The Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago has a Spitfire, I think, in a display of random aircraft hanging from their ceiling. Probably put there in the 40s. Bet they'd be willing to trade for something else if you're interesting in liberating a probably flyable Spitfire.
So sorry to hear of the passing of Queen Elizabeth II
Just how much of the original aircraft is left, considering it was stripped of souvenirs, flooded out, buried in sand soaked in salt water for 40 yrs and then torn to bits by being dragged out the sand by a bulldozer? I think it’s a new build really.
I wonder how much of the original structure is left in the aircraft. After all those decades under the sand corrosion must have been horrible.
id have a word with the guy who put the blades on the prop in the restoration , , it started with three ,,, then some one put an extra one on to get it started , but then it fell off again.
looking at it starting its take off , the visibility must have been grim till the tail wheel came up
I wonder how many pieces of the original plane they actually used? Because it doesn’t look like there was too much left of it.
i wonder how many parts are still original. being in such salty environment for so long surely did left marks
Seriously how much of this plane is original
At 2:08 sounded like a supercharged engine...didn't think that version of the Spitfire had a supercharged engine.
Correct. The original Spitfire Mk-Ia had a carburettor fuel system. Fuel injection was a later development.
Yes it did. The sound is VERY likely a sound bye from a later SC'd motor added to this documentary hoping no one would notice. This is done ALL THE TIME. They think ALL of the viewership are stupid.
More WW2 planes need to be recovered and restored now
Look at Tangmere. My Dad lived in Pagham West Sussex and on a visit I checked out the site. My old mate from Perth was a tail gunner during the war and Tangmere was their divert landing strip. They had to land one time with a bomb hung up. They were told to land on the grass so that the runway was ok. I am a/was a tradesman and Bob wanted to call me Mr. I told him Mr was my Dad so he eventually was comfortable with calling me skipper. Last story. Skipper there is a plane catching us up and it doesn't have propellers. Skipper. Have you been drinking again. It was our meteor. You will never meet menlike that again in our life time. I am nearly 72. Bob died 1987
Beautiful aircraft and it’s great too see and hear but how much of it is original?
More please sir
I plan to visit Duxford next August and fly in a Spitfire. Am I looking forward to it? Yes.
not enough of spitfire, too much talking head!
Plenty of other Spitfires doing Spitfire things videos out there. This clip was about the aircraft's loss, recovery and rebuild.
yep... it is still lost I think:)
Its amazing it took 14 years to rebuild , when you look back it didnt take that long to build it from scratch . I know finding all original parts was the issue here but its funny how we make stuff fast then use it and it becomes out dated then one day we want it again and it takes more money and time to redo old technolog , were a funny species , we always want the newest tech then we get older and say remeber the way things used to be made ? I miss that ! , then we search for our past lol
When you English take on a job like this you go all out no stone left unturned, the quality of the finish product is better then when it left Castle Bromwich
Nearly took as long to build as the service life of all marks of spitfire.
How much of that spitfire is the spitfire that crashed on the Dunkirk shores
How can a plane lost for 50 years only have a story 2 minutes long??....
Very surprised the Luftwaffe never removed it for evaluation and testing I wonder why?
I have a model of this exact aircraft
This has just been flying over my house, we often have later spitfires flying over our but this has a distinct whistling sound while flying,
Anyone able to explain why it has a whistling sound?
It has clearly been fitted with a supercharger (that is what is making the whistling sound), so the notion that this an original Mk 1a is bending the truth slightly.
How much of the original spitfire actually exists?
Spit is such a badass aircraft ...love it!!😍
So what actual parts of this aircraft are original , as I would have expected that 40+ year burried in wet salty sand would have rendered most of it unrefurbishable for flight ?
Some of the very early Battle of Britain Spitfires had two blade, wooden props! Interesting technical aside; the difference in power and take off weight, between the prototype Spitfire; K5054 and the last model of Spitfire; Mk47 Seafire, was the equivalent of the prototype taking off with 24 passengers and their luggage! Because of the Spitfire's stubby undercarriage, nearly all the Seafire's had four blade propellers, in order to absorb the enormous horsepower and keep the diameter down, to avoid 'pecking'. Just sayin'.
Trouble is it's Triggers broom really isn't it.
This was the Spitfire that Guy Martin helped to restore for Channel 4. Sqn Ldr Stephenson’s daughters were invited to see his Spitfire fly again. The rear view mirror was his own design taken from an MG sports car - an idea that was quickly copied. Great to see her fly again.
I watched Guy Martin working on this in his programme.
i think its probably about 20% original and the rest new parts
Exhilarating
It's not at all the same machine from 1940.
this reminds me of the old tv series baa baa black sheep
Little if any of this spitfire is off the original machine. So it's basically a replica.
5% origional ? If that.
P51-D and a P-38
Seen this on Guy Martin Spitfire great programme as always from Guy
100,s of mustangs left in the world hardly any spits......
Nice plane, but be honest...it's a replica. It's a brand new plane carrying the maker's plate from the wartime crashed aircraft. Such a shame we have all these replicas now because they take the due credit away from the real Spitfires with actual combat history, like MH434.
Rarest of the Rare.
For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. John 3:16 KJV, Jesus Christ is the only way
If that was THE Spitfire taxing out at the end, why did it appear to have the cannon blister on the top of the wing?
They are not cannon bilsters, but blisters for the undercarriage hubs, gun blisters were further outboard
Joseph King, I agree as well as a four bladed prop and I reckon a bubble canopy.🇦🇺
Those cannon bumps are actually the wheel well bumps, cannon bumps are bigger and further out on models so fitted.
Those are the undercarriage blisters, cannon blisters would have been more pronounced and further out on the wing.
303
The description of it being the only flying blah blah blah is utter nonsense …. How much is actually original . 1-5% ? What you have sat there is a replica of the aircraft you describe .
First
Ey, it's you.