Flying high, overgrown schoolboy who built a Spitfire in his garage
LIKE generations of boys, when he was growing up Alan James loved making models and flying radio-controlled aeroplanes.
While most then see their aviation dreams grounded, his took off again.
So the 63-year-old turned the garage of his semi-detached suburban home into a workshop and built a Spitfire. The result is no model. It is more than 19ft long, has a 22ft wingspan and has already taken to the air... with Mr James in the cockpit.
The self-confessed ‘overgrown modeller’ took three years to build the wooden plane from detailed plans at a cost of £18,000.
His gleaming silver aircraft is an Isaacs Spitfire, a 6/10th scale version of the Supermarine Spitfire fighter which gained legendary status during the Battle of Britain.
Mr James, a former driving instructor who lives with his wife Margaret, 59, in Reading, had built an airworthy Pietenpol aircraft 25 years ago, but ‘had the urge to build something again’.
He said: ‘Like every true Brit I wanted to fly a Spitfire. Five years ago you could only get a flight in one if you enrolled in a twoday course. It cost £5,000 and you only got 40 minutes flying the Spitfire. So I thought about it and realised I could spend that money on building one.’
Without consulting his long-suffering wife, he bought a set of Spitfire plans for £150 and turned his garage into a workshop, knocking it through into the adjoining shed to make enough space. At first he worked in his spare time but eventually gave up his job to concentrate on the project.
He ordered spruce for the wings via a Plymouth company that imports timber for racing yacht masts and tracked down a 100hp Rolls-Royce aircraft engine in the Netherlands that he rebuilt.
Wheels were bought on eBay and seat belts specially made in the US. He did not want the famous camouflage finish so painted his aircraft silver, copying a Spitfire that was based in Germany during 1947.
‘You cannot just build a plane and fly it, there are very strict rules,’ he said. ‘The aircraft was inspected numerous times during construction and checked by a different inspector when completed to obtain Civil Aviation Authority certification.’
His plane, which has a top speed of 160mph and can climb to 10,000ft, is kept in a hangar at private airstrip. Mr James said: ‘This is the first time an Isaacs Spitfire has been completed and flown since the prototype was built more than 40 years ago.
‘It’s probably the only one that’s flying in the world today and I feel very proud to be the builder and pilot.’ He now flies most weekends... and is even doing aerobatics.