Warbird Information Exchange

I just read the thread about the Tim Wallis Spitfire being for sale and tried to tune out the sound of all you drooling. (lol)
Question: Where is the builders i.d. plate located on Spitfires? Does it vary between different Marks?
Lone Star has a bare Spit fuse sitting in the corner in primer. It has BR609 (I think) written on the firewall with black marker. Ser. # maybe? Another thing that has me real confused. I recently acquired a book "Spitfire-Flying Legend" by Dibbs and Holmes. Awesome air to air photos but the real prize is the appendix listing all Marks, their descriptions and how which Mark begat which.
Now the kicker. Lone Stars LF Mk XVIe doesn't match much of the books description of 16e's. TE392 definitely has a Packard engine with a clear clean i.d. badge. The book says 16e's have low backs and clipped wings. TE392 has the high back and elliptical wings. Gun arrangement is for an E wing. Two 20 mm's and two .50's.
Could this be a composite airframe with the part carrying the i.d. plate from a 16??

Confused in Texas
Canso42

Mk XVI's were built as high backs as well as low backs. Same as Mk XIV aircraft. The ex-Wallis Mk XIV is a low back. Mine [RM797] is a high back...

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..defeat is never an option!

I believe the first batch of 16s were high back with rounded tips, keeping in mind that they were really Mk IXs pulled off the line and re-engined with the Packard Merlin.

On my Spitfire the data plate is on the engine side of the firewall as I remember it. It says CBAF for Castle Bromwich Aircraft Factory. I am not certain if the fuselage at Lone Star is actually from a Spitfire factory. I think I may have been told that is something built up later, not real sure. Elroy may know more.

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Bill Greenwood
Spitfire N308WK

Thanks guys!

TE392 was built as a low back with a 'teardrop' canopy.

It was converted to high back during the recent times restoration to flight in 1997 at Bartow.

PeterA

Thank you, Peter. Is that by chance VP441 in your avatar?

Doug Ratchford

Doug,

It is indeed VP441.

A ground to air shot at medium zoom taken about three seconds before I ducked.

Nelson Ezell flying at Jim Smith's facility in Montana for the GHOSTS shoot.

PeterA

PeterA
I happened to recognize it because I have the GHOSTS calendar page of VP441 on my office wall right now. I have these quick release plastic frames with tempered beveled glass from Hobby Lobby that are real easy to use . I have eight years of that calendar and a 1990 Stan Stokes CAF calendar and I change them out at a whim. At this time besides the SeaFire, i have the NZ Lavochkin, the Ghosts '01 cover with the Ozzie Mustang and an 11 x 14 of Lone Star's Corsair I took at WOH '06.

fair skies and tailwinds
Doug