Letters from Readers, continued, October 1952
Rolls-Royce Abroad Sir, It is not often that you can find a pre-war Rolls-Royce in this country and it would indeed be hard to find one to match the condition of…
The Spitfire owner of today needs a flying Spitfire to…
…be operationally absolutely safe The proficiency and experience on type of the
ratipllying these high performance machines is on a rage well below that of the Spitfire pilots these machines in active service during World War Two and a few years thereafter. The need for technically very safe machines is therefore greater than ever, in order to keep the risks of flying these machines within acceptable levels.
…be well protected against corrosion A Spitfire is a very high value collector’s item. It must be totally protected from attack by today’s extremely corrosive and aggressive atmosphere, which is much more polluted than that in which these aircraft first flew. …be authentic As with any valuable antique, (And in order to be valuable, a restored Spitfire must have a well documented and proven ‘pedigree’ and must
…look good There are less than 50 flying Spitfires worldwide and these are of major interest and attraction anywhere they are seen.
be perfectly finished. This both adds to its value and assures the appreciation of that value. …have up to date communication and navigation equipment Although this is secondary and relates only tt) Spitfires which are regularly flown outside the immediate vicinity of the aerodrome at which they are based, we believe at HFL that a flying Spitfire should be equipped with modern VHF radio communication equipment a height encoding transponder
a Global Positioning System (GPS) in order to maximise safety in flying these machines in today’s much higher air traffic density.