Easiest country to build fullsize flying spitfire replica on a reasonable budget?

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Member for

12 years 11 months

Posts: 69

This is a very broad question - to build a Clive du cros type spitfire replica circa 1500kg airframe means in uk you are dealing with CAA (£115p/hr) and not the LAA and in today's world of bureaucracy red tape and ever diminishing pool of people of suitable engineering pedigree means I anticipate costs and project duration to be somewhat more adverse than the 1980s such that the project would likely be in the £150 to £500k ballpark region rather than the sub £150k region and that's before you've funded somewhere secure to build it for the decade or more it would likely take. Clearly the lack of recent uk projects in this category suggests potential others have reached similar conclusions....So the question is this: does one consider initiating this project in a country where pragmatism and red tape is more conducive? Lets assume i emmigrate to undertake this life ambition type project - so this also needs to be an at least as affordable as UK - I'm looking for candidate countries in the developed world - the ones I've shortlisted are:

America (use the experimental category)
Canada (is it just as pragmatic as america? )?
New Zealand?
France? (Hmm french bureaucracy? then again a lot of quirky aviation comes out of france...There authorities must be more amenable?? )
Australia?

America and its experimental reg is the obvious choice if it wasnt so tough to get citizenship in but how do the other countries compare concerning minimum cost / regulation for this category of aircraft - can anybody offer first hand confirmation of the level of laissez faire to large homebuilts in any of these countries?

Clearly plenty of evidence of projects in america/ canada but some also recently in france too with the 80% mosquito and dewoitine 501

Original post

Member for

7 years 3 months

Posts: 216

Under 1500kg MTOW you can register in the RA-Aus category, Above 1500kg MTOW experimental with CASA on the VH register. There are plenty of the home built (Pop Rivet) Spitfires flying around Australia at the moment.

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17 years 5 months

Posts: 8,980

Google mark 26 Spitfire

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20 years 7 months

Posts: 18,353

There's a couple of chaps in Australia who've built full-scale Spitfire replicas in recent years. All aluminium, and two-seaters.

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Google "Pat English Spitfire"

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14 years

Posts: 4,996

A nice looking aircraft, the prop diameter looks very small, unless it's the way the photo was taken ?

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20 years 7 months

Posts: 18,353

Nope, it is a smaller prop. It has a 350hp Lycoming under the bonnet.

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15 years 2 months

Posts: 138

You could just buy a Chipmunk. A proper vintage aircraft with impeccable heritage and delightful handling. Oh no, it's not a Spitfire but neither are any of the grotesque looky-likeys.

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20 years 7 months

Posts: 18,353

Not sure I'd call this grotesque....

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15 years 2 months

Posts: 138

The Bob Deford machine is indeed wonderful and has a decent V12 on the front. Of all the Spitfire replicas that have been built it is the best. The Tally Ho is a close second but most of the so-called replicas are ungainly. It's no criticism of anyone's endeavour, more that the proper machine is so remarkably beautiful that any attempt to replicate tends to fall short.

The full size Hispano engined Jurca that was built in France 20+ years ago was very pretty. It was subsequently re-engined with an Allison and became grotesque overnight!