Supermarine Spiteful and Seafang

[Robin Colbourne]

Some close ups and other shots of the same 1945 Farnborough display here:  Captured and late wartime British aircraft at Farnborough 1945

[Simon Chaddock]

Thanks Robin. Very interesting.

I note that the big plane in front of the Martin Baker MB5 is a Vickers Windsor. A 4 engine geodetic construction pressurized bomber. Only 3 built.     

Edited November 21, 2023 by Simon Chaddock

[Eric Robson]

8 hours ago, Simon Chaddock said:

Thanks Robin. Very interesting.

I note that the big plane in front of the Martin Baker MB5 is a Vickers Windsor. A 4 engine geodetic construction pressurized bomber. Only 3 built.     

To my eyes the Windsor was one of the ugliest planes made and at the time it looked out of date.

[Simon Chaddock]

Eric

Agreed but its construction was interesting.

Both the Wellington and Warwick had wing spars to take the bending loads. The geodetic structure provided the torsional stiffness.

For the Windsor Barns Wallace increased the geodetic structure to provide all the strength so no spar was needed increasing the volume in the wing for fuel. Further it was not linen covered like the earlier designs but with a very fine woven steel mesh sealed with a form of brush on plastic.

Wallace was concerned that with 4 engines in a hard landing the downward forces from the outboard ones would overstress the wing. His solution was to add landing gear to all four of the engine nacelles.

All together not one of his 'neatest' designs,   

[Eric Robson]

Hi Simon, the fin looked like an after thought but the bomb load was apparently well in excess of a Lancaster another reason for the 4 main undercarriage units. The design on my book credits a Mr Rex Pierson with the design using the Barnes Wallace structure. 

Another interesting aeroplane in the picture is the Fairey Spearfish a massive 60ft span single engine FAA torpedo bomber 

Robin, thanks for sharing your photos,  reminds me of an exhibition after the war on Newcastle Town Moor where there was a Lancaster,  Halifax and Stirling along with a Blenhiem, a Spitfire and Hurricane also a Meteor and Vampire. All of which had full access, I was 10 at the time, of course all the boys were  rushing to sit in the jets. I spent the whole day getting into everything and impressed the recruitment officer by identifying the silhouettes on the identification machine. Happy days 

[John Timmis]

I’ve very much enjoyed rereading this thread. Were the plans ever published? I would enjoy building one of these.