Loch Doon Spitfire II, any progress

Yes, there is finally light at the end of the tunnel! We will unveil the Spitfire to the public on the 16th of July, after many years of sporadic work. For what it’s worth, we will be as pleased as everyone else to finally have it on display!!

16th July will see it’s public unveiling.

According to a Facebook group it is being unveiled shortly. There was a single photo of a hoodless shape under polythene. Can’t remember the date, think it was this month: https://en-gb.facebook.com/DumfriesAviationMuseum/

A year rolls by.

Are we sure it was Loch Doon and not Brigadoon? The fact that it only seems to appear once every 100 years make me think it was Brigadoon. 😀
I was a passenger in an RAF Hercules that circled Loch Doon several times whilst the pilots tried to see the aircraft under the water that they had been shown during their training. They were not convinced when I told them it had been recovered some years previously.

A year rolls by.

Any further news or developments?

Mark

Mr Merry, I know the feeling – we are making the most of a dry spell just now and sheeting our buildings after weeks (months?) of grim weather.

Cees, I’ll see you in June!

RedRedWine, in the eighties the fuselage was partly rebuilt and was panelled to a degree, but it wasn’t done correctly and was a temporary measure. But we did indeed display it in the second floor watch office of the tower, lifting it up the side of the building with a block and tackle.

As the saying goes, the past is a foreign country, they do things differently there….

Johnny, the last update from Mike was on the 11th.

“Just want a nice dry spell for about two weeks.Our contractors sent a guy down on Wednesday to survey the site to start work on our hanger base and he declared the site to wet .he said the equipment would chew the place to much so it needed to dry out a bit.”

I will try and get an update from him.

Johnny,
Thanks for the information. Good again to read that the museum has great plans for the future.
I will be in contact soon.
My holiday will be by the end of June and Dumfries is on the return journey by car (I always like to drive on the
“wrong” side of the road).:D
Cees

Around 25 years ago as memory serves I stopped off on a trip to Northern Ireland at the museum and saw a Spitfire fuselage in an upstairs room under restoration – would this be the same one? I recall that there was of necessity a fair few new panels on it? I also remember the people as being very hospitable.

Can I please re-iterate that the fuselage is NOT at the museum, as I stated in my post. It is currently stored off site and we have asked that no pictures are posted at the landowners request. Rest assured, once we are ready to go public there will be pictures and access aplenty but until then, please respect our wish for a little privacy and patience. It will only be returned once we have a building to put it in and relevant displays built around it – we’d rather it wasn’t on display at all than stuck outside in a corner in a half-hearted, forgotten manner. We would like to prepare for and properly manage the expected spike in visitors and build a publicity campaign around it providing long term benefits for the museum than just have it ‘turn up’.

Cees – PM me when you are planning to visit and I’ll try to be there to meet you.

Mr Merry – how is the workshop progressing? I’ve seen pictures of the frame erected, but that was months ago.

If you are not busy have a look at this amusing and relevant link (Loch Doon, nothing to do with the Spitfire though):
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PET2CvJciyU

It should be if you want to attract visitors.
Cees

Cees, the fuselage is back at the museum, I don’t know if it’s on display though.

That’s some good news, a few pics wouldn’t hurt either.
Cees

Mike Eastman has asked me to post this update:

“The aircraft was contracted out to be rebuilt by another museum. The fuselage and tail have been completed so far the wings are in build.”

The fuselage and tail were done by ARG by the way. As soon as the new workshop is up and running the wings will be a priority, ARG now has enough volunteers to work on the wings as well as the Whirlwind and the other on going projects. I wouldn’t mind building the wings myself.

Or sell it to a collector and your museum has a rosy financial future. I hope to visit Dumfries by the end of May.
Cees

You need the Bluebird team on board, if anyone can unroll your bits of bent metal they can!

Bob

Parts have been loaned out as patterns on more than one occasion and have been returned as agreed, and we have been amply compensated for their use with other surplus parts being donated – we have in no way been conned or ripped off, and are grateful for the support received. As for our volunteers statement, he was utterly wrong I’m afraid. I knew the chap you are referring to, an in fairness he was only on site rarely as he lived far away so would have no idea of what had happened before he joined us. It would be difficult for us to go over the heads of the restoration team as there has never been one – like most small museums we have limited manpower and any work done on site to the Spitfire over the years has been by individuals, and even then only for very short periods. One of the many reasons it has taken us so long!

Hi Johnny K

IF what I was told is false, then I unreservedly apologise for the post.

My info came from 2 different people. The first, was a person who is involved in the warbird restoration/spares manufacturing business and knew the collector involved. The other, was a guy who was working on the fuselage when it was in the poly-tunnel on the day I visited the D&G some years ago, both told me pretty much the same thing involving parts from P7540 and the MK V “Blue Peter”. The only real difference being that the guy working on the restoration, said that the museum’s head-honcho’s, went over the heads of the restoration team in order to make the deal and were somewhat embarrassed by the whole saga.

Again- my apologies for any possible mistakes in what I have written.

Bob T.