Australian Spitfire project in UK. What's happening?

Yep thats pretty much it.Not only QAM not given the opportunity but never was any other Australian Museum.It was all hush hush until it happened.Apparently a Politician ended up with a Helicopter for some reason.

“Lz844 came from QAM Caloundra where it was displayed for many years where they cut off a very rare Barracuda prop blade to fit it inside the container.”

This statement implies that it was QAM who cut off the propeller. What actually happened is this:

LZ844 was on loan to the Queensland Air Museum at Caloundra from its owners, an aviation trade school at Brisbane Airport. The aircraft was sold to a buyer in the UK without the knowledge of QAM. The first that QAM knew about it was when the new owner’s representative arrived at the museum to take possession of the aeroplane! It was he who cut off the propeller blade so that the aircraft would fit into a container. QAM was never given an opportunity to bid on the aeroplane. The propeller was indeed from a Barracuda. Adding insult to injury, it was QAM who donated this prop to Barry Coran for incorporation into his rebuild of LZ844.

Aaahhh sorry my bad…..

NewQldSpitty, I am pretty sure that Arcayne means Oaksey Park, a short distance from Kemble.

  Arcayne thanks for the update, I wondered what had happened to her. Very interesting.

Oakey Airfield is still the Army Aviation Base…The old Museum site was just outside the fence before they built the new museum in the 2000,s and they moved everything inside the fence.Well before my time there.
Oakey before then was always a shopping trip for Spitfire collectors.
Lz844 came from QAM Caloundra where it was displayed for many years where they cut off a very rare Barracuda prop blade to fit it inside the container..

Hi All,

Sorry to drag up this old post again. My grandfather, Barry Coran health has been declining as of late and has been asking a lot about his Spitfire, wondering what has become of it. I’ve been doing a lot of online investigation and finally tracked some information down. It turns out it was purchased by a gentleman by the name of Martin Cobb in 2011, whom I recently managed to make contact with, and he advised it was being stored at Kemble Airfield in Gloucestershire after he purchased it, whilst deciding how to best proceed. Unfortunately at this time it was then illegally used by a major fraudster (I won’t mention his name in case it’s against Forum rules). Once the various frauds were being investigated by the police and fraud squad, the gentleman in questions associates put the Spitfire LZ844 into a shipping container and moved everything out of the hangar to another airfield in the middle of the night. By the time the police (and others including Martin) had tracked them to Oaksey Airfiled they had already departed in a hurry leaving yet more unpaid rents behind them. Martin, nor the police have been able to track the Spitfire down.

I suspect it has since been stripped, and parts sold to other people for their projects. But I thought I’d post an update, and if anyone has any other information please feel free to let me know 🙂

Is that a fact or just a guess Trolley Aux?

Last I heard many years ago was the plane was stripped down to figure out what was reuseable.Next all went quiet.

It will turn up at THE SPITFIRE FACTORY very soon

Guess it will turn up in time, the Spitfire that is 

Still in hiding somewhere…Finding the Holy Grail might have better success..

While this thread has been resurrected , any more information known on what is happening with particular Spitfire? Thanks in advance.

Welcome Arcayne, glad to know he is still ok.

Hi all, 

Sorry to drag up this old thread. I am actually Barry Coran grandson and stumbled across this thread by accident. I still recall as a child visiting the Point Cook hanger with him, being in awe that he was recreating something so imoressive with his bare hands.

Just wanted to thank everyone for the kind things said about him. He is still with us, and just as parionate about aviation and war time. 

Would that be in the same sense as something is afoot?:)

Something is amiss here.

Mark

Mark12?, anybody else?

Last I heard it went missing from view in the Uk…

Sorry to drag up this old thread, but looking through the “book” earlier this evening got me thinking. Is this rebuild progressing and is it at Kemble still?, only haven’t seen or heard anything mentioned about it lately unless I missed it.