Simviation Forums

Hi all,
I had an encounter with some kind of aircraft at my school yesterday. There I was, in the smaller field of our school with two of my friends, and we hear a sound. Something odd....
We looked about and out of nowhere comes this aircraft, heading straight towards us and descending fast. Then it made a bank, showed off it's underside and zoomed away.

None of us knew what it was, and two of us (me being one) are rather good at identifying aircraft. This aircraft had the shape of a warbird, and when it banked away, I saw what looked like Royal Navy roundels from WWII, and the aircraft itself was coloured like so on the Douglas Dauntless on this image here (for those who don't know the Dauntless is the bottom one )

We had a hard time identifying it thanks to the way it looked. At first, I thought it was a Seafire, because of it's Spitfire-ness and the RN roundels and colours, but as it banked I saw that the wings were clipped. (As far as I know, no Seafires had their wings clipped, but this is a guess - all the Seafires I've seen have had elliptical wings) I didn't get to see the tail well or the cockpit, so I was completely baffled as to what it was.

And later on in schooltime, I was in a classroom that sits right by the field, and I heard the noise again - it was back, and this time it made a low pass over the field, fortunately I could see the fuselage and tail perfectly now. The fuselage made me think even more "Spitfire? Seafire?" but the tail resembled that of a Mustang. This threw me off even more, and then I thought back to how the aircraft sounded. My other friend, who had seen a Mustang at an airshow, said "they whistle slightly as they come down", and this aircraft, when coming for me and my two friends, sort-of whisteld, more whined (but the noise of the engine was greater than this "whining".)

I didn't get to see if it had an airintake underneath to see if it was a Mustang, and if it were a P-51, it would have been an P-51A or P-51B. I said I didn't get to see the cockpit well, but the shape I saw was most definately not the "tear-drop" cockpit on the P-51D. But if it was a Mustang, why was it in RN colours?

Here's somekind of sketch I made of it, if any of you can help me identify this aircraft:



If any of you know of any kind of warbird-like things going on in the UK, were there any going on in Devon? (This is where I live and where it was seen)

Also, could this be somekind of "kit-plane" that somebody had built and wanted to show it off, or was it a warbird?

Thanks, hopefully we can identify it

SIAI Marchetti SF-260 warrior is the first thing that came to mind when i saw your drawing. Very nimble little 2 place aircraft. only problem is that most i have seen had tip tanks and you didnt mention tip tanks.

a lot of people who own the SF-260 paint it up in war bird colors of one sort or another.

http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=360173

http://jetphotos.net/viewphoto.php?id=107663

just a thought, it could be any one of a million airplanes.    

where did you see this? city, country, nearby airports, time of day etc

oh Devon - didnt see that last part of your post sorry.

P40 ?

i'm thinking P40 too, town.

By you're decription of the wing and the engine noise it sounds like a Sea Fury, of which there are two in you're relative locality (the RNHF's at Yeovilton and a privately owned one at Bournemouth)...

Didn't the Sea Fury have a teardrop canopy?

And a radial engine. Maybe the ghost of the Fairey Firefly.

what about the Tempest or Typhoon?

what about the Tempest or Typhoon?

Unfortunately there aren't any.

I'm not sure what cspyro means by RN roundels & how they would be different to RAF roundels. Do you mean SEAC (South East Asia Command) roundels or the black & white "D-Day" invasion stripes?
SEAC roundel. (Usually have white side panels like the US markings.)


There are various warbirds in the UK with "D-Day" stripes including several P-51s (mainly Ds but one C. Princess Elizabeth at Duxford) & the RNHF Sea Fury or even the Grumman Martlet (Wildcat) at Duxford.

This is the only airworthy Seafire in the UK taken at Old Warden during its first public display this month.


Peter Teichman's P-40 at the same event. Again, I think this the only airworthy example in the UK.


And this is the Sea Fury.

FAA/RN Roundels are blue and white.



No chance it was a Corsair?

Look familiar? You shouldn't have seen it. But it fits your description pretty neatly.

I've seen RN P-51s before.. I think they flew with the Fleet Air Arm in WWII. I'm not sure there's any left.

I've seen RN P-51s before.. I think they flew with the Fleet Air Arm in WWII.

I very much doubt that James. :-/

Thanks for the responses guys, and thanks Hagar for the pics - it definately isn't a Seafire

I don't think it was a P-40 either - the wings were definately clipped, plus as it banked I didn't see the wheels like on the P-40.

Wasn't an SF260; it didn't have those tip-tanks on the wingtips as you said RitterKruez.

It could have been a Sea Fury Bigger Me, and Hagar, I'm pretty sure it was an RN roundel like Woody shows in his pic of the Spit/Seafire, and I'm going to look into this Sea fury based at Bournemouth to see if it was one.