….Strange that both such early examples survived so long. Incidentally what’s the history of 556 ?

Regards

Wicked Willip :diablo:

History of WB556 is very short:-

It is the eigth Hatfield Chippie C1-0008 Dec 6th.1949.
It was one of the very first deliveries to the RAF at Oxford UAS Kidlington on Feb 3rd.1950 and became RUO-C and later ‘C’ of Oxford University Air Sqdn.
It went into storage at 20 MU Aston Down on Oct 10th.1953, was moved to Kemble on May 26th.1960 when Aston Down closed as an MU.
To storage at Kemble in its original yellow bands scheme on 23.02.61 & 30.09.64 and 03.10.66 – probably due to its low mod state it was struck off charge Sept 12th.1973.
Reduced to spares with the fuselage going the RAFGSA at Bicester when they purchased several Chipmunks at the time.
Noted still at Bicester in March 1989….and the rest is, as they say, history !

Cheers……..

Dave T’

(Photo credit: Chipmunk Club archives)