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 | This is the forum to share your recent aviation photos with the rest of the community, being photos not older than six months at the moment of topic opening. Theme-based topics, not about recent events, should go into the sub-forum. Although we will not screen beforehand, we reserve the right to delete any images, especially if clearly unsharp or otherwise low in quality. For more information on how to upload you images, check this post. In topic titles, please use airfield names in stead of just codes, and be clear about what kind of photos your viewers can expect (e.g. CIV/MIL, location etc.). Finally, bring any photo criticism understandable and to the point, not cynical or offensive! Simultaneously, do not feel offended by criticism per se, but simply explain your motives, taste et cetera, or ignore if you wish so. |
2nd one i will have to look up...
SM969 N969SM Mk.XVIIIe
Built Keevil in mid 1945. To 6 MU on August 30th 1945. Shipped to Royal Indian Air Force as HS877 in 1946. Crashed during aerobatics killing pilot on December 12th 1946. Wreck returned to UK on July 1978. Sold to Doug Arnold and rebuilt at Blackbushe for Warbirds of Great Britain. First flight on October 12th 1985, registered G-BRAF. Left UK shortly after Arnold's death in late 1992 and sold to USA. To Flying A services on May 1998. This aircraft was aquired by The Fighter Collection at Duxford in April 2006 and shipped to Duxford to start its restoration to flight. Re-traction tests on the undercarriage on 4-5-08 in the TFC hanger (see photo). Restoration finished in 2008 and painted in No 28 Sqn markings. Sold to Jim Beasley (American warbird pilot) in late 2008 and to be registered as N969SM.
ML407 G-LFIX Tr.IX Carolyn Grace, IWM, Duxford, Cambridgeshire, UK.
Built as an LF.IXc at Castle Bromwich, ML407 was delivered to 33 MU on April 23rd 1944 and ferried to 485 Sqn (RNZAF) on April 29th. On December 28th 1944 it was reassigned to 145 Wing of 2nd TAF but on January 4th 1945 it joined 341 (Alsace) Sqn, a free French unit in 131 Wing. Subsequent units were 308 Sqn, 349 Sqn, 485 Sqn, 345 Sqn, and 332 Sqn. After passing to 151 Recovery Unit in Belgium on April 26th 1945, ML407 returned to the UK and went into store on September 27th that year. Sold to Vickers on July 19th 1950, it was converted to a T9 trainer as G-15-175 and then joined the Irish Air Corps as IAC 162 on June 5th 1951. In 1960 it was retired and on March 4 1968 it was offered for sale and sold to N.A.W Samuelson who sold it to Sir W.J.D Roberts in April 1970. In August 1979 it became the property of Nick Grace and joined the civil register as G-LFIX on February 1st 1980. Its first post-rebuild flight took place on April 16th 1985 and late that year Chris Horsley acquired a share in the aircraft. Following the death of Nick Grace in a road accident in October 1988, ML407 is now registered to, and regularly flown and displayed by his widow Carolyn. ML407 is kept in Hangar Two at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, UK, and is maintained by Chief Engineer Dave Payne and his team. Carolyn flies the Grace Spitfire at many airshows, both public and private, up and down the country, and even in Europe, having also flown, much to her credit in no less than five record-breaking Spitfire formation flypasts between 1996 and 2000. The Grace Spitfire website can be found at: http://www.ml407.co.uk" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
(photo by Webmaster - Duxford Spring Airshow 2008)
Source: http://www.military-airshows.co.uk/spitaw.htm
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