Spit / Hurri data plates

Back in the old days just a spit panel or part with a serial number pencil or painted on.

Data plates are not worth as much now as they used to be. To make a flyable Spitfire or Hurricane now, you need a higher percentage of that aircraft then you once could. If you just had a data plate with no parts from that exact original airframe, you could make a Spitfire but it would have to be classed as a different type and not one build in the 40s.

So to answer the original question, a data plate plate on its own is worth as much as someone is willing to pay you for it 😀

Spits didn’t have data plates.

Dave. RHS of the cockpit, just below the datum longeron. All Spitfires and Seafires have data plates.

Mark

How to make a small fortune – start with a large fortune, buy a Hurricane constructor’s plate and wreckage, pay someone to construct a flying aeroplane from that and then sell the finished item!

P40 data plates change hands for around USD 2500, depending on condition and history.

Sounds quite possible. If there isn’t enough there to register, why would a company that wants projects for rebuild want a plate?

FB

I have heard that the former group members up north somewhere that are holding several Hurricane data plates recovered from scrapped aiframes offered them to Hawker Restorations for sale hoping for thousands. They are very late aircraft with no history or parts, they were turned down as Hawker Restorations wouldn’t even give them £500 ! Can’t be 100% its all true of course.

Spits didn’t have data plates.

The data plate I have is for a CCF airframe so the UK MOD have no jurisdiction

Who built it is irrelevant to jurisdiction of oversight, it comes down to which service it served with.

For example, if your CCF built aircraft was on charge with the RAF when it crashed, then you would need a formal release from the U.K. MOD. They will require a full inventory of parts recovered and the information must tie up with their records for them to confirm.

The CAA have got a LOT stricter in the requirements to register projects recently to stop dataplate rebuilds. Jump through those hoops and you might have something. But value really depends on history, amount of material from that aircraft you have and if it has been released by the authority and accepted for a civilian registration.

but consider there is a hurricane currently for sale for around £1m less than it would cost to carry out a dataplate restoration, whoever would be in the market for a hurricane needs to be prepared to go in to lose 7 figures of currency!

FB

The data plate I have is for a CCF airframe so the UK MOD have no jurisdiction

Plus don’t forget that the wreckage of even licensed recoveries remain the property of U.K. MOD unless an application is made to transfer ownership. So even recoveries from years ago would be a real pitfall of ownership issues in the future. Best to get that sorted long before any money changes hands on a rebuild.

FB

Which is why our old lady is, and always will be a museum exhibit (Not to mention the seven or possibly, even eight figure sum needed to get daylight under her wheels.)

I was told by someone who has more experience than me, that you DO need the Hurri or Spit data plate, also you need ALL of the wreckage that came from the crash site, I don’t know how ‘substantial’ it has to be though.
So if it has been dispersed around various parties or museums they will not issue a CAA licence which would make it possible to turn a pile of parts into a flying aircraft registered and carrying the serial number of that particular aircraft (that then has some value, if you can find the other 2 Million to build it) You can use any serial number of an aircraft on a non flying aircraft project (if it doesn’t already exist) if you have major parts but no plate, but this and other projects where a serial number with history is added, and used, is only to ‘represent’ that aircraft, or a sort of replica of it. Not an expert on it really myself

As I understand it, a dataplate restoration is not really dependent on any said dataplate. What you need is a substantial amount of identifiable parts from a known Spitfire wreakage. With this you can approach the CAA and be approved the ownership of said Spitfire ID and start restoring/”building” your spitfire. So, if the only thing you have is a dataplate, you might have a problem later on, if someone turns up with the actual wreakage with “your” Spitfire ID stamped all over it.

depends on the Mark with Spitfires, there are several plates on a Spitfire but a mk9 with war history in the tens of thousands a few years ago I know one sold for 19k, I heard it went back up for 40k but that was rumour

Hurricane ones, without any war history, not a lot, apparently.

Anon.