Spitfire Tail Wheels

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charlespsmith
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Post by charlespsmith »

A pleasant little topic for a sunny Saturday night ..

An elderly member of Frensham passed away recently and willed his trolley wheels to the club for the use of one of its members - and I have them! Another member said " Ah! Spitfire tail wheels - we used a lot of those as trolley wheels after the war" Can any of this be tru? If it can how nice to have a trolley with the "right" wheels and from a Spitfire - wow!

I guess the truth is a little more mundane but do tell me it isnt. The details of the tyres are are:

Dunlop, absolutlely smooth surface, Rayon 5.00 - 4 1/2 Electrically conducting ECTA logo, 27A 2413, ND -R14. I gather the clue is in the electrically conducting - by which static electricity was shed on landing.

On the other side it also has the broad arrow and 51 which I guess is the date. Then 14055 Mar 52 which my informed fiend tells me is the date of the re-tread - necessary after so many landings.

The hubs are massive and say the same thing on both sides - Small Craft Southampton Tyre pressure 30/40 Grease Pack Hub W.3

OK, so maybe we have ex WD tail wheel tyres used as trolley wheels by Small Craft

My daughter asks "where is the rest of the Spitfire?" I tell her its a start anyway

Cheers

Charles & Sheila FPSC
Charles Smith
stu
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Post by stu »

charles, please do not dispose of these, I might know someone who may be interested in them !!

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JimC
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Post by JimC »

I think that's too big for a Spitfire tailwaheel but am willing to be proved wrong. Obviously all that sort of thing was available at giveaway prices back then...
Brian E. Evans
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Post by Brian E. Evans »

Are these tyres in good condition? They sound a bit big for a spitfire tail wheel.
Anyway I have a Slingsby T53B sailplane which uses a spitfire tail wheel as a nose wheel.
However I thought they were 5"x 3 1/2" How much would you want for them?
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chris
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Post by chris »

Slightly aside....
I had, at one time, thought the name Merlin as in merlin rocket was from the engine used in spitfires...the RR Merlin. It seemed to be all Ft.lt. this-that-and-the-other involved with the new 14ft dinghy at the last days of the war, and that they then chose merlin tha magician's hat for the class emblem. But I have been told it was the magician all along.

Whatever

Apparently Iska's ply decks, and presumably many others of that age, used ply suplus to mosquito aircraft....wheels, a bit of fuselage...not much to go is there before we have a whole aircraft then?

And there's more..

it is true that Broadwood's piano manufactory was put over to making wooden aircraft sections in the war and piano wire was used for certain parts (probably control lines, trussing or something.)
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neil
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Post by neil »

Piano wire is/was being used for rigging old Norfolk Punts....in fact I think the Rev Nev uses it on his older Punt
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Post by Rupert »

The Merlin class was originally going to be called to Wizard class, but the 2nd boat (Kate was the prototype) was called Merlin, I believe, and this stuck as the class name. According to the 1959 dinghy year book, anyway).
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neil
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Post by neil »

Damn....that's one question off the list for this year's quiz.
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Post by Rupert »

Sorry!
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Post by Mark »

Damn.....I would have got that one right
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charlespsmith
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Post by charlespsmith »

This bit for Brian - Brian I don't really want to part with them - and the old chap who left them wanted them to remain in the club anyhow. But thanks for your comments - they are 4 1/2 - so I will check with our local aircraft museum.

And - Incidentally I have found an ad in the Dinghy Year Book for 1960 - Small Craft advertising trolleys with these wheels so I guess they are MOD surplus as you all suggested.

Many thanks everyone.

Charles & Sheila FPSC
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Brian E. Evans
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Post by Brian E. Evans »

Charles Smith
Well it was worth a try, When Slingsby's built the T53 in the 1960's Spitfire tail wheels were plentiful and cheap.
Now the things are like digging for gold. Thanks anyway. This of course is another avocation that is as bad as old sailing dinghies
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alan williams
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Post by alan williams »

My old Dolphin Number 1 Cambria was built out of crates used to ship Lighting Fighter engines to this country in the Second World War. We found on stripping her down the US markings and shipping numbers, a friend of mine in the US Airforce checked them out and came up with the answer.
Cheers Al
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