Thanks guys, and now the final reveal
The Speedfire
by
Robomog, on Flickr
The Supermarine model 391 came out of the need for another jet aircraft to compliment the Gloucester Meteor and to find an answer to the Me 262 threat. Using captured German plans and data it was decided to design a new swept wing and marry it to an available Spitfire Fuselage.
by
Robomog, on Flickr
Because of the narrow fuselage they could not to use the available centrifugal jet engines but instead selected an axial design by the newly set up Prescott-Farage Company, based on captured details of the Junkers Jumo jet engine.
by
Robomog, on Flickr
The design continued apace, the new wings were married successfully to the Spitfire fuselage, together with new tail planes and a bigger canopy.
The story with the engine was not so good, performance proved disappointing and was plagued with technical faults. It was soon evident that it was producing a lot of noise and gas but was severely lacking in thrust. In desperation the aircraft was hastily redesigned to accept two engines but that meant moving them down and outside the fuselage creating unwanted extra drag.
by
Robomog, on Flickr
When it came to the flight trials the results were a mixed bag. The aircraft took a lot of runway to get off the ground but once in the air it had good flight characteristics and handled well, however it did not get anywhere close to it’s designed top speed or cruise height. Unofficially dubbed the ‘speedfire' by the servicing crew it was thought this was a bit of a tongue in cheek moniker than a reflection of its performance as it was barely keeping up with its propeller driven contemporaries.
by
Robomog, on Flickr
The Speedfires demise came one hot summer's afternoon, ballasted for its intended cannon armament the pilot taxied the Speedfire to the end of the runway and started his take off run as usual. He had probably used up half the runway when he realised the aircraft was not beginning to rise, the engines were going flat out but the extra weight and hot day was robbing the aircraft of lift. In desperation he eased back the stick and retracted the undercarriage in hope of reducing the drag, but the Speedfire would not break from ground effect and he had no choice but to chop the throttles and let the aircraft sink back to earth. Shortly after it passed the end of the runway the Speedfire scraped down the overrun area and onto the grass in what one observer described as the most elegant air crash he had ever seen, fortunately the airframe was well constructed and the gutless engines took the brunt of the impact, once the aircraft had slid to a stop the pilot walked away from the aircraft shaken but unhurt.
by
Robomog, on Flickr
This was the final straw for Supermarine, the project was cancelled and the model number deallocated, all paperwork and files were destroyed, in fact anything to do with this project was disappeared except anonymous flight data that was later used on the Swift and Attacker projects. Even the serial was reallocated to a Swift prototype in order to expunge this aircraft from history.
by
Robomog, on Flickr
Nothing remained of this aircraft except this proof of concept model and to this day so called “experts" refuse to believe this aircraft ever existed, stating that it is an invention of a deranged what if modeller, however we know different don’t we ?
And a couple of money shots to finish
by
Robomog, on Flickr
by
Robomog, on Flickr
Well definatly not has good as Brian's, he had a natural flair for bashing two kits together with a minimal amount of filler, something I have not yet quite mastered. However I'm still happy how this one has turned out, except maybe the canopy. In retrospect I think it should have been lower and more streamlined.
I'll let you decide, as always all comments and criticisms greatfully accepted
Thanks for looking................
Mog
>^-.-^<
