The physical build of our Spitfire Mk.IX is complete. Next week we transport it to Wonderboom Airport near Pretoria, for the Aero South Africa exhibition. I have to admit, I am very proud of the outcome.

A week after the show I leave for a whirlwind tour of various Spitfire related events and venues, taking in Flying Legends, Royal International Air Tattoo, and the Shuttleworth Collection plus various museums in England, then over to Canada, taking in Toronto, Ottawa, briefly to the US for Oshkosh, back to Edmonton and then Washington State in the US. Scheduled back here after the first week in August. If anyone wishes to meet, let me know and lets see what we can arrange.

We will then couple all the wiring and electronics. I am extremely excited to then finally be able to fly her!

There are a few design mods I wish to make around the mounting arrangement of the potentiometers for the trim wheels and possibly beefing up the seat raising mechanism before I finalise and make available the plans.

I will try report from the Aero SA exhibition, in the meantime for your viewing pleasure, herewith some pics of the completed cockpit!

 

Something really unique about the Spitfire is that, in sharp contrast to the beautiful exterior, the interior was a jumble of what feels like almost ad-hoc add-ons. Controls have been placed where there was some space. Copper tubes and cabling lay everywhere in a steam-punk jumble. This in stark contrast with aircraft like the P51 Mustang or FW190. This photo of an unrestored Mk.VIIIe HF illustrates the point:

With all the auxiliary controls in our HFS cockpit having been fitted, ours still looks somewhat bare in comparison. However, once we connect all the electronics there will be many cables running through the cockpit , all adding to the atmosphere!

Here for your pleasure a few pictures of the interior before refitting the seat and doing some cabling and copper tubing refinements.

 

 

 

 

Our progress now allows us to focus on refinement of the different design elements and getting ready for the Aero South Africa Exhibition.