WIX Archives
Thanks Joe and Peter (N/T)
Posted by Jagan on Mon Oct 14, 2002 04:36:28 PM
In reply top Re: Spitfire repair and damage categories posted by PeterA on Mon Oct 14, 2002 06:01:02 AM
: Jagan & Joe,
: The repair and damage categories of Spitfires is quite a c
: omplex subject. There is a comprehensive explanation on pa
: ge 617 of ?Spitfire the History? by Morgan/Shacklady.
: A cat.E write off is a ?write off? and the aircraft will n
: ot fly again. There are sub divisions of cat.E which will
: determine if the aircraft is a total loss due to Accident
: or Battle damage, can be reduced to spares or become a ?G
: round Instructional? airframe.
: It takes more than a ?normal? undercarriage collapse, grou
: nd loop or wheels up landing for for a Spitfire to be cat
: .E. There are a range of repair schedules in the Air Publ
: ications to repair such damage at, Unit User site, Mainten
: ance Unit site or Repaired in Works site, depending on sev
: erity. Yes the Spitfire was a little on the delicate side
: of the median but for a 1930?s interceptor design, a narro
: w undercarriage, like the Me109, was a price worth paying
: for light weight and a thin wing.
: In my view it is most unlikely that recovered major assemb
: lies were, as policy, ever used on the main Vickers CBAF o
: r Supermarine production lines. It would be far too comple
: x to manage and risky. In reality there is not too much in
: terchangeability of major assemblies between marks of Spi
: tfire and even within marks there is a whole host of expa
: nding ?Modification States? to contend with. The Civilian
: Repair Organisation was set up to deal with these very val
: uable assets. For Spitfires, about forty supplier companie
: s would rebuild and repair assemblies and components to fe
: ed them back into the Maintenance Units and the like of N
: o 1 Civilian Repair Unit at Morris Motors Cowley. Here air
: craft would be repaired or even reconstructed using, in th
: e main, recovered materials and returned them to service.
: In India there were six Civilian Repair Organisations oper
: ating during WWII.
: PeterA