Spit Mk ! or II question.....

Those little doors are the flaps-down indicators. A linkage mounted on the leading edge of the flap pushed above the wing surface whan the flaps were down. The doors were hinged on the side nearest the pilot.

Be aware that your plans will make your model inaccurate since the Spit's flaps are spring-loaded in the up position and held down by air pressure. Any pilot who left his flaps down while taxying risked overheating the engine due to disrupted airflow through the radiator, and also he would be fined by his Flight Commander because the brakes operated from the same compressed air bottle. Flaps left down bled off the air pressure and that meant that one would not have brakes next time one started up. Embarrasing at best, dangerous at worst. The only time the flaps would be seen down on a parked Spit was when the Erks were bashing metal.

As Jeff C stated, those little doors covered the Spitfire's flap-position indicators, which popped up along with the doors when the aircraft's flaps were down. "Virtual-reality" graphics of the doors in their open position can be seen in the second, third and sixth images at:

for example. The gear-down indicators, on the other hand, were small rods, often painted red, that popped up through holes in the upper surface of the wing approximately 20% of the way out from the wingroot, near where where the wing is thickest. The latter can be seen in their extended position on the model shown at:

for example.

Charles Metz

----------------------

Krewdawg wrote:

The gear down indicator pins are, indeed, the the ones on the upper surface of the wing just ahead of the flaps.

There was a famous photograph of a Spitfire in flight, gear up, with an aircraftsman clinging to the tail.

It was eventually proven a fake because the gear down pins were up and obvious. The aircraft with lowered landing gear was cut out from a photo taken on the ground and grafted to a generic aerial background shot.

Tom

Actually, the radiator air flow had nothing to do with it, the radiator is located ahead of the flaps. It was the landing gear leg located ahead of the radiator that interrupted airflow and could cause engine over heating if you ran the engine up too hard or too long while sitting still. According to an old PR Spitfire pilot I met many years ago, the reason flaps came up as soon as the tailwheel was down was because the R.A.F. of that era operated mostly from grass and sod airfields. Prop and wheels could throw up dirt clods and stones while taxiing and damage the flaps if they were down. In many squadrons, it was an automatic 5 shilling fine if your flight commander saw you taxiing with flaps down.

Bill Shuey