Last one Jim, this one should finish it off for you.

That's a nice picture, where'd you find it?

Chad: That last Pic was a beauty, it told me everything that I needed to know. Thanks a bunch, I saved every one of them.

And yes, I was at the 1/8th show also. Wish I had known that you were coming, just to say hello, and chat a bit. Your point about ARF's is well taken. I hope that in the future steps might be taken to prohibit them. There were 88 registered pilots, and they counted about 125 aircraft, and I know that a good percentage were ARF's.

My 30% Gee Bee Z did well taking 2nd in Civilian Flight Performance. I had only been flying it about a month.

Thanks again for all of your help. > Jim

Just couldn't pass this one up Jim. I posted on a full size aviation forum asking for pics of G-FIRE and this one was offered up. Notice that the registration is carried on the underside of the port wing.

Nice pics, didn't notice it until the last pic, but G-FIRE is spinning a five blade prop, instead of the usual 4.

Yep it's got a griffon under that cowl. Not the merlin of the earlier marks !

Interesting, now did they stay with the Griffon after Mk 14, and was it a better performing engine ?

> Jim

Well the merlin had pretty much reached it's development potential. The Mk XI may have the last production Spit with the merlin, not sure, have to do some more research.
In order to increase power more displacement was needed. The merlins displacement had reached it's max as a production engine. So when Rolls Royce enlarged the engine they decided to call it the griffon. A MkIV was the first to be test flown with a griffon. The griffon also turns in the opposite direction from the merlin.
If you'd like to learn more you can find two or three books about WWII engines or you can read Spitfire the History by Eric B. Morgan and Edward Shacklady. It goes into great detail about all the variants. Especially engine and airframe development. Great book if your a Spitfire person. [&:]

The MkXVI was the last variant to use the Merlin and was basically a MkIX airframe fitted with the license built Packard Merlin rather than the Rolls unit. The first production Spitfire to use the Griffon was the limited production MkXII. (which was also the only Griffon Spit to run a four blader, not counting the XV and XVII Seafires) Then came the Griffon powered MkXIV, followed by the Merlin powered XVI, and all subsequent marks from the XVIII through the 24 used the Griffon. Keep in mind the mark numbers were assigned during development and they did not always get introduced into service in that order. For example, when they decided to upgrade the MkV Spit it was supposed to be followed by the MkVIII. However, because the number of engineering changes needed for the MkVIII were delaying its introduction, the MkIX was quicklly worked up as a stop gap fill in. Therefore, the MkIX actually preceeded the MkVIII into service. Hope that makes sense!

Great stuff !

Thanks gyz. > Jim

A little aside about the Griffon powered spits. Seems as though a pilot was shot down in an MkIX (Merlin) spit and made is was back to his unit VIA Spain. In the interm his Squadron had transitioned to the Mk XIV Griffon powered spits. He never got his breifing and went to take one up. The engines on the two planes turned in OPOSITE directions and he was seen taking off SIDEWAYS across the hangars!! He finally managed to figure things out and was observed as being "very quiet" for the next several days! Just one of the many war stories lol BobH.

Wasn't some of the Griffons made by Packard in the U.S., I'm assuming that they were a much more higher performing engine then the Merlin, and so what was G-Fire's top speed ?

> Jim

No offense GeeBeeJim but you should by some books ! The Mk XIV's where rated to about 439mph at 24,500 ft.
G-fire Could maybe do a little better as it probably had most of it's wartime equipment removed, i.e. guns, armour plate and the like.
I got to see it fly when I was station in England during the late eighties. It was neat to see it make high speed passes down the runway and chandell up at speeds around 300 mph or more.
But even then he was being easy on the engine and airframe as not to overstress them. Worn out or broken parts aren't easy to come by. And if you do find or manufacture what you need it won't be cheap.
Don't believe Griffons where produced in the states. I could be wrong !!!
[&:]