sged Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Hi, I found the following on a website made by someone from The Netherlands (can't find his name) It would've been easier for me to just copy the pics and translate the text, but that didn't work... So I'll give the link, and all you have to do is keep my translation open and view the pictures... secret projects This man came accross some interesting documents in March 2006 at a fair, with some remarkable drawings from the British plane producer Vickers-Supermarine. Between the numerous letters, pictures and drawings, he found proposals for using the Spitfire for other tasks then what it was used for untill then... Following drawings and pictures where TOP-SECRET at that time! He only shows the stuff that didn't suffer to much from moisture, and with all info found (some info was lost and incomplete) Picture 1: Spitfire VD - RR Camelot 1 of the first serieus projects was the development of the Camelot engine by Rolls -Royce for the Spitfire F MK VD. In principal, this engine was actually 2 Merlin engines placed on top of eachother, where the top engine was put upside down (mirror). This 24 cillinder engine produced 3500Hp and had to make this Spitfire go around 870KPH. Picture 2: Pic of the engines put together, in the middle are the exhausts... In this first design the spinner was very big en the exhausts were in the wrong place. Solution was to use a standard spinner, so an extra cooling was given beneath the spinner. Picture 3: Actual plane in a testflight Also, in the first design, they didn't count in the huge HP produced, and it's effects on the plane's structure (later notes indicates they were thinking of a counter-rotating propeller). The final prototype named MK VE flew for the first time in the beginning of April '42. After some testflights, the project was cancelled, due to the coolingproblems (radiators to big) and high risks of malfunctions. The only excisting MK VE was demolished in the end of '44. This man has some pictures of this plane in his possesion, and the one shown, is the best of all.... ___________________________________________________________ picture 4: Supermarine Mk 99 Twin Spitfire. One of the many Spitfire projects that was highly promising, was the Twin-Spitfire Mk 99. in succession of the US P-38 Twin-Mustang, Supermarine decided to investigate the possabillity if a Spitfire was suited for the same design. Problem was, they couldn't deside on what side the pilot should be seated and the same for the navigator-radaroperator (In GB people drive on the left side of the road), the project suffered a set back because of it. Drawings of "Sheetproject 10099 Tw Mk 99" are the only ones preserved. Picture 5: Supermarine Twin-Spitfire The succesor of the Twin-Spitfire, the Mk 199, was introduced in '46. It excisted out of 2 Spitfire F.21 hulls welded together. While the Mk 99 had a tail section in one piece (pic 5), the Mk 199 had two seperate tails. Investigation pointed out that this (Mk 99 taildesign) influenced the airflow to much in a negative way, and with the latter design, one could tell the difference between the Twin-Mustang and Mk 199 better. Because of the seperate tail sections, the cables had to be controlled electronically (a revolution at Supermarine), to control the elevators synchrone... As known, testflights have been made with the (or multiple?) prototypes, the LA333/334. It is unknown what happened to the prototype(s). Because of the strict confidentiallity (top secret) only 1 picture has been released, heavily censored (see pic 6) picture 6:Supermarine F. Mk 199 Twin-Spitfire ________________________________________________________ A project that only needed the "go ahead", was the succesor of the T9, a trainer version of the Mk IX, used with succes in the Dutch and Irish airforce. But because of the rapid development of the jet, this project only saw 1 prototype. A unique feature of this plane was the low-bi-plane design. This meant that the pilot in training was seated in the same place as in the Spitfire F. XIV, a version he would fly after graduation. (in the T9, the pilot in training was seated more forward to give the instructor more space in the back). In principal, the T 900 consisted of two F. XIV melted together into one plane. Picture 7: Drawing of Supermarine Spitfire T 900 It is not clear when the first testflight had been made (somewhere during summer '47), but there where some problems with the in flight caracteristics, because of the bad planned aerodinamics. The airflow on the forward wing caused a reversed effect on the aft wing, causing the T 900 problems in taking off. They soon ceased to fly the prototype, but they kept on searching for a solution to fix the problem. The Mk T 900 had a Griffon 61 (2005 Hp) engine and would have had a max speed of 705 KpH. Picture 8: drawing, and second pic is the AT 900 prototype during a test flight. (pic taken in August '47, from a Lincoln Bomber) Once the problems solved, a second version was made, the AT 900B (RN222), this plane made several succesfull testflights! Picture 9 Spitfire AT 900B during testflight (back of the pic is dated 27 March '49) _________________________________________________________ Picture 10: Drawing of an impossible project Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sunflower Posted February 6, 2007 Share Posted February 6, 2007 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sged Posted February 6, 2007 Author Share Posted February 6, 2007 Happy someone made the effort reading this newspaper lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Cold_Gambler Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 poor poor 'lil spitty... Someone please tell me those are photoshops... please Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shadow Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 LOLOLOLOLOLOL!!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sged Posted February 7, 2007 Author Share Posted February 7, 2007 No, the ones that are "photoshopped" as far one could tamper with a pic in WWII, has been pointed out by the author...the rest of em are the real deal And there was lots more, but because he didn't have the full info (documents got lost) he didn't put them on his website... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BadAim Posted February 7, 2007 Share Posted February 7, 2007 It's, it's......it's Frankenspittie! AAAAARRRGHHHHHHHH! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dubbo Posted February 10, 2007 Share Posted February 10, 2007 Very interesting. The swing-wing Spit would have been an interesting inclusion in '46 as would the multi-turreted Spit. Thanks for sharing. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
1. DDz Quorum Painless Posted February 11, 2007 1. DDz Quorum Share Posted February 11, 2007 ~S~ Sged, thank heavens we followed the "if it ain't broke don't fix it " policy !! LOL Cheers M8 ~S~ Speechless Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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