Here is a little mystery.
In 1989 a Mrs Margaret Meikle, of Cruden Bay, Aberdeen, had the substantial remains of a Spitfire on her property and decided to sell them. Several parties viewed the remains but she turned down an offer, from memory of about £5000, from one person then currently building a Spitfire.
The aircraft is recorded as Mk V EP172.
In the course of events I anticipated that the remains would surface at one workshop or another to form the foundation of a ‘new build’ project – but not so.
Mrs Meikle moved, and all attempts in the mid 1990’s to locate her or her family drew a blank.
A sum in excess of £5000 is substantial enough for somebody to be taking this seriously, so what happened to this Spitfire?
It was suggested that an ad in Flypast with an 0(1)954 telephone number, in the Cambridge area, selling a Merlin III from a crashed Spitfire, with blades bent back, could be connected to this mystery. By the time I got the details of the ad the telephone number was no longer active.
Anybody have any ideas on this one?
Mark
Photos from David Sainsbury, one of the viewers who rejected it.
By: Mark12 - 14th November 2003 at 13:42
A little bit of confusion here I suspect.
There have been two Spitfires associated with the Dumfries & Galloway Museum.
P7540 recovered from Loch Doon in 1982. This is the machine that has had several rebuild phases including one with the inmates of Polmont prison. Recoverd at a later time this surely would have joined the ranks of potential flyers . Even the rudder and elevator were repairable when recovered from the water.
AD540 ‘Blue Peter’ was recovered to the museum in 1993 but latterly has moved southward to join the ‘queue’.
Mark
DarrenBe.
Thanks for the contact details. I will be following them up.
By: mmitch - 13th November 2003 at 09:53
Originally posted by DazDaMan
A little off the thread here, but what about AD540 – ‘Blue Peter’ – the Spitfire V dug up a few years ago, near Carsphairn (sp?)?I think I read somewhere this was “being rebuilt to fly”, but judging by the remains that were dug up back in (I think back in 1993 or 95), it would be a new-build Spitfire.
The last time I visited the Dumfries & Galloway Museum several years ago, they were restoring it to static condition off site. I believe it was at a nearby prison. The URL I had for them seems to be ‘dead’ now.
On the original subject Spitfire, wouldn’t the MOD still own the crash wreckage. They often try to stop the excavation of others sighting this reason.
mmitch.
By: DazDaMan - 12th November 2003 at 15:56
A little off the thread here, but what about AD540 – ‘Blue Peter’ – the Spitfire V dug up a few years ago, near Carsphairn (sp?)?
I think I read somewhere this was “being rebuilt to fly”, but judging by the remains that were dug up back in (I think back in 1993 or 95), it would be a new-build Spitfire.
By: DarrenBe - 12th November 2003 at 15:49
Mark,
The only thing I could suggest is to maybe write a letter to the local paper, the Buchan Observer to see if anyone in the area can remember Mrs Meikle or anything about what happened to the remains of the wreckage.
There was an article several years ago, in the above paper, about wartime aircraft crashes in the local area. In the article there was mention of a Sptfire crash, in October 1941, near the village of Longhaven, about 2 miles to the north of Cruden Bay. There was a ‘rumour’ that a local farmer had the remains of the engine.
Darren
Contact details for the Buchan Observer –
http://www.buchanie.co.uk/contactus.asp
By: Mark12 - 12th November 2003 at 11:38
………..and the the engine and prop.
Sign In
November 12, 2003 at 11:37 am