Spitfire C.O.G.E.A OO-ARC/NH188

We were lucky to see it every day at Eastleigh when it was being refurbished by the Hampshire Aeroplane Club!

Thank you, T6 flyer. Wow.

Sorry to bring up this thread again, but whilst going through the old films I have, I came across this Spitfire taxiing at Southampton. Typed the reg into Google and ended up here……. 🙂

Film_6 by Martin Pengelly, on Flickr

Martin

CF- NUS in Camouflage

Hi all,
When CF-NUS completed its reassembly in Fort William (Thunder Bay, Ontario), John Paterson had it repainted in camouflage colour by the engineer, Ron Kyle who had reassembled it for him. There is no mystery to the choice of pattern. According to his widow, Ron Kyle and a friend simply made up an approximate pattern that they thought might do and just did it. Authenticity in the paint job was not Ron’s concern. He focused on making sure that the aircraft was put together properly and was safe to fly. That was always his number one priority.
David Bryan,
On behalf of the Northwestern Ontario Aviation Heritage Centre (www.noahc.org)

Indeed – a picture of a Spitfire that does exist!

Such wit. 🙂

oops. I’ll get me spade.

What a superb shot, looks stunning.

Please post any more you may have.

Another Post that proves the point that the answer to all questions is “out there” somewhere – you just need to be prepared to wait for the reply!

Lovely picture! I can’t be the only one that would love to see a Spitfire flying in a nice civil scheme again!

Indeed – a picture of a Spitfire that does exist!

Brilliant shot !

I love this Forum 🙂

I hope I have properly attached the photo of NUS in blue. It is at the Thunder Bay airport in the early 60’s. Anyone interested in more photos and some background?

David,

Fantastic. After fifty odd years of searching we finally have a quality full colour shot.

You have made my day. Thank you.

Yes please to more images.

Mark

CF-NUS in blue

I hope I have properly attached the photo of NUS in blue. It is at the Thunder Bay airport in the early 60’s. Anyone interested in more photos and some background?

Background on CF-NUS

Hi Mark,

I had the privilege as a lad of watching John Paterson’s Spitfire being reassembled and flown at the Thunder Bay Flying Club here in Northwestern Ontario. As was mentioned earlier, Mr. Paterson found the airplane in Belgium, purchased it, had it crated and shipped to Canada and finally to what was Fort William on the north shore of Lake Superior. The cities of Fort William and Port Arthur were amalgamated into Thunder Bay in 1970.
The aircraft was reassembled by the Flying Club’s engineer, Ron Kyle (recently deceased). He looked after its needs for the years the aircraft was here prior to being donated to the National Aviation Museum in Ottawa. His widow, Helen, and I are volunteers with a new museum/heritage centre called the Northwestern Ontario Aviation Heritage Centre. This organization is gathering, preserving and celebrating aviation history in Northwestern Ontario. There is a surprising amount of information about Paterson’s spitfire, available both at the Centre and with locals who had some connection with the aircraft. Unfortunately, the only photos we can find at the moment are black and white. There is one of the plane in it’s kingfisher blue but it is from a newspaper and the colour is even less appealing than the actual colour. We are now looking for a colour photo. One will surely show up one of these days. The NOAHC is not open as yet and we haven’t been asking for people to donate their aviation treasures. Hopefully we will be ready to roll by September 2012.

Incidentally, Fort William is home to a Bombardier factory that produces cars for urban rail systems, subways and the like. This manufacturing facility, which was owned by Canada Car and Foundry during WWII, produced over 1400 Hawker Hurricanes and later in the war, Curtis Helldivers for the US Navy.

The photo of CF-NUS was taken when the aircraft was flown from Fort William to Ottawa. The photo is likely taken near Ottawa where the fall colours are more pronounced than they are here.

If you have questions regarding CF-NUS, let me know. I’ll see what we can do.

Cheers,

David

Is anyone still interested in some of the history of this particular aircraft?

Most certainly.

Mark

Unknown COGEA spit with Belgian Fouga around 1963

Edit: Waddington 1964 🙂

It is MH434/G-ASJV formerly OO-ARA.

Mark

Unknown COGEA spit with Belgian Fouga around 1963

Edit: Waddington 1964 🙂

I took this of OO-ARC at Middelkerke on 3 August 1959. The military serial SM-39 was still just visible.

There were 6 Spitfires, 2 Proctors and 9 Meteor NF11s (in the OO-ARn series) parked out.

Sure, remember it being rebuilt at Eastleigh back in…….. (a long time ago!):)

Spitfire

Is anyone still interested in some of the history of this particular aircraft?

Willy,

Many thanks for that.

Mark