Rebuilding a SPITFIRE! (with Guy Martin)

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Old No7
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Rebuilding a SPITFIRE! (with Guy Martin)

Post by Old No7 »

I got to see this documentary on "Guy Martin's Spitfire" yesterday and really enjoyed it. They did a nice job of intermixing period pictures and info with the recent efforts to rebuild a famous and rare (early model) Spitfire. Plus the SOUND of the might R/R Merlin engine can't be beat!

Oh how I wish my late father could have watched this with us, as he serviced Spitfires with the famed Eagle Squadrons. And I was looking for my old piano teacher in the photos of the Spitfire factories, as she worked in one when she was a young lass.

You can stream this on Netflix or watch it on youtube -- it was really well done!

Below is some more info and images about it...

Cheers! :wink:

Old No7

GM Spitfire 01.jpg
Rebuilding a Spitfire

Guy’s new TV programme is a documentary about the re-building of N3200, a WW2 Spitfire.

It’s breakfast time on Sunday, May 26, 1940 In Northern France... The British forces are in full retreat, backed onto the French coast at Dunkirk and facing complete obliteration.

Prime Minister Winston Churchill has been in power for only a fortnight….

…but in a few hours he will order the launch of Operation Dynamo – the biggest military evacuation in our history.

Until then it’s the job of the RAF to fend off the German Luftwaffe from pounding the retreating troops.film-portrait-380x450

Heading one band of Spitfires is the leader of 19 Squadron at RAF Duxford – 30 year old Geoffrey Stephenson – one of the most highly regarded pilots in the RAF.

Horribly outnumbered, his Squadron still claim a number of German fighters before he is shot down, managing to crash land on a beach near Calais.

His uniform in tatters from boiling water and glycol, he manages to escape and begin a long walk to Brussels, where he hopes to find the US Embassy and a way home. His untold story is straight out of Boys’ Own fiction, involving daring escapes, Colditz and the Queen.

His Mk I Spitfire becomes a beach toy for the Germans and local souvenir hunters as it slowly sinks into the sand – seemingly lost for ever.

Fast forward to the mid-1980s and as the sands shift in northern France the tail of the plane suddenly re-appears. The wreck is recovered and sits for more than 25 years rotting in a remote Normandy museum.

Purchased by American enthusiasts, it is finally returned home to Duxford and the experts of the Aircraft Restoration Company, who plan to re-build N3200 to its former glory.

Joining the team will be Channel 4 presenter and professional daredevil Guy Martin, a man so passionate about the Spitfire that he has his own working Merlin engine in an outbuilding on his farm.

Working from original blueprints and re-built with the same forensic detail as they were back in the thirties, Guy will learn not only how the famous planes were constructed, but also about the Spitfire factories, the ground crews, the armoury and, of course, the pilots, with contributions from surviving members of all those teams.

Two and half years in the making – this is the astonishing story of the meticulous re-building of N3200, its extraordinary history, the bravery and courage of the men and women who kept our Spitfires in the air and the apparently lost story of its pilot.


GM Spitfire 02.jpg
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GunnyMack
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Re: Rebuilding a SPITFIRE! (with Guy Martin)

Post by GunnyMack »

I got to witness the Reno air races years ago, spitfires, hawker sea fury's, mustangs, corsair's, a p38 Lightning and some other war birds- I tell ya there is nothing like the sound of those old radials & V engines roaring past!
Coolest thing was getting to see the SR71 blackbird!
"Please stand for the National Anthem " as its finishing here comes the Blackbird outta the east right on the deck just under the speed of sound! Then he went on a long circle back to the east came across the field again pulled up while tickeling the throttle to about 45-50000 feet and shoved the gas pedal to the floor and was outta sight in the blink on an eye!
( now I have a tear in my eye cuz I'm thinking of Dad)
BROWN LABS MATTER !!
mark
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Re: Rebuilding a SPITFIRE! (with Guy Martin)

Post by mark »

If you are down this way the Temora display is definitely worth a visit

https://warbirdsdownunderairshow.com.au ... -will-see

I recall staying at the "Railway Hotel" one year:

"please keep the windows down, otherwise the pigeons will sh...t on the beds", steamers were running.

Cheers Mark
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