By accident we stumbled upon a (World War 2) Spitfire PR crash site. The PR model was an unarmed reconnaissance aircraft painted blue. This specific aircraft crashed from high altitude with high speed into the ground, disintegrating it completely. Only tiny bits could still be found – and after some visits these were all covered by us.

While no large parts could be found the small bits are still interesting. We were still able to extract a lot of information from these. What we found were pieces of sheet metal, pieces of brackets, pieces of engine cases, small parts of all kind of cockpit instruments and equipment, rivets, screws, bolts, nuts, electrical parts and small exotic parts. The tiny parts gave a good indication of the high speed this Spitfire had when it crashed into the ground – many very rigid and dense parts had been scattered into tiny small pieces. The impact energy had to be enormous to achieve this.

I  managed to identify several small parts with great difficulty, with help of others but also by studying photographs and drawings for many hours. Only the highly propable identified parts are displayed on this page, it can still occur that there is a missmatch. If so, please let me know! At the bottom of this page I will publish close ups of other interesting unidentified parts, once again let me know if you identify any of these!

*Between Spitfire mk models and also among the models themselves, instruments and equipment could have small differences. Mostly between markings (the position of these), material, colour and used fonts.

Bolts, nuts, rings, rivets and screws. A great number of these were found. Most interesting were the crews and large bolt heads. The screws were used because a lot of wood (!) was used in the aircraft frame. The aircraft boltshold a lot of information, including partsnumber and quality stamp.

One of the found materials is also rubber, plastic and synthetic materials. A small part of tube can be seen in the centre photograph. The part on the most right photograph is more complex: it seems to be e centre part holding together two strips, on both sides these strips are holding two other opposing strips of the same material together (some kind of seal).

Several pieces with markings on them. None of these have a complete number since the parts are generally much smaller. Two of these have only a ‘AG’ and ‘77’ visible. The one top right has the Westland factory marking – ‘WA’ on two intersecting circles, the right circle should have a number. Other pieces below carry the '30008' code (Early model Spitfire/ Bottom outer main planes part).

One of the found parts has clearly a circular shape, one side still has small bits of the  Spitfire PR blue paint - hence it must be a piece visible on the outside of the aircraft. Only round parts on the Spitfire are the round access panels underneath the wing. More than 20 were installed on the Spitfire; large covers with 6 or 8 bolts and small covers with 6 bolts. The one found is a small cover with 6 bolts - these were used on the outboard ailerons. This matches exactly the found 30008 codes.

Another interesting piece is a short pin with a perefectly shaped ball on one side - made completely out of aluminium. Now this looks at first sight as a lever/ switch for cockpit equipment. Only slightly resembling part are the levers of the magneto switch - besides having a bit different shape these were made out of metal. After a lot of searching around the aircraft I found the crowbar in the door being held in p;ace by a locking mechanism which consisted of two flanges each holding a small pin with two spheres on each side. Exactly the same as the object found on the crash site. Sometimes in the cockpit LH side two more of these flanges were installed. A total of 8 of these pin constructions could be present inside the cockpit.

A really cool shaped found part is a bracket which connected the protective carburettor air intake grid to the intake. The early Spitfire models, Mark I/ II/ III/ IV, sometimes had these grids installed - as can be seen on the photograph of the PR Mark IV below (visible just beneath the engine). Although damaged the part is still recognizable.

Found among the pieces is a Spitfire PR camera connector pin. The Mark IV PR could carry three different types of camera’s: the F8, F24 and F52. All were installed into the Spitfire using a connector block to connect the Control Box (seen on the right photograph below) with the camera. The camera’s and Control Box used the male pins of this block, as can be seen in the photograph. Some of the pins were found among the debris.

Several of the tiny bits was identified as a contact pin used in the magneto contact block which spread electrical current among the twelve spark plugs of the Merlin engine. The Spitfire was dually equipped with magneto blocks, so a total of 24 of these very small caps were used in this aircraft.

Photographs courtesy of the Facebook page Wings Museum Rolls Royce Merlin XX - a group of Merlin engine experts!

Almost hard to believe but this seems to be a piece of the PR model early type Camera Control Units exposure knob! The tiny bit has a lot of recognizable features and the aircraft did not hold many knobs - only one of this type!

(Mainly) cockpit instrument casings. All kinds of parts are imaginable: round pieces, straight pieces, corner pieces. Also pieces with screw threads, bolts and grip carvings. As can be seen in the two close up photographs some parts also have writings. 

Three photographs of another high quality piece of metal; has quite some mass, no corrosion (only superficial rust) and impossible to bend. One side is U-shaped and has 2 rows of 3 (attachment) holes, the other side has two large points were it seemed to be attached to some structure.