Friday 22 July 2011

Air - Enstone Flying Club

I was down at a 'press do' near Chipping Norton in Englandshire yesterday and came across an old airfield just outside the village of Enstone, where the Enstone Flying Club has a base, and what a fabulous wee set up they have there.

It's a private club with a growing membership, but they have embarked on a fundraising and technical exercise to build a dozen 90% scale size replica Spitfires. The idea is to form their own aerial display team and travel the country doing shows.

Apparently there is a nutcase, sorry enthusiast, in the USA who originally came up with the idea of the Spitfire kit, but naturally the kits use modern materials and technology. The guy obviously has more money than sense 'cos it takes a lot of bread to get this sort of thing certified to fly!

For instance, the engine is a V6 Isuzu unit. Now the smarter readers amongst you will have counted six exhaust headers on the engine cover of the Spitfire in the piccy, but that's a cunning ploy to mimic the real thing. Told you the guy was nuts, sorry, an enthusiast.

Now I know it's got nothing to with rallying, or motoring (apart from the engine), but what the heck, it looks bloody marvellous - although it doesn't sound anywhere near as tingly as a Merlin!

Want to know more? Click on: www.enstoneflyingclub.co.uk

1 comment:

  1. What Ho Chap,It was good to meet you and you are welcome here anytime. If Mike who designed the MK26B Spitfire is nuts.....You might want to explain to your readers what you were getting excited about and taking photos of?
    No seriously Mike got hold of the Supermarine Company from the Ladies that inherited it, so these are a new MK of Spitfire, in fact they are more real than the ones built at Castle Bromwich. You can follow our progress if you go to the spitfireclub.co.uk web site.
    Happy Trucking

    Paul
    Skipper Spitfire Club

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