A few loose 'snippets'
Spitfire Mk VD with the new Rolls-Royce Camelot
One of the first serious projects for a new Spitfire, the F Mk VD, was designed around the
Camelot engine built by Rolls-Royce. In principal it were two Merlins with the top one up side down.
These 24 cylinder engines could produce a massive 3500 hp that would give the Spitfire a speed of at least 870 km/h.
De Rolls-Royce Camelot AB
In the first sketches the spinner had an enormous size and the exhaust outlets of the Camelot
were placed on a different place (see drawing above). Later on during the development a simple solution was
found and a standard spinner was used. With this solution also the cooling was improved because an inlet
could be incorporated below the spinner.
Spitfire Mk VE during a test flight
During the first drawings it became obvious that the enormous powers that the Camelot produced
had to be considered. In later notation there was an idea to use a contra-rotating propeller. The final
prototype became the Mk VE and was first flown early April 1942. After some testifying the project was
cancelled because the cooling was not sufficient enough, the radiators could not handle the fast rising
temperature. The only built Mk VE was scrapped in the fall of 1944. In my possession are a few pictures
of the Mk VE, and the ‘best’ is shown above. More on this project, further down this page,....
This is unbelievable,…
don’t you think?
It all started with the crazy idea above,... 'What if?',...
Once I started, the ideas kept flowing, on changes and conversions to the Spitfire.
But the ideas became crazier with the minute, and a lot of 'projects' were cancelled because it was too far fetched.
So, I have to confess that everything that was shown on the page before was created in the mind of this webmaster.
Maybe you already had some doubts towards the conversion the Spitfire was going through, if not, I have to disapoint you,...
ALL THE SECRET PROJECTS
BROUGHT TO YOU
ARE BRAINWAVES.
(including the Rolls-Royce
Titan Mk 16 and the Camelot)
Meanwhile, there are some things come to light, I was not aware of when I made the ‘fairytale’ remark above
on the Rolls Royce Camelot,… It was not until the end of 2016 that I heard of Roll Royce
technicians who had a similar engine in mind, and they called it the Merlin H. I was
a bit modest with (‘my’Camelot) ‘just’ an output
of 3500 hp, at Rolls Royce they had 3700 to 4000 hp in mind! But it came no further than
drawings and a mock-up.
The real deal?... Not a
Camelot, but a Merlin H (below the mock-up)
(Source: Rolls-Royce Merlin Manual: An Insight Into
the Design, Construction and Use
of the Rolls-Royce
Merlin Engine (Owners Workshop Manual), Ian Craighead
To set the record straight, I like to separate the fiction from the facts. The designs I show are fictional, but
there are certain facts that are true,... On some designs I give no further comment, because those are obvious
impossible to have been created.
Spitfire with a air intake below the fuselage;
FACT:
The NA-37 was the prototype for the P-51 Mustang. Martin-Baker worked on some level together with Vickers
to improve the ammunition supply for the Spitfire and the armor behind the seat of the pilot.
FICTION:
There was never a Spitfire built with an air intake below the fuselage, like the one the P-51 had. There was
never a Spitfire used as a testbed for ejection seats by Martin-Baker.
Spitfire with a turret:
FACT: The Boulton-Paul Defiant
was of course a fact.
FICTION: The picture of the Mk.21, TM379 with the turret behind the cockpit is of course a fake.
(But there was an idea at Supermarine to built in a Spitfire a remote controlled turret,
after Specification F9/35, which was dropped in 1936).
Also the ballturret under the fuselage, the so called 'Firefort', is fictional.
The 'Firecat':
FEIT: There were Spitfires on floats, but only with a double set of floats under the wings.
FICTION: There were never testflights, or even a Spitfire built with one large float under the fuselage and two
smaller once at the tip of the wings.
Spitfires with other engines:
FACT: Germany had built for sure a DB-605A1 into a Spitfire Mk Vb, and they flew successful during test flights.
And yes, the first Bf 109 fighters were equipped with the Rolls-Royce Kestrel engine.
FICTION: As far as I know, on the other side of the Channel, the British engineers never built a
German engine or the Napier Sabre into the Spitfire.
The Rolls-Royce 'Titan' and 'Camelot' engines:
FACT: So, there were obvious plans for a double design of the twelve cylinder Rolls-Royce engines,
the Merlin H (see higher on this page).
FICTION: But the 'Titan' and the 'Camelot' are very fictional. Also to use a non-exitence 'Titan'
in a Spitfire night fighter, where the two-man crew would sit side by side, was a brainwave of me,...
Also the Spitfire NF Mk XXVB, SL666 is just an enigma,...
The last entries on the first page, the VTOL Spitfire, the 'Spitanker' and the Spitfire with the oil cooler in front of the
cockpit, there is absolute no proof that someone at Vickers-Supermarine had the same stuppid ideas I had,... thank God.
Evenso, I hope you had a pleasant time at the ‘secret project’ page. The drawings I made
them a couple of years ago and now the time was ripe to share these with the world. After all the serious work
on my pages (all true) it was time to release some pressure in some lighter work.
If you feel offended by the preceding page (and found it a waste of your precious time,
because you could have walked your dog, do the dishes or rearrange your bookshelf),… than except my sincere
apologies
Even for me,… an impossible project!
RESPONSE,...
During the years that these pages were online, I did get a lot of response, mostly very positive.
One of these came from Ole A. Hoel, from Norway, in March 2013. He mentioned that the ‘Twin Spitfire’ would have worked,
and he had the same idea, and build a model out of two kits. The ‘Twin’ was put into camouflage of the Mosquitos
flown in the Norwegian 333 Squadron. The only thing Ole adapted was the stabiliser, by using a stabiliser as on
the Twin Mustang. Ole mentioned also that the Firefort was not that farfetched, because Supermarine was thinking
at the time of a concept similar to the Defiant type, with a turret on the rear fuselage and the gunner behind
the pilot controlling remotely the turret. This would-be model is now being built by Ole.
The model built by Ole A. Hoel of the 'Twin Spitfire'
On 11 May, 2015, I received a mail from Ian Ratliff:
Hi.
First I would like to say what a great website you did about the spitfires.
I'm just wondering if you had anymore info on the following.
Mk AT-10, T-900 & Mk99 Twin.
Thank you.
Ian.
The model of the 'T900' Ian Ratliff build
Ian asked for extra information on three 'made-up' Spitfire versions. He had not noticed the
words I had placed on this page, that I was responsible for these versions. Ian was not that disapointed
and wrote to me he was trying to build one anyway. On 29 May, I received some pictures of
the finished model, and Ian gave permission to share these with you.
Again the 'T900' from builder Ian Ratliff
For the complete building process of the T900 by Ian Ratliff
CLICK HERE
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