Spitfire for Türkiye
The MSÖ Air & Space Museum at Sivrihisar, Eskisehir province, Türkiye has announced the acquisition of Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX TE517 (c/n SH/CBAF.IX558). The fighter, currently still registered as G-RYIX has been ferried to its new home where it arrived on 27 May 2024. On its delivery flight the Spitfire was flown by Edward Yard.
The MSÖ museum was founded some years ago by well-known aerobatics pilot Ali İsmet Öztürk. It initially consisted of two airworthy Boeing-Stearman PT-17s, but has slowly but steadily expanded in recent years. The former Duxford-based P-51D Mustang Ferocious Frankie was acquired in 2018, followed by the Dakota HB-IRJ that had flown for years sponsored by the Swiss Breitling company. The Dak is now US registered as N3291 and carries the name ‘Turkish Delight’.
The flying museum also owns a Bell UH-1H, a Cessna 195, a Tiger Moth, a North American T-6 and T-28 Trojan and an Antonov An-2. In 2021 the MSÖ Air & Space Museum came to an agreement with the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar to rebuild Supermarine Spitfire Mk.IX MA764 (c/n CBAF.5423) to airworthy condition.
MA764 was to have paid tribute this year to the role of the Spitfire in the Türk Hava Kuvvetleri (Turkish Air Force). It looks like it could not be finished in time and so the museum additionally bought the already airworthy TE517. It will be repainted in the colours of a Türk Hava Kuvvetleri Spit.
Spitfire TE517 made its first post restoration flight from Biggin Hill on 5 April 2023. It was finished in its original livery of the end of the war with code ‘RY-A’ which it carried while flown in 313 (Czech) Squadron at RAF Manston.
The RAF then passed TE517 on to the Czechoslovak Air Force which flew the plane until 1949 when it was sold to the nascent air force of Israel as IDF 20-46. Withdrawn from use it became a climbing frame in a children’s playground in kibbutz Gaaton. The airframe was saved and repatriated to the UK in 1977 by British warbird collector Robs Lamplough.
The project changed hands several times and the consecutive owners were not the least in the warbird scene: Charles Church, Kermit Weeks and Paul Andrews, and Peter Monk. Monk sold the project to 517 Ltd. which funded the restoration at the BHHH.
Credit photo: Mick Bajcar (via AirHistory.net)