First civilian Spitfire to take up 'warpaint' ( and keep it on) ?

There’s an article on the ‘Vintage Aviation Echo’ website that details the history of PL983 – it’s a good read.

I remember seeing PL983 around when it was based at Goudhurst – there’s a road that runs right past the private strip it operated from, if you were lucky you’d see the Spitfire parked in front of the small hangar.  Living near(ish) to Headcorn aerodrome we’d sometimes see it over the house too (along with Martin Sargeants Harvard – where’s that now? and Chris Bellhouse’s Harvard – now with Aerolegends). 

When ‘Piece Of Cake’ was being filmed we’d get lifts over to Headcorn aerodrome after school to have a look at the aircraft there – one of which would have been PL983.  As a result of the ‘local connection’ I’ve got a bit of a soft spot for PL983 and was pleased to see it back at Headcorn last summer.

Re the Shuttleworth PR XI Spitfire. I remember this aircraft very well. In the car park creating a roundabout!  This is PL983. Flying today as the THANK YOU NHS Spitfire. It was quite a famous aircraft from the post war air racing era. Owned by the US Embassy with a US registration for a period and frequently flown (succesfully) in the UK by Lettice Curtis who later wrote a small book about her exploits in it.

But the later background is also interesting. I think it was acquired by Doug Arnold for his collection. After his death it eventually went to Justin Fellowes and Martin Sargeant. Martin reassmbled it at his garage premises in Goudhurst, Kent and took it along the road to his personal airstrip. This would be around 2000. He did fly it but lost his life in it at an air show at Rouen Bouse, France in July 2001.  An appaling accident, the Directors of the show there apparently had an emergency landing strip parallel to the main runway.

The aircraft suffered a double magneto failure in flight and three ‘buddies’ in their Spitfires  lined him up to land dead stick on that strip behind the grandstand. He was very low when one of the three buddies told him there were people sitting on the strip (supposedly having picnics we later heard). The buddies obviously had to break away from him as he banked to get down in a field along side the airfield. Martin ran out height, stalled and died. I believe to this day the French Air Accident authority still call this an accident caused by pilot error. Some of us do not believe it. Martin was a good man and much missed by us all these years later.

However, the insurance company offered the remains to John Romain at ARCO Duxford for parts salvage. The story I was told by J.R. was that as a young child his parents took him and his sister occasionly to Old Warden to see a show and he noticed it and remembered it. It was his inspiration to create that company we all know today. Having acquired the remains of PL983 it took him a lot of years in between fee paying rebuilds to get it flying again and it is his personal aircraft.  It is worth Googling just PL983 to get the accurate and full story he recently gave an interview to a noted Aviation Journalist as these notes are written from memory to make sure that you have the full detail.  Enjoy, it is a very good read.

DH FAN, It was in PR Blue, I have a photo of me standing in front of it somewhere C1972

GINFO shows the initial registration papers of ‘IDN and ‘KDB. In each case the construction number you quoted is correct, both are registered to Vickers-Armstrong, and both are registered as a Spitfire High Performance Trainer. 

‘Both were initially  register to V-A at Hursley Park.

Not camouflage as expected but did Shuttleworth’s PR.XI ever lose its service markings?

I first saw it, and the Sea Hurricane, pegged down on the grass just inside the gate at Old Warden in what must have been the early to mid 60s. Even with allowances for it being the thick end of 60 years ago, I’m pretty sure it was all over one colour so presumably PR Blue.

I’ve no idea who owned it then, presumably the Shuttleworth Trust, or if it was on the civil register at that time as it was a good few years before it was restored to flight.

Thanks for your kind comments, chaps, appreciated.

May I add another very odd Spitfire that was issued with a Civil Reg. post war? G-AKBD. Construction Nr. 6S/730847.

We’re all familiar with G-AIDN / MT818 with Construction Nr 6S/729058. A fairly recently published book  Two Seat Spitfires by some familiar named authors shows  G-AKBD as another Mark VIII two seat trainer acquired for modification. But then struck off the register 31/5/1948 with the comment conversion not carried out.

That fascinated me and I still have contact with a former Supermarine employee who had frequent sight of MT818 in that time period in course of modification. He says he never saw a second Spitfire set aside at either Hursley Park, Eastleigh or Chilbolton and is equally puzzled by this detail.  We can be very certain that one of the authors will have carefully checked his construction number lists for inspiration before publication.

So the question is, of course does anyone know anything about this mysterious beast?

Thanks R6195, fascinating detail, and you are obviously well-connected! I would love to hear more of your fathe’rs work.

Regarding G-AHZI, my initial pondering was really about wearing service markings. Going from memory ZI had an overall dark scheme, blue or black, and white lettering, and as far as I know, retained these colours for its short civilian flying career.

We (forum) discussed this aircraft here. Spitfire P8727 G-AHZI “Josephine” | Key Aero

Plus 1 to the above!

GINFO records the first Spitfire to receive a UK civilian identity was G-AHZI. The Westland built Mk IIB aircraft took up the registration on 16 July 1946, a full three months before G-AISU. 
 

Does this answer the OP’s question?

☝️☝️☝️

What a post ! this is what the forum is about and the toy throwers miss out on this, or maybe not

Thank you R6915 what a joy to read.

TA

With respect to Prop Strike and other correspondents on this string. The Wisley RAES Garden Party was probably held on Sunday September 16th 1956 and I was there with a school friend and my father who had worked there since 1943.  He introduced me to Arthur Lusocmbe who was based at Supermarine’s South Marston works where he rebuilt AB910 in the period 1953 to 1955. He told us of the many problems he had with it to get back into flying condition and that what we saw was a series of compromises. It had suffered an accident previously whilst taking part in an air race in the Midlands possibly earlier in 1953. My father remained invloved with AB 910 at Wisley for 10 years or so. He was the last Vicker’s employee to still have (ARB?) certification for signing off The Irish Linen doped flying surfaces in the company!  And yes he was involved in the replica GunBus and later the VIMY replicas built at Brooklands

Yes it was probably the first Spitfire painted in a very high gloss finish and in civillian hands. Jeffrey Quill was around this time working at the Brooklands HQ usually ‘flying a desk’. Vickers Armstrongs wanted a Spitfire for him to display in the air at a variety of events as a PR exercise for the company. Well, who better? The Merlin was the only one they could find and it certainly wasn’t correct to the Mark and nor was the 4 blade propellor. It was kept at Wisley for a number of years and on rare occasions we would see it flying around that area of Surrey. It is rumoured – but unproven – that if he ‘enjoyed’ a frustrating morning of paperwork he could give a scintilating show at lunch time over Brooklands!

The last time JQ flew it? I would offer a guess at the day it was presented back to the RAF’s BBMF in 1966. Around 1968.  I had a chat with Bill Bedford about Hawker’s last Hurricane that had also gone to the BBMF about that Wisley day. I enquired about the the vigorous tail chase that he and JQ carried at Wisley that Sunday in 1956. He laughed and said that it was the first time they had done it unrehersed and it was repeated frequently in the late 1950’s and early 60’s. They took it in turns to lead the other! So could that be the basis for the Air Races at Wisley?

One post mentions Peter Twiss flying the Swordfish at Wisley at Wisley. I asked him about that many years later and he said no, he flew Fairey’s Fulmar that day as  it was just after he had broken the World Air Speed in the Fairey Delta Two. They tossed a coin for it, he said, and lost! He then asked me if I recalled that Fiarey also sent their Brass Band to entertain the crowds there that day? Actually I did!

Back to Bill Bedford, I believe his family home was somewhere around Hindhead / Haslemere, Surrey near the Hampshire border. I saw one occasion on a Sunday afternoon when AB910 was flown for 15 minutes or so around that district knocking holes in the sky! That was around the time when I also saw a Hurricane doing the same thing in the same area!  Those were the good days!

Hi Trumper

Just one of my many sad books collection – but yes JQ always came across as a very nice guy,he overworked himself into a bit of a physical breakdown both during and just after the war,after doing some jet testing on Attacker and Swift he took a well deserved break from flying for a few years.

Thank you Baz .I would loved to have seen him fly 

Supermarine Spitfire VB AB910 at the Wisley Garden Party (Photos Prints Framed…) #9886809 (prints-online.com)

Here is AB910 at a Wisley Garden Party in 1958, with glossy looking paint and a Q code perhaps for Quill? 

Viscount,  you make a compelling and well-informed case, and I am inclined to agree with your assertion.

AB910 was indeed in private ownership, as you point out (even if not owned by an individual) . Even if they did not set out to be, they were the first operators of a ‘warbird’ Spitfire.  Quite far-sighted to establish a company ‘Heritage Flight’ just 10 years after the war’s end. 

In the Epilogue chapter of Jeffrey Quill’s autobio ‘Spitfire – A Test Pilot’s Story’.

He writes – It was in 1966 when I made my last flight in a spitfire.It was in AB910,which we had restored at Supermarine in the early 1950’s and which I had flown at various charity air shows each summer since; and which we had then just presented to the RAF Historic Flight at Coltishall.

He also writes that his last flight was at the behest of a French TV company for a Documentary film.

According to Jarrod Cotter’s book  ‘The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight: 50 Years of Flying’,  Quill displayed AB910 on behalf of Vickers-Armstrong until it was presented to the RAF in 1965. I’m guessing that pre the BoB film there were few opportunities after that, unless he got a back seat ride in G-AIDN at some point?

When did Jeffrey Quill last fly the/a Spitfire , did he become a display pilot as we would call them now ?

I’m not too sure just why AB910/G-AISU is discounted so easily as the first Spitfire “warbird” put back into WWII camouflaged scheme by its owners for display and publicity purposes.  It had been purchased on the civil market (not as military surplus) by an aircraft manufacturer, true, but it had no military role and was civilian registered.  Discounted for not being really privately owned.  But Vickers-Armstrong was a private company (as distinct from directly military) and owning it was certainly not for commercial purposes to promote development or sales of Spitfires, nor for test flying developmental work, as was G-ALGT.  How many of today’s airworthy ‘warbird’ Spitfires are owned directly by a private individual, rather than a trading company?

It was most certainly on the air display circuit in RAF WWII camouflage when displayed to the public on 21st May 1956 at a SSAFA Air Display at Speke Airport (Liverpool) painted as AB910/QJ:J flown by Jeffrey Quill and arrived from Chilbolton as G-AISU. 

At the time the final RAF aircraft were still being operated up the road at RAF Woodvale by the THum Flight (Temperature and Humidity Flight) under contract to Short Bros using civilian pilots.  They were PR.19s in PR blue (although PS915 was silver overall) in full service colours and military serials and maintained by RAF MUs.  The final aircraft when retired in June 1957 went on to form the basis of Battle of Britain Flight.

Sorry ‘Propstrike’, but in my books G-AISU/AB910:QJ-J qualifies as the first ‘warbird’ schemed Spitfire deliberately painted as such after having been, as you do point out, initially in civilian style schemes after de-mob and displayed as a ‘warbird’  (likely before the term was coined) in a representative WWII period scheme to the public.  Not just the first, but the first by a considerable margin.

There I’ve put my head over the parapet, and made my case.

Added several days later on ‘edit’:

The reference to AB910 being coded ‘QJ:J’ appears to be erroneous.  A photo at the 21/5/56 event show the  port side at least did not have any code applied.  “Trumper” in the next post might be interested in that on the same day Jeffery Quill also flew a display routine in the Shuttleworth’s Deperdussin Monoplane, which could well qualify him to be considered as a display pilot.  The Deperdussin  was transported by road from and back to Old Warden.

On military schemes in the UK in general I think the Hart G-ABMR and Hurricane G-AMAU were  the first to operate in military colors in 1961ish . SSD was in invasion striped in the early 60’s.

On the subject of  G-IRTY, here she is. Taken at Headcorn last year.

Old Towzer.