I recently discovered that Collings has been keeping their recently acquired Spitfire lX (BR 601) only a half an hours travel from me at the Worcester airport and since they were having an event last weekend l decided a road trip was in order. Arriving around 11:00 I noticed the B17 and B24 were there as was their skyraider and their P51 was giving rides already. Looking around I didn’t see BR 601, upon inquiring I was told they would fetch it out of the hangar after lunch, so I had some time to kill. So I got to talking with the pilot of the B24 for a while, which turned out to be a good thing later in the day.
As promised, shortly after 1pm BR 601 arrived, being taxied from the far side of the airport, to say it was impressive is an understatement, the restoration done to it was fantastic, and it really drew the crowd, more so than any of the other aircraft there, I finally got some pics that I will attempt to post here later. After a while I wandered over to say bye to the B24 pilot before heading home and he suggested that I should stick around a bit longer, when asked why he mentioned that another spitfire was coming in but would say no more,,,. A half hour later the sound of a spitfire was heard coming into the airports airspace, with a Corsair as wingman, they both did a spirited run a few hundred feet above the runway before breaking to pass over the terminal and I noticed the spit had the black and white underside!! Collings had talked the owner of P9374 into flying up to the event! I never thought I would ever see P9374 in the flesh and honestly I was almost in shock, it did a few more passes while the corsair landed, before landing itself. It was 85 degrees there so as soon as it got to a taxiway it was shut down and a tug went out to fetch it. P9374 in flesh does justice to all the pictures I had seen of it here on this forum, the fit and finish on it is flawless, looks like it rolled out of Supermarines yesterday. Again I had to wait for the crowd to subside before getting any pictures. My new B24 pilot buddy came over to laugh at my stunned expression and said to follow him, whereupon he walked me out past the public viewing line to the flightline and to both spitfires,,, told me to enjoy myself and he hung back while I took pictures. I got a few pics of each cockpit and some of both aircraft together.
All this occurred 2 days before my birthday, and probably one of the best birthdays I can remember, lol.
By: me109g4 - 4th October 2017 at 23:30
Thanks john, that explains why the corsair showed up with P9374, and thanks for the ownership info on them. I never saw the A-36A fly when I was down there but am glad to know its kept 40 minutes from my place. I was close enough to get a decent pic or two,[ATTACH=CONFIG]256104[/ATTACH]
By: JohnTerrell - 4th October 2017 at 23:12
Thank you for sharing these photos and report!
Ronald Lauder (heir to the Estee Lauder fortune) is the owner of both P9374 and the Corsair “Godspeed” (former “Skyboss”) seen in your photos, and has experienced warbird pilots fly them for him.
As seen a little bit in one of your photos, it has also been great to see the Collings Foundation’s very rare A-36A Mustang “Baby Carmen” out on display and knowing that it has finally been flying again (recently flown for a photo shoot with Scott Slocum, that same weekend). As I understand, until just recently, it hadn’t been flown since 2012. After the restoration was completed and it was shown at Oshkosh and Thunder Over Michigan that year, it was flown to Worcester where it has been hangared all of these years since, supposedly with a bad engine or engine issue that had to be sorted. Its been good to see/know it is flying again.
By: Black Knight - 4th October 2017 at 21:45
I thought those tyres on the Mk1 were for grass ops only?????
By: me109g4 - 4th October 2017 at 21:15
I ran the American registration number through the FAA database and it came back invalid,,,, Dropping the “X” out of the registration got me the link,,, http://registry.faa.gov/aircraftinquiry/NNum_Results.aspx?NNumbertxt=N92SQ.
Seems P9374 didn’t even get her airworthiness cert. until july 31 2017, probably why she hasn’t been seen out and about until recently.
By: me109g4 - 3rd October 2017 at 02:16
Am going to see if I can get into some volunteering at Worcester or Stowe,, even if it means washing planes or sweeping floors,,
By: DazDaMan - 2nd October 2017 at 00:47
Very nice!
By: blackjet604 - 1st October 2017 at 05:28
Great to hear!
By: Seafuryfan - 30th September 2017 at 09:14
What a heart warming story, g4. It’s easy to take for granted how relatively easy it is to travel to warbird meccas in the UK compared to the vast distances in the USA. So for you to see such a rarity is, indeed, amazing.
This post speaks a lot for the benefits of a healthy worldwide trade in these machines.
By: Rocketeer - 29th September 2017 at 22:58
All the Collings Foundation crew, pilots, volunteers etc are great people!
By: Baldeagle - 29th September 2017 at 15:39
The FAA allows aircraft to display their registration markings in 2 inch characters if the aircraft is at least 30 years old.
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By: Mark12 - 29th September 2017 at 14:50
I’ll brighten that up a bit.
Mark
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By: Bob - 29th September 2017 at 14:14
Well that dispelled the suggestion P9374 was never going to be seen in public again…
By: Mark12 - 29th September 2017 at 07:23
Thanks for posting.
Interesting to see P9374 carrying its US civil registration NX92SQ discreetly under the tail plane.
Mark
By: Wyvernfan - 29th September 2017 at 07:21
Very pleased for you, me109g4, sometimes it really is down to being in the right place at the right time 🙂
Rob
By: Zac Yates - 29th September 2017 at 03:19
What an experience and what a wonderful early birthday gift! And as for the B-24 pilot…what a guy!
Thanks so much for sharing!
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September 29, 2017 at 2:41 am