Olham 164 Posted December 10, 2012 Night Glow - The Exhaust Fire of a Spitfire's Rolls Royce Merlin Note: the screen only seems to be black most of the time. This video was made to catch the sound and the exhaust pipe flames of the Spitfire. Make sure you watch with highest quality - and enjoy sound and vision of a legend. 1 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimAttrill 24 Posted December 10, 2012 Nice to hear and to watch - although it can't be a TR9 because there is no such aircraft. It must be a late-model PRIX or more likely a PRXI judging by the tail fin. The RAF only swopped to Arabic numerals with the FR XVIII - FR 18 which had the bigger Griffon engine. The DB60n V12's had an advantage at night because as they were inverted the pilot was not blinded by the exhausts. The 'ejector' exhausts gave about 70lb of thrust which worked out at 10mph extra or so ... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Olham 164 Posted December 10, 2012 The 'ejector' exhausts gave about 70lb of thrust which worked out at 10mph extra or so ... Wow - sounds like pre-jet plane! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimAttrill 24 Posted December 10, 2012 It was - to see a good example compare the Mitsubishi A6M2 'Reisen' (aka Zeke or Zero) with the later A6M5 version with ejector stubs. As you may have gathered I love big piston engines! My father started on Vimy's in 1922 with RR Eagles and then Virginias with Napier Lions. I was lucky (or oiler) enough to work on Bristol Hercules 14-cyl radials before switching to RR Darts and Avons before the Bristol (RR) Pegasus Harrier motor. Most modern aircraft engineers have never seen a non-jet motor except perhaps a Lycoming (boring!) Starting a big radial was not like the Merlin, for a start they sound like a bag of bones at low revs because of the epycyclic reduction gear and give off clouds of lovely oil smoke. Those were the days! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimAttrill 24 Posted December 10, 2012 I must beg your pardon, this aircraft is actually a TR IX (not a TR9 for above reasons). Only 26 were ever made - it is a two-seat Mk IX. Pilots were normally just pushed into the aircraft without trying a two-seater in those days so twin-seaters were considered a waste of resources. The two-seat Me109 was terrible for the instructor as he couldn't see a dickie bird forward at all! There is no mention of the Me109 two-seater in Wiki, yet the famous Eric Brown flew one - I think he flew more German aircraft than any German pilot! But he didn't fly a two-seater Spitfire as far as I can find out. There are some two-seaters which have been converted, though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TeargasHorse 287 Posted December 10, 2012 Isn't IX the Roman numeral for 9, or did I spend too much time snortin gas? Cool video, Olham, fire is ALWAYS cool no matter what it comes out of! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
JimAttrill 24 Posted December 11, 2012 Isn't IX the Roman numeral for 9, or did I spend too much time snortin gas? Cool video, Olham, fire is ALWAYS cool no matter what it comes out of! Yes, you are right. But the RAF used Roman numerals when this aircraft was made, so it is a TR IX and not a TR9. The germans and the americans always used 'arabic' numerals so you can't have a Ju LII or a P LI Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
TeargasHorse 287 Posted December 13, 2012 Oh, I see, it's English. lol Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
