Supermarine Spiteful (oz7226)

About this Plan

Supermarine Spiteful. Radio control model fighter. Stand-off scale, for 2 channel radio.

Quote: "This sleek little .10-.15 powered 'Spiteful' from the Supermarine family builds into an exciting model. Designed by Clive Smally from England, who brought us Ol Bluenose (oz8028) in 1985.

The story of the development of the Spitfire/Seafire family is generally well-known to aviation buffs interested in the WWII period. The wealth of books and articles available on the airplane would fill a complete bookshelf. Very few of these books deal with the ultimate engineering development, namely the Spitefut/Seafang family. Any references to these usually amounts to a few paragraphs concerning the laminar flow wing, with perhaps the odd photograph. There are however, three excellent references available which are well-worth borrowing, stealing or even buying, which will also take your mind off building the model. One is Jeffrey Quill's book 'Spitfire - A test Pilot's Story' in which his personal association with the types, including the Spiteful, give an interesting insight into the problems of high speed piston engined fighter development, and very readable. The second reference is the two-part series published in Aeroplane Monthly magazine, issues December 1977 and January 1978 which give good photos, especially R3515 for camouflage patterns, and a well-researched documentary account of the development. The third reference is the 3-views appearing in Aviation News magazine 27th July - 9th August 19-84 edition. This also gives colour notes, slightly inaccurate camouflage patterns and other useful data for finishing your model (if you ever get that far!).

Armed with the above, I set about designing a simple .10 to .15 powered version of the Spiteful. I considered the Seafang, with its cleaner nose and underside, more suitable for a model, but the Spiteful has a more interesting colour scheme and is probably the better known of the two.

The design of the model follows my previous efforts in this series except for the method of engine mounting. I generally dislike commercial radial mounts for one reason or another and I decided to see if it was practical to use a 'power-egg' system of installation, whereby the engine, fuel tank (including all plumbing), prop and spinner were all mounted together on a ply plate prior to fitting to the airframe. The battery pack could also be fitted above the plate. Any problems now occurring in the engine bay can be sorted by simply removing the plate with tank, engine, etc readily accessible. I also wanted to hide as much of the engine as possible to preserve the nose contours. There is little that can be done regarding the muffler, except to leave it off completely, though I suppose in this day and age it is a necessary evil - I compromise by only fitting it for flying sessions.

The inverted installation assists the power-egg theory, by allowing the whole unit to be withdrawn vertically through the crutch and out from the same hatch as the RC gear..."

Direct submission to Outerzone.

Supplementary file notes

Article pages, text and pics.

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