DH Mosquito

[Neil Stirling]

Ever hear of normal maintenance? Stuff happens, especially in a very crowded hangar. Just taking assemblies off and setting them aside can cause damage, usually to paint or sheet metal edges. Depends on who is moving them and with what care. Nobody takes care of a machine quite like the owners does, but most owners don't DO all the maintenance on their warbirds.

And last I heard, Lamborghini didn't make the Spitfire. That was Vickers-Supermarine.

View attachment 653501

My logo attempt above. Cheers.

Great logo Greg!
I worked on large aircraft in the RAF (VC10) and a large airline ( 747, 777, 767, 787 and A380) for 40 years. Aircraft damage was taken very seriously and if you caused damage the policy was put your hand up and tell someone in authority. After all safety and airworthiness were of primary concern. Investigation followed and lessons were learned and probably a bollocking, no one was sacked, unless they tested positive for drugs or alcohol. However we were very careful. As for aircraft damage when flying, bird strikes, volcano ash and hail. Oh and lightening!

Neil.

 

[fastmongrel]

Oh and lightening!

What did you lighten.

 

[GregP]

Hi Neal.

Thanks. I have several files of nothing but aircraft / engine manufacturer logos I re-created just for use on my drawings.

Aircraft damage is taken seriously at museums that fly, too, but it happens occasionally. I remember taking some parts off one fighter and, after several months of storage under a bench, someone managed to damage it. The result was we made a new part. Nothing too difficult, but it took a few weekends of effort to get it done. If it HAD been difficult, we likely would have repaired the original part instead.

Another time, we were retracting the landing gear on an airframe and the gear door attach had been disconnected. when it came down, the gear door attach went through the gear door. Oops! Wasn't my fault (really) but I did help patch the gear door. If you see something like that happen, you try your best to think of everything that could go wrong next time you are exercising a mechanical function.

Very largely, damage was rare but sometimes did manage to happen.

 

[Neil Stirling]

What did you lighten.

My hair, it keeps floating away from my head.

 

[BiffF15]

My hair, it keeps floating away from my head.

Mine floated away long ago...

 

[buffnut453]

Mine floated away long ago...

That's what happens when you fly too close to the sun. The heat melts all the follicles and "poof", off goes all the keratin. IIRC, it's a similar process to evaporation.

 

[WARSPITER]

Apparently if you are over forty you can start to get too tall for your hair - that's why it starts to grow out of your ears.

 

[nuuumannn]

Greg is working in a museum situation where most of the people involved moving things are volunteers who do not understand how long it takes to stop a heavy item that is in motion and who, unlike those of us in the industry, do not have years of gauging distances and visualizing pathways. I doubt that many of them could get a DC-3 in and out of a hangar with a 63ft doorway but I have seen it done many times without damage because the people doing it were moving aircraft in confined spaces daily and the wing walkers could tell what was happening long before contact would occur.

Maybe, and I've seen airline employees back aeroplanes into stands and worse, so it happens by seasoned professionals, but we are straying from the issue by discussing hangar rash, which isn't really the point of this. It happens, again usually due to carelessness - I've read enough QA reports on the subject to know this, but I hope we uderstand that that wasn't the point behind what was said.

That was Vickers-Supermarine.

And it wasn't fragile

 

[nuuumannn]

We don't have to agree on it and, having watched Spitfires be operated for 4 years or so, you'll never convince me they are especially rugged.

Probably not, but that is down to your perception rather than the reality of things. I too have worked in museums and around active aircraft for many years, Greg, including several museums with both active and static Spitfires, but our personal experiences are irrelevant to the discussion. The definition of fragile has been posted, but you are and have done so before, ignoring it.

There is a big gap between rugged and fragile.

 

[GregP]

It is what it is and I'm not ignoring anything. The terminology doesn't really matter much to me and won't change the operational observations stated.

I still love Spitfires, easily damaged or not. We have nothing to argue about that matters.