Mystery Spitfire photo

Oh yes, I should of said. He’s the 4th chap in from the left.

So which one is he in the photo?

Most of the Mk 22/24 Spitfires went through modification programmes at civilian establishments…including Westlands.

In which case they could well be a working party sent to Brize to get several aircraft servicable to ferry to the factory for overhaul. Similar happened during my time at Saints, over a holiday a working party arrived, went through several of the training wings Hunters to get them ferryable, then flew them to BAe for overhaul and for sale on to Lebanon I believe. The VC10’s at Abingdon went through similar, though they were in a dreadful state and having robbed them for years you would have needed to drug me to get me onboard for that flight!.

Mark12,

An awful lot of what you say, actually rings true with what I know of my Grandfathers career. He was never an enlisted man during the war, instead working in Yeovil at the factory, but we understand was detached to other airfields to carry out repairs, servicing and modifications etc.
At some point post war, he either left or was layed off from Westlands and joined Vickers, one presumes, seeing he was Spitfire experienced continued on that line of work.
I also know that at some point he returned to Yeovil, (as you say, possibly at this point) worked on the Wyvern, then Helicopters and continued there in the assembly shed until his retirement in 83.
So the photo could well be significant. I certainly know from my DERA/ QinetiQ days when a project is at its end or significant milestone reached, everyone involved troops out for a pic in front of which ever airframe had been in use.

This is great stuff. Thank you all!

Chris

Mk.24 My equal Fav Spitfire to the Mk.Vc and the object of my Lotto win spend………… if only

Brize Norton was an RAF station at this time but the posed group appear to be all civilians save for an officer centre front row.

These sort of photos tend to be taken at the end of an event/programme.

I am wondering if your grandfathers move from Vickers to Westlands may be significant here.

Most of the Mk 22/24 Spitfires went through modification programmes at civilian establishments…including Westlands.

Went there as a Vickers employee, liked it and decided to stay. Last Spitfire in the mod programme complete..take a photo of the team.

Mark

A quick analysis of the Egyptian Mk 22’s acquired by Vickers from 6 MU Brize Norton reveals six examples.

All were acquired September through November 1949 and outside the March 1949 window.

Close…but not close enough.

Mark

Thank you all, for your replys and inputs thus far, its truly fascinating and a testament to the great forum which i always enjoy reading.
It is opening a window into the life of a gentleman I never got to meet properly but followed in his footsteps to be an Aircraft engineer myself.

Also, my apologies for the screw up posting the picture, it came from an IPad so maybe its a tech gremlin, or just my incompetence.

The image as displayed in Post #1 when I view the Historic Aviation Forum remains inverted, and clicking on it does nothing. Must be some computer or Internet gremlin that obviously is not experienced by everyone. So, I downloaded a copy of the image and opened it — and it displays properly, not inverted. No explanation.

Just out of curiosity, I cropped the image slightly and saved it as a different name. Now, as a test, I’m going to try loading it here. If it displays inverted, I’ll give up and delete my post in a minute or two.

As I prep this post, the image does appear right-side up, so fingers crossed…

EDIT: It is displaying properly when I view the Historic Aviation Forum. Hopefully anyone else who had the same “inverted image” problem can now see it flipped 180 degrees.

Cheers,

Matt

In October 1949 Vickers started to purchase Mk 22 Spitfires back from the RAF for refurbishment and onward sale to Egypt, some 19 examples.

The supply source or these aircraft would be from one of the storage MUs…most likely 6 MU Brize Norton.

I will check for likely candidates.

Mark

Looks like it, the MK19 here they whip the fairing off the front of the fin and strap it down with a wide 9 inch’ish strap over the fuselage and have chocks that strap back to the same point

What is that I am seeing below the tail, is it a tie down for engine tests? Never seen that before

The picture at the top shows as upside down in the thread but clicking it brings up a big version the right way up.

Details of Brize at the time period involved

http://rafbrizenorton.yolasite.com/history-1942-1950.php

I do love that its a later Mk, one of my faves also!

Click on it for a correct way up image, Probably Brize Norton, OK you can see one of the blister hangars off to the left of your image, when I was stationed there, there was only two of them on the Station used by the RAF Regiment that used Rapier to defend the USAF bases in the UK.

bottom of image

http://www.bertgoesflying.co.uk/photos/O12.jpg

though in 1946 the airfield was slightly different, the two I mention are mid image right side, but my guess with the hedge line behind the Spit is the two hangars top right that in my era are off station as a road runs through there seperating them off.

https://panelson951.files.wordpress.com/2010/10/1946-sep.jpg

I appears to be “advanced” flying as it is inverted. :eagerness:

A Mk 22/24.

My favourite.

Mark