Our Spitfire Replica

We want a full-size, full performance, full power warbird for the same reasons you want one!

The Spitfire was built during a World War, when fighting aircraft had a life expectancy measured in less than one hundred missions. The repair, maintenance, and operation of each aircraft was the responsibility of dozens of squadron mechanics or repair depot workers. The Spitfire was never designed for long-term ease of maintenance, with many components hard to replace or even reach. Systems were life-limited and developed to allow efficient production, not a three-thousand-hour airframe life. The remaining flying Spitfires require armies of volunteers and/or very large operational budgets far beyond the reach of most aircraft owners.

Living, breathing war relics have become increasingly rare due to the ravages of time and years of attrition. Despite the incredible efforts of the restorers and museums, only a few dozen Spitfires are airworthy today. Their obvious value as historical artifacts, added to their unmatched desirability, has brought the value of any airworthy Spitfire up to US$5 million for those with combat history.

Operators of flying Spitfires are faced with unavailable parts from +60 year-old inventories. The Spitfire's monetary value makes the insurance cost a frightening figure. The prospect of owning, flying, and operating a Spitfire was until now far out of the reach of pilots with even above-average means.

Kunarle Aviation is creating a real Spitfire, not a half-size toy or 3/4 scale wannabe.

Pricing

Our prototype is in the advanced construction phase. Pricing reflects firm pricing for those items that have been developed and tentative pricing for components that are still under development. All kit prices are listed in AU Dollars, FOB Sydney NSW Australia. Tentative pricing will change as those kit components are sourced or manufactured.

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Why an Amateur Built Spitfire?

Today's amateur built aircraft represent a significant investment in time, money, and effort. If you are spending months or years to build an aircraft, a large amount of money, and considerable hard work, what will the result be? What will eventually fly out of the workshop in the end? A 'toy' airplane that buzzes around at 100 knots? A cramped two-seater bounced around by light turbulence? A little rocket ship used primarily to transport a ten thousand dollar paint job to an air show display?

Kunarle Aviation offers you the chance to create something that brings both history and your soul alive: a 1400HP, full-size work of art!

The original wooden Spitfire was the brainchild of an amateur builder, Clive du Cros, who called on the assistance of Ray Hilbourne, a retired employee of DeHaviland who worked on the Mosquito and Vampire drawings and penned all of the working drawings by hand! Clive made a replica of the original Spitfire prototype K5054 that first flew in the UK in March 1936. He installed a V12 Jaguar power plant and made the airframe as light as possible so the under-powered engine could make it fly.....and fly it did!

The Du Cros plans were later re-designed and upgraded by an American aviation restorer, Russ Harmuth, so the original Spitfire power plant could be installed. Russ chose an Allison V1710 for his aircraft, but a Rolls Royce Merlin will fit into the same space. The aircraft was also strengthened to a 10G ultimate load.

Using modern CAD/CAM techniques, Kunarle Aviation has modernised the design to take advantage of CNC routing machines and modern plywoods to substantially speed up construction. As an example, using traditional construction techniques on an elliptical wing, every rib within the structure would need its own jig fabricated. With our redesign, we can construct a full set of wing ribs in a very short timeframe.

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Aircraft Quality Wood

The only difference between the original Spitfire and Kunarle Aviation's Spitfire is that the original was done in metal by hundreds of factory workers using sophisticated production tooling, while Kunarle Aviation has chosen to execute our version in aircraft quality wood and composite.

There are several reasons why this is a much better choice for amateur construction:

Far easier to work with than metal for the average home craftsman
Structures can be built using ordinary tooling and methods familiar to more people
Greater fatigue life, more flexibility, vibration dampening, and noise reduction
Wood and composites are far easier to machine, form, and repair
Composites are as strong as a metal even for heavily loaded large aircraft. The famous "Spruce Goose" is still the largest aircraft ever built...with the same type of construction as our Spitfire!

Construction Techniques

Our full-size/full-performance Spitfire uses a combination of two well-proven construction techniques. Fuselage bulkhead frames, wing and tail ribs, spars, and beams utilise aircraft quality hoop pine and plywood design.

Four massive main fuselage beams handle the loads from the big V-12 and tie together the engine, fuselage, and wing mounting into one solid structure.
18 fuselage frames of hoop pine, plywood, and end-grain balsa form the Spitfire's fuselage curves.
19 CNC cut plywood ribs and two massive laminated hoop pine/plywood spars in each wing provide a trustworthy wing structure that's appropriate for the power and speed of the Spitfire.

The beautiful rounded shape of the Spitfire's fuselage is built with the 'ply-balsa-ply' sandwich skin construction used so successfully on another classic British WWII design, the DH98 'Mosquito'. These sandwich skins add tremendous stiffness and strength, yet offer low weight. The skins are comprised of a 1/4" vertical grain balsa core with 1/16" plywood skins bonded to both sides. A clever method of building the sandwich skin in place on the aircraft eliminates the need to build large molds or fixtures. The sandwich skins eliminate the sagging or 'rippled' look found on many thin plywood-skinned aircraft and provide a very smooth finish surface. We are also looking at an alternative ply-foam-composite skin structure to provide further improvements in construction time.

The use of these construction methods should yield an aircraft that is one-thousand kilograms (1 ton) lighter than the original Spitfire Mk, IX, yet is stressed to a 10G ultimate load. At 1 ton lighter, and with the Allison V-12 up front, Kunarle Aviation's Spitfire will easily outperform any original MK. Acceleration and rate of climb will be nothing short of breathtaking. Turning performance, manoeuverability, low-speed handling, and balanced field length will be noticeably better than an origial Spitfire.

Allison V1710 Power

The SAC Spitfire was stress engineered for at least 1400 horsepower, and 10G ultimate loads. By all means, if you can afford to buy and purchase a Merlin engine...go right ahead! We are using the Allison V-1710 to provide real V-12 muscle while still keeping the engine cost reasonable. Allison V12's are readily available and multiple engine shops specialise in their overhaul.

Hamilton Standard Reliability

To keep costs reasonable and to ensure availability, we use the Hamilton Standard 23E50 propeller hub with reprofilled 6353A-18 blades to match the diameter of the original Rotol propeller. This is the same combination used on Allison-powered Yak3/9 aircraft, which have similar performance to the Spitfire.