Warbirds of GB – What remains of Doug Arnold's legacy?

While there is talk of his secrecy this applied to making deals and he was certainly keen to sell if the price was right. At a time when interest was growing he often placed adverts in Flight international classifieds showing his Spitfires and more were for sale.

‘I also have some distant recollection of some plywood aircraft (B17s?) being put together over the far side of the airfield for a film?
Mayhem Marshy, your’e memory is quite correct. I followed a link to a Blackbushe proboard shown in the SL721 thread & found some pictures of B17 cutouts being erected.
Keith

(Don’t seem to be able to reply with quote….)

hopefully Mark12 will be along soon to help with the mystery of NH238, but in the meantime Goodall says “moved to Greenham Common 2.04/1

I still have it as ‘in store at Greenham’…but possibly things are happening.

Earlier this year a large British manufacturer was seeking to lease a Spitfire for a period for static display, possibly for up to three years. Several Spitfires were in the frame including NH238. This may come to nothing…we will see.

Mark

I remember Doug had a painting of a BBMF like formation in his office at Biggin Hill. Spit, Hurri, and Lanc. All with the D-A or DW-A codes. In the top corner was a rendition of his face, modeled from a photo in Flypast dating from an auction in the mid- 80s. As best I remember the caption in Flypast of said photo was something like “Doug Arnold looking as though he’s not trying to bid”! Nice painting though. Hope it has survived.

One story I was told at the time was when a warbird personality came to inspect a fighter for possible purchase. Upon arrival Doug exclaimed that he had just flown the plane, and wasn’t that keen on selling. Said warbird personality then scoffed “Flown it… I’ll pay you £20 if you can even get your fat a** up into the cockpit!”. He then turned and left as quickly as he had arrived, and Doug eventually sold the fighter to another party.

Definitely one of the great entrepreneurs of the warbird world, and it’s fun to have met him a couple of times.

T J

Daz – hopefully Mark12 will be along soon to help with the mystery of NH238, but in the meantime Goodall says “moved to Greenham Common 2.04/11”.

No worries, Wondy!

Rob

Wyvern – Apologies! quite right Richard Grace

Roobarb – thank you for the correction, i didnt know that

What about spitfire IX NH238?

I think you’ll find it is for one of Richard’s clients.

Nick Grace? Or maybe Richard Grace / Nick Grey!?

Rob

Always facinating to hear the tales of Doug Arnold and his collection. I certainly think we will never see a warbird movement on that scale ever again (certainly not in my lifetime at least).

His collecting and trading just seemed to be at the right place at the right time when the warbird ‘boom’ really took off after the BOB movie.

Im interested to know, how far did his ‘personal’ passion for Warbirds go? Was it just in the prime Business? He certainly was very private to not share (which he was entitled to be ofcourse) if there was a passion related element.

For anyone who has not read it, i would advise reading the chapter relating to Doug Arnolds collection within “lost aviation collections of britain” written by my personal hero Ken Ellis.

As a personal interest relating to our shared passion on the subject i am looking forward to seeing an ex ‘DA’ collection aircraft appear again in the not too distant future…genuine 8th air force veteran P51D ‘Mary Mine’ which i believe has recently been purchased by Nick Grace (who coincedently on the subject appears to be one of the ‘new’ primary warbird entrepreneurs of recent times)! This P51 went ‘missing’ for many years to resurface itself recently…wonder how many more there are out there!

Very likely true! The number on decoy duty didnt match the number returned to the U.K

I met someone at an air show once who was involved in finding restoration projects for er…someone who’s name escapes me(sorry!) And he told me that Arnold scrapped several Indian Tempests that he had bought to increase the value of a couple he had saved. I never saw this reported anywhere else and have no idea if it’s true, unfortunately.

It was 1978 – see this link: http://www.ukrockfestivals.com/blackbushe-reviews.html

Interesting to note that in all these photos which feature Mr A himself, he is always in a suit and tie, even when in India!

I remember going to a music festival on Blackbush airfield featuring, Joan Armatrading, Eric Clapton and Bob Dylan,in probably 1977. The CASA 352s (JU-52), and I think B-25s were parked up together well away from the festival goers. Can someone confirm the year and if there was indeed the two types parked up. I don’t remember seeing any other types then.

I doubt the full story will ever be told. Just as an example, remember on one visit peeking into a container stacked outside the hangars and it had a Tiger Moth in it – yellow with trainer bands plus unit codes and it was one he had obtained from the USA. I can’t recall the identity but at the time it was not a reported arrival. I remember on one occasion he mistook me for a Pembroke ferry pilot whom he wanted to ball out. Fortunately I had permission from Doug’s son to be on site and after the confusion was sorted Doug roared off in his Roller to find the unfortunate pilot. 🙂

Thanks Consul, he seems to have had far more going in and out of his collection than I ever realised! Blackbushe was always an interesting place to visit, especially if you could get a nose at the hangars without being shouted at!

Looks to be Spitfire XVI TE392 in exchange for the B-25 and probably Yugoslav P-47.

What was the RAF museum Mitchell exchanged for? (As noted in the above link).

Quote: “The Ju52s, Lysander, Pup and Sea Fury were all Doug Arnold’s, B-25s and T-28s (there were three) belonged to Jeff Hawke, the Dove was was owned by Staravia, a local scrap company as I recall.”

I think you will find that Doug owned one or more of those B-25s at a certain stage. As an example see the details of ownership of the one now in the RAFM: https://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/research/collections/north-american-tb-25-j/