RAF pilot's 'own' aircraft

Breighton’s Buchon should watch its ass…. 😉

Haha, Daz destroys a Buchon with his Isaacs Spitfire! lol

Of course there were “personalised” aircraft. Johnny Johnson had JE-J, Bob Tuck had RS-T, Douglas Bader – D-B (or just DB, depending on the aircraft).

Of course there’s also this for a personalised Spitfire….! :D:D

(no, it’s NOT photoshop! ;))

I believe that NCO pilots were also allocated personal aircraft. Bryan Youn talks about his own Spitfire in his book ‘Beckoning Skies’. He was a Sgt Pilot.

As an aside – He was allocated a brand new Spitfire when his Squadron was moving from Italy across to India, and when he flew it that distance the aircraft developed so many problems that when he got there he took it to a maintenance unit to scrap it – it was going to be reduced to spares. It must have been assembled on a Friday afternoon. So he had to be allocated another one in order to rejoin the squadron. I wonder how many brand new aircraft were such dogs they only flew for a tiny amount before being dissassembled and either rebuilt or used as parts.

The thing is pilots may have had their allocated or ‘preferred’ aircraft in the squadron but they never really had exclusive rights to it, and often if it underwent maintenance they’d fly someone elses, and vice versa someone else might fly their aircraft if they needed a spare one.