SEAFIRE XV - 462

IADC Presentation Southern Arabian Peninsular Chapter

20 May 2021

Rebuilding a WWII Spitfire:

the history, the engineering challenges, and the dream.

Introduction

“Attention on Deck!”

• From roughneck in 1980 to Woodhouse International Dubai.

•My father’s life as a Royal Navy carrier pilot during WWII

• Seafire XV restoration project.

Ray Hanna and MH434 Duxford 1996

Woodhouse History• Started as a Roughneck Santa Fe Drilling North Sea 1980,

• After brief period Woodhouse Petroleum Services, London.

• Opened Woodhouse International Dubai in 1985. Exactly 36 years ago last month.

• Woodhouse = Major stockist of new drilling equipment, servicing the entire Middle East region & beyond,

• API-Q1 accredited machine shop, & BOP Control Systems service facility.

• New Drillpipe & downhole tubulars has always been a mainstay of the business.

Today• This presentation has been assembled together along with film, historical, as well as & pictorial

data, to give you a full picture of my father, & what it was like as a Royal Navy carrier pilot during WWII. This leads into the Seafire, & how I came to rebuild the exact same aircraft my father flew in 1946.

The iconic Spitfire:a brief history

• Spitfire to Seafire.

• December 1934: British Air Ministry issued contract AM 361140/34 to RJ Mitchell at Supermarine.

• 5th March 1936: first “Spitfire” K-5054 took off from Eastleigh aerodrome.

• Between 1936 and 1948:

• over 20,000 were built

• Mk1 of 1,000hp delivering in excess of 348Mph

• The final Spitfire Mk47 using a 2,000Hp RR Griffon 61, delivering over 434Mph.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZxgEi8gEsEWatch Spitfire, the movie 2018

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4iOoiEbtf2w

• Watch Ray Hanah in MH434 doing a low pass.

My father:

Captain T G V “Pablo” Percy OBE DSC FAA 1919-2015

• Royal Navy aged 13, at Dartmouth Naval College.

• At the outbreak of war in 1939, he was already an Officer serving in the Royal Navy.

• Atlantic convoy escort duty in a WWI destroyer.

• Transfer to the Fleet Air Arm.

The Royal Navy Carriers and WWII

• Britain had developed the aircraft carrier during the First World War.

• Start of WWII six carriers: Furious, Courageous, Glorious, Eagle, Hermes, Ark Royal.

• Further six under construction: Victorious, Illustrious, Formidable, Indomitable, Implacable and Indefatigable.

• Lack of investment during 1930’s.

• Obsolete biplanes.

• Non-aviator Captains.

The rigours of offshore and supply chain

Classic and Tricycle Undercarriage

• Two designs of aircraft: Classic and Tricycle.

• Classic with Tail wheel.• “Three point” landing.• Touch all three wheels simultaneously

• Tricycle with Nose wheel.• 5% angle of descent,• touch the main wheels,• drop your nose until the front wheel

engages.

Aircraft carrier take off and landing on

Take off Landing

How to deck land, or how not to …

Aircraft for carrier operations

• Spitfires and Seafires went through many Mksduring the war. The Spitfire from Mk 1 to IX. The Seafires Mk1, II, & III, then up to the XII, then XV.

• The Spitfire was never designed as a deck landing aircraft.

• Huge strains in retardation and vertical velocity.

• Start of WWII: no modern fighter aircraft designed for carrier operations available to the Royal Navy.

• Lend Lease Agreement brought arrival of the US made Grumman Wildcat, the Hellcat, the Vought Corsair, and the TBM III Avenger.

F4U Corsair: Designed for Carrier Operations

HMS Formidable 1943

Seafire III landing on, and TGVP sitting in, “Goofers Gallery” aboard HMS Formidable.

Aircraft my father piloted during WWII :

Fairey SwordfishFairey AlbacoreFairey BarracudaGrumman Avenger TBM III

HMS Formidable Kamikaze strikes 4th and 9th May 1945

HMS Venerable Corsair Accident: No Brakes!!

Seafire XV

In 1946, my father was appointed command of 802 Naval Air Squadron aboard Royal Navy Carrier, HMS Venerable …

… operating the Seafire XV.

Prima ferire

HMS Venerable - 802 Squadron, 1946

TGVP Pilot’s Logbook and 802 Squadron Line Book 1946 showing Seafire XV S/N 462.

Burmese Air Force 1952-1958

• 1952 The Royal Navy sells off all Seafires.

• Seafire XV S/N 462 sold to the Burmese Airforce, becoming UB-415.

• 1958 UB-415, then put into storage.

• Gate guardian.

Rangoon Burma 1987

462 timeline:

• 1987 discovered by Peter Arnold in Rangoon.

• 2000 auctioned off by the Burmese government and purchased by Wes Stricker from Columbia Missouri.

• 2010 arrives USA.• 2012 contact made with

Wes Stricker.

462 Arrives Columbia Missouri30.06.2010

Seafire XVPR-503

Columbia Missouri 2014

462 arrives in UK1st April 2014

Wings included!

EngineRolls Royce Griffon VI

They say you can hear a Merlin engine,

but you can FEEL a Griffon!

Missing parts

Rolls Royce

Rolls Royce decided to recommence the restoration for their original aero engines.

Folding wings

• Wings assembled in jig.

• Wings fold in two places.

• Accuracy must be to 1,000th inch.

OEM Vs Aftermarket?

• “Original” VSI £2,500.

• Aftermarket VSI £95.

Fuselage Stage 1

Fuselage Stage 2

Cockpit

Non-OEM: Rejected by CAA

The rebuild team: Kennet Aviation.

All aeronautical engineers with specialisations: systems, electrical, sheet metal, engines.

Warbird and Classic Flight Training

Acknowledgements

• Tim Manna and all his team at Kennet Aviation: Andy Done, Nick Deane, Brian Lock, Tom Ryan, & Rob Turpin, without whose support this project would not be happening.

• Wes Stricker for passing the project to me as it was.

• Paddy Mark and Gareth Dodds at Mark Stewart Productions for permission to use the airborne Spitfire Sequences. For your own personal collection, please buy the film “Spitfire” (2018).

• Armoured Carriers.com and their excellent work informing and educating everyone on the true exploits of the Royal Navy and her Aircraft Carriers during WWII, and not least the extraordinary footage of my father from July 1943.

• Sarah (Hannah) for help with footage of her father Ray Hannah and for putting me in touch with Steve Connor and his steady hand with the film camera despite the Spitfire giving him a hair cut.

• Boultbee Flight Academy. You want to fly in a Spitfire? These are the guys to talk to operating out of several aerodromes in the UK with the two-seater version. Cost? A mere ￡2,750 for 30 minutes. Go on – you won't regret it!