Jump to content

French Spitfire comes a cropper


BluBear

Recommended Posts

Regular to Flying Legends (down to display again this year) has had a serious incident at a show in France.

Prop strike early on in the take off run causes the Mk XIX to flip onto it's back.

Reports indicate the pilot is injured but will be ok and a member of the crowd was hurt by flying shards of wood from the propeller.

Video here, shocking lack of emergency cover...

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?142549-Serious-Spitfire-crash-in-France

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2. Administrators

Is that the griffon one that used to have the contra-prop? Nasty prang but you're right, the emergency response was not exactly rapid


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Jabo said:

Is that the griffon one that used to have the contra-prop? Nasty prang but you're right, the emergency response was not exactly rapid


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Yes mate, owned by Christophe Jacquard I believe. I think it's been at Legends most years in the last decade.

Lots of questions over whether it should have been operating off grass in the first place. It had a similar mishap a few years ago, clipping the grass on landing rollout sending shards flying.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 minutes ago, Jabo said:

Hmmm, IIRC the griffon spits operate from the hard runway unless it's been particularly dry.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Indeed, at DX they have always operated them on the hard from what I remember. 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, CaptJackG said:

Are his flaps down? They look to be extended for takeoff.

No, i'd say they're just protruding post impact as the wings have been creased backwards, probably breaking the spar in the process.

Spitfire flaps are either fully down or up and only used for landing.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2. Administrators

+1. The general consensus seems to be that the main spar was broken when the torque generated by the prop strike threw the wing into the ground. I'd say this one will be down for a very long time


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2. Administrators

Judging by that, the spar in the starboard wing does look like it's broken, the wing has collapsed on that side when the aircraft comes to rest. You can see the prop blade that caused the injury in the crowd fly off early on


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

That was painful to watch. If the IL2 version of the griffon Spittie is any indication, taking off from perfectly flat concrete is plenty dangerous enough, grass is just slightly suicidal. It looks like she's going to be hors de combat for a while.

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 4 months later...

Interestingly I got to hear from an official source the cause of this misshap, nothing to do with grass or brakes, the pilot who is a very experienced Sea Fury driver completely ignored/forgot the advice to not open the taps fully on a Griffon engine and simply torqued himself into the dirt.

Same source also showed me the wreck which is at ARC Duxford being rebuilt for the owner.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Join the conversation

You can post now and register later. If you have an account, sign in now to post with your account.

Guest
Reply to this topic...

×   Pasted as rich text.   Paste as plain text instead

  Only 75 emoji are allowed.

×   Your link has been automatically embedded.   Display as a link instead

×   Your previous content has been restored.   Clear editor

×   You cannot paste images directly. Upload or insert images from URL.

×
×
  • Create New...