It represents a small captive plexi sliding window that was suitable for firing a signal pistol though, or just as a vent...or to scream at your crew chief through. Don't paint it at all and is will be a suitable representation as molded into the clear part.
It's also handy when shot up to be able to open a window or crack the canopy so provide an emergency alternate static source to try and help the pitot-static instruments (altimeter, mainly) read more correctly.
Oddly enough all of the pictures I seem to be able to find of restored Spits seem to have omitted this very distinctive feature from the restoration.
It's actually a knock-out panel rather than a sliding one. It was used to provide a small bit of emergency visibility if the canopy iced over, or to vent the cockpit in the case of smoke. It's not seen in restored Spitfires because it was deleted during the Mk. V production run when the fully blown canopy was introduced. Strangely enough it was discovered that sliding the hood back gave a much better field of emergency visibility...
Great info...but if I were restoring a Mk I I'd really want that panel in my hood before I considered the restoration "complete". Was sort of shocked that I couldn't find such on older restorations. Had thought it would be an easy Google...
In the restoration of vintage vehicles often for safety reasons parts are redesigned some times the method or material is not available for manufacturing original type parts.
IIRC, the oldest flying Spitfire is the BBMF's "Baby" which is a Mk.IIa. The RAF probably ran out of old hoods sometime in the 1940s, so now they have to get by with the stocks of parts they have left over from "newer" Spitfires. Not to mention the improvement to visibility the fully blown hood gives the pilot, something the RAF probably likes.
{fx: googling sounds}
Yes, Baby is the oldest but there's a Mk.I out there too:
As others have noted, it's an emergency clear-vision pushout panel. It isn't framed, just a perspex panel clipped to the side of the canopy by six clips. In appearance, the area where the panel overlaps the canopy looks fogged in some photographs (probably due to little scratches where the panel vibrates against the canopy) but still transparent. I'd suggest using satin varnish or decal film on the inside of the canopy to represent this detail.
I can't see it being much use in the case of a starred or oil-covered windscreen, as it gives a fine view of the wing. It was not seen on all aircraft either - I've seen pics of Mk.V's without it and Mk.IX's with it - I guess it depends on the stock available at the airfield when the canopy needed to be replaced.
It is a knockout panel, only able to be fitted to flat sided hoods. First spitfire restoration to have it is the K serialled Spit in RAF museum Cosford. Then AR213 followed by Casenoves Spit Mk1 (exact as spec restoration) seen at Duxford for its first public appearance in Sept 2011. Peter Monks spitfire no doubt will have one as well.
The panel sits on the outside of the canopy and the overlap is nothing more than two layers of perspex looking a little more opaque.
I seem to recall it was also to equalise air pressure in the cockpit in a dive, there was a debate on this in the Key Publishing forum last year.
I wouldn't consider that a "restoration"...a "restoration" is supposed to be as near to exact as humanly possible - using vintage parts when possible. At least that's the way my friend with the Hertz Shelby Mustang did it...and most of the other concourse event restorers I know locally do it.
But it depends on what you want to do with the car, I suppose.
When landing a long-nosed airplane like the spitfire, the next 3 miles in front of you is invisible under the nose so you tend to look out the side. Most pilots tend to look to the left because circuits are generally made counter- clockwise; the runway is on your left when you join Downwind.
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