First flight of Norwegian Spitfire

The sorcerers of the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar have once more performed a miracle. On 22 April their latest produce, Spitfire LN-AOA made its first flight from Biggin. The fighter is a T9 two seater rebuild of Supermarine Spitfire LF Mk.IX EN570 (c/n 6S/223722).  It was built, using parts excavated from the plane’s crash site in the Robermont woods in Lucheux, near Saint Pol (France) in July 2013.

EN570 was built by Supermarine at Eastleigh and first flew on 3 April 1943. The fighter was delivered to 611 Squadron where it was given the code ‘FY-J’. But the plane was short lived as it was already lost on 11 June 1943. It was shot down by an Fw190, taking the life of the pilot, Flying Officer G.R. Lindsay.

The project with the parts excavated from the crash received the British civil registration G-CISP and was allocated to EN570 during July 2015. In April 2016 the Spitfire project was registered in Norway as LN-AOA for Norwegian Flying Aces. As mentioned before, the plane has been rebuilt as a ‘Grace’ style two-seater (the same as ML407).

Norwegian Flying Aces plans to fly LN-AOA from Notodden airfield with paying passengers in the backseat. You can already book your seat for a mere NOK 34,500 (around EUR 3200)!

Photo by Lars Høyby (Jon Sørum collection on Jetphotos)