Barn find help. Spitfire seat???

Personally I'd give it to a local museum, alot of these places are crying out for help and exhibits such as this would be well received.

i suppose it was taken out and put aside when the plane was scrapped as the seat material was no good to be melted down . thats a guess of course

Nice find, is it made of Paxolin, a kind of cardboard and resin composite.........

Paxolin is (was) the tradename for one version of SRBF (Synthetic Resin Bonded Fibre)

I know Peter, but cardboard/resin composite seemed an easier way of putting it to someone who may not know!

Personally I'm sure as chips that this is a Spitfire seat, however I would post the query with pics on the Flypast forum ( forum.keypublishing.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=4 ), one of the Spit fanatics will probably be able to tell you which variant it comes from, and I think the valuation question would be well answered there.

I'm a Spitfire dummy but I can't reconcile the mounting frame; should have thought that we be permanent aircraft structure.

No the framework that the seat mounts to, and allows it to maintain a parallel position when raising or lowering the seat, bolts up to one of the major fuselage frames.

Right. I've figured it now! The seat mounting would be bolted to the cockpit rear bulkhead. As shown in the photo the seat is 'tipped' fully forward.

It's smaller than it appears because the signal cartridge holders should each be 1-5 inches (38mm) diameter approximately.

mawganmad;95428 wrote:

I know Peter, but cardboard/resin composite seemed an easier way of putting it to someone who may not know!

Personally I'm sure as chips that this is a Spitfire seat, however I would post the query with pics on the Flypast forum ( forum.keypublishing.co.uk/forumdisplay.php?f=4 ), one of the Spit fanatics will probably be able to tell you which variant it comes from, and I think the valuation question would be well answered there.

Thanks, ive joined and posted my find. A few members have told me its a Spitfire seat 100% and ive had 2 offers of large amounts of money...if only it was mine. I hope the owner sells it rather than put it back in his barn.

A little off topic, but if they carried signal cartridges they must have also caried a pistol. Where was the signal pistol located in the cockpit?

A little off topic

I agree