Hangar 11 News

Many thanks for the update. Looking forward to seeing the aircraft displaying and we’ll all I ‘m sure all be particularly keen to see the Spitfire in it’s new colours later in the year.

David Taylor

Hurri Bomber MK 11b

The key elements required to return her to flight are on schedule and we are still confident of returning to the skies within the next 4 weeks. Engine has been rebuilt and looking great and other core components that were removed for checking ready to be re-assembled onto the airframe. We are all really excited and looking forward to flying all our remaining commitments in the season, starting at Yeovilton on 11th July 2009. She will be resplendent with her 250lb dummy bombs attached and our season culminates in a trip to a major show in Germany in September. Must be some irony in there somewhere

At approx 2pm PST I loaded a rather long crate onto a FedEx truck at Van Nuys & was told the crate will be on the ground at North Weald “by 10.30 am”.. I’m assuming that was also PST as a quick calc revealed that left about 12 hours between the truck leaving here for LAX & the box being in your hands.. a bit of a stretch methinks.. altho I could be wrong about that & they really did mean 10.30 Zulu.
So, test flight on Thursday?

Rick.

When that work was done they had a very limited budget and not much time (and no intention of flying either). Not quite so today but it was still a magnificent result from Eye Tech Engineering to return the Merlin 70 to ‘as new’ condition. It really looks fantastic I can tell you.

Steve,

Who am I to disagree, 🙂

I know that the restoration by the RAF was done on a budget but it at least gave PL965 a new lease of life for a few years before Nick Grace came onto the scene. First time I saw PL965 was in 1984 and the canopy had been smashed (again) and she looked terrible. How things have changed for the better.
Cheers

Cees

Any piccies?

668

That is strange as PL965 was refurbished by the RAF in Germany in the late seventies and due to corrosion the engine could not be run. “Chalky” White did the work on the engine, he went later on to work for the Blenheim IIRC and passed away a few years ago.

Cheers

Cees

When that work was done they had a very limited budget and not much time (and no intention of flying either). Not quite so today but it was still a magnificent result from Eye Tech Engineering to return the Merlin 70 to ‘as new’ condition. It really looks fantastic I can tell you.

That is strange as PL965 was refurbished by the RAF in Germany in the late seventies and due to corrosion the engine could not be run. “Chalky” White did the work on the engine, he went later on to work for the Blenheim IIRC and passed away a few years ago.

Cheers

Cees

Hangar, not hanger, please chaps!

Edited 😉

Lots of good news there. I wish Peter and his team the best of luck for the rest of the season.

Hangar, not hanger, please chaps!

It will certainly be interesting to re-unite Spitfire PL965 with her Merlin 70 service engine of 1945 again.