Spitfires still produced on the Isle of Wight |
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Seventy years after the Battle of Britain, authentic Spitfires are still being produced on the Isle of Wight.Airframe Assemblies in Sandown meets a niche market for Spitfire enthusiasts who want to fly the legendary plane.The company has re-built over 40 airworthy planes from wreckage and genuine Spitfire spare parts.Each has “the heart and soul” of a Spitfire, according to managing director Steve Vizard.‘Absolute authenticity’Twenty skilled engineers now work at the business which has been based on the island since 1986.
They are currently working on four Spitfires. Bulkheads salvaged from around the world are supplemented with wheels, Merlin engines, controls and other parts – not necessarily from that exact plane, but all salvaged from genuine Spitfires.Mr Vizard insists: “Everything we do is exactly as it was … absolute authenticity is the watchword for all our customers.”Although forever associated with the Battle of Britain, Spitfires were flown as far afield as Australia, Burma, South America and even the former USSR, so spare parts and identifiable carcasses are available worldwide.A beach in France and a scrapyard in South Africa yielded two of the Spitfires currently in the workshop. Five have emerged in Russia in the last few years.
There were 22,000 Spitfires built, so for Mr Vizard who has been involved in tracking down and swapping military memorabilia for nearly 30 years, “There is no shortage if you know where to look”.Anything “new” – from nuts and bolts upwards, is made from original Spitfire plans. The company is the only one in the UK licensed to manufacture replacement parts.One of the Spitfires in the workshop was originally found in a dried-up riverbed in Yorkshire during the 1976 drought and should be completed by the end of this year.Its owner, Peter Hood, said: “It’s very important these are returned to the air. You can see what it looks like and hear the sound – it’s part of our heritage.”He already co-owns another Spitfire, Spirit of Kent, which makes regular appearances at air shows and stages flypasts at private events like weddings and funerals.He said: “It’s a fabulous aircraft to fly – very powerful”.‘Transcends age’Mr Vizard insists the popularity of the plane has not faded – even 70 years after the Battle of Britain.
“Luckily for us people are still drawn to the iconic image a Spitfire now has. It seems to be one of those things which transcends age.“Everybody from eight to 80 recognises the sight and sound of the Spitfire.”Turning a piece of rusting scrap into a fully airworthy plane is, of course, a “huge task”.A typical project takes 5,000 manhours and so does not come cheap – a Spitfire restoration will have a price tag of at least £1.3m and take three to four years to complete.However customers can expect an instant £0.5m rise in value on their investment as soon as it comes out of the workshop.Mr Vizard said: “Our customers are passionate about the aircraft and are lucky enough to be able to afford it.“Unless its absolutely as it should be, they won’t spend what is a large amount of money on their hobby. And to get it right takes time.”
Wow!! Authentic Spitfires are still being produced on the Isle of Wight UK. |
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Author: nickgarrett
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Wow!! Authentic Spitfires are still being produced on the Isle of Wight UK.
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Damien Hirst condemned for killing 9,000 butterflies… hmmm
Damien Hirst condemned for killing 9,000 butterflies in Tate show
The artist Damien Hirst has come under fire after it emerged that more than 9,000 butterflies died as part of an art work in his latest exhibition.
Damien Hirst Photo: REX FEATURESEven by Damien Hirst’s standards it was an unusual artwork – two windowless rooms swirling with live butterflies.
Visitors to the exhibit at the Tate Modern in London observed the insects close-up as they flew, rested, and fed on bowls of fruit.
But whilst the work, In and Out of Love, was praised by many art critics when it featured in the gallery’s Hirst retrospective earlier this year, it has now landed the artist in a row with the RSPCA.
Figures obtained from the Tate reveal that more than 9,000 butterflies died during the 23 weeks that the exhibition was open.
Each week it was replenished with approximately 400 live butterflies to replace those that died – some of them trodden underfoot, others injured when they landed on visitors’ clothing and were brushed off.
A spokesman for the RSPCA said: “In this so-called ‘art exhibition’, butterflies are forced to exist in the artificial environment of a closed room for their entire lives.
“There would be national outcry if the exhibition involved any other animal, such as a dog. Just because it is butterflies, that does not mean they do not deserve to be treated with kindness.”
The exhibit used butterflies of the Owl and Heliconius species, which come from tropical regions and live for up to nine months in the wild. Those used in the exhibition are believed to have survived for between a few hours and several days.
Visitors saw the butterfly pupae pinned to white canvases while adults specimens flew freely around the rooms, feeding on flowers and sugar water as well as fruit.
The Tate’s description of In and Out of Love said “the themes of life and death as well as beauty and horror are highlighted, dualities that are prevalent in much of the artist’s work”.
Defending the use of the creatures, a Tate spokesman said: “The butterflies used in this [Hirst] work were all sourced from reputable UK butterfly houses and were selected from varieties known to thrive in the conditions created.
“The butterflies lived out the final stage of their natural life cycle inside this room. Approximately 400 butterflies were introduced to the exhibition over the course of each week, with many enjoying longer lifespans than in the wild due to the high quality of this environment.”
Many of Hirst’s most famous works feature dead animals. Among those on display at the Tate Modern were Mother and Child Divided, a cow and a calf sliced in half and displayed in glass tanks filled with formaldehyde, which won the Turner prize in 1995.
The exhibition also included The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, a shark suspended in formaldehyde, and For the Love of God, a human skull covered in more than 8,500 diamonds.
The Tate previously faced accusations of animal neglect in 2009 when an exhibition at Tate Modern by Cildo Meireles, a Brazilian artist, featured a series of fish tank installations, resulting in the deaths of 12 fish.
A spokesman for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) said: “Damien Hirst’s quest to be edgy is as boring as it is callous. It does not matter whether Hirst killed the animals himself or sat by while thousands of them were massacred for his own unjustifiable amusement.
“Butterflies are beautiful parts of nature and should be enjoyed in the wild instead of destroyed for something predictable and unimaginative.”
Dr Martin Warren, the chief executive of Butterfly Conservation said: “It is very sad to hear of the death of so many butterflies. Butterfly Conservation is concerned that this work represents a throwaway approach to living creatures and encourages a lack of respect for the environment.”
Tate Modern’s show was the first major retrospective of Hirst’s work to be held in Britain, and was one of the most popular exhibitions in the museum’s history, attracting nearly 3,000 visitors a day.
Spanning more than two decades of Hirst’s work, it included pieces from his infamous 1988 Freeze show which hailed a new era of conceptual art and brought attention to the Young British Artists movement.
