Spitfire XII EN224

HP57, I will pm you to preserve the tack of this thread.

Regards,

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PS: Hi HP57, I’m back in the Emerald Isle if you still want that Halibag wreck checked out
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LW170 or another one?:D :rolleyes:

Cees

Originally posted by Seafuryfan
Mark12 – may I ask a question? (you may need cut and paste for this 🙂 )

Just why DO you like the MkXII so much? I think i’ve read that Alex Henshaw had a soft spot for it…

PS: Hi HP57, I’m back in the Emerald Isle if you still want that Halibag wreck checked out 😉

Mark12 doesn’t even come close to Spit XII obsession. I’m leader of that pack 🙂

OK, OK so he got closer to the XII in reality then me. I can’t help it I’m on the wrong side of the pond!

The Spit XII was ahead of the game in 43. Think about how the LFIX and LFXVI ended up. Clipped wing, tall tail, down on the deck. Sounds a lot like a Spit XII doesn’t it?

Fast down low, tough looking with the bigger spinner and clipped wings and king of the hill in the fall of 43 when it came to Fighter Command kills.

And having gotten to know many former Spit XII drivers, they are a great bunch of people.

Dan

3 of the NCO pilots from 41 Squadron in the fall of 43 behind one of their Spit XIIs. Jimmy Payne, Jackie Fisher and Peter Wall

Seafuryfan.

I like all Spitfires but I owned a unique ‘replica’ Mk. XII for a number of years. :rolleyes:

The XII just happens to be the lightest, most powerful and nimblest of the bunch below 10.000′ and was Jeffrey Quill’s favourite. That’s good enough for me.

Mark

Mark12 – may I ask a question? (you may need cut and paste for this 🙂 )

Just why DO you like the MkXII so much? I think i’ve read that Alex Henshaw had a soft spot for it…

PS: Hi HP57, I’m back in the Emerald Isle if you still want that Halibag wreck checked out 😉

212

Re: EN224 & LA564

Originally posted by Mark12
The new owners are consolidating. Outlook – sunny.

LA546 – This is just the front firewall and data plate plus a few trinkets with Craig Charleston. One for the long term.

Mark

So sounds like another Spitfire replica to me .
Its the old question again. World population of spits 25 plus 75 replicas;)(or what ever the number is?) .

Thank boys,

That’s some great information ( I knew about Dan’s opinion of course). Nice story about the tail section. It seems that in the early days of the warbirds industry (if you could call it that then) a lot of parts were switched between projects making it a researchers nightmare.

Cheers

Cees

Thanks Mark 12!

I remember handing over the £5 First Prize to N.A.P.S.’s Treasurer…perhaps that’s when I started to realise that Spitfires were worth money!

That Tail Unit

That tail unit went to South Africa to assist in Larry Barnett’s, rebuild of MA793. However spars or major structure had been sectioned when it was at Cranfield or Salford University to the dismay of Barnett who eventually found a better starting point in a recovered Mk IX unit.

‘That tail’ ended up being incorporated into the Mk IX ML255, rebuilt to static by Atlas Aircraft in South Africa for the trade of the Beaufighter for the SAAF museum with the Portuguese. It currently is on display at Alverca.

The attached photo by Dave Becker, before dispatch from South Africa, clearly shows the early elevator as fitted to the majority of Mk Vs and its airframe derivative the Mk XII.

Ironically EN224 has ended up with a MK IX elevator and tail unit

Mark

A very small, and previously unpublished part of EN224’s history, circa 1969…

The tail section was owned by the Northern Aircraft Preservation Society at one time and as a newly recruited member, I was offered the job of paint stripping the interior (can’t remember why now, and too awed to ask at the time).

It was kept in a more senior member’s garage in my home town and when my school’s Open Day came around, I wheeled it through the streets to display it in the Hobbies exhibition and I won first prize! 😀

Someday Cees, Someday 🙂

Dan

EN224 & LA564

The new owners are consolidating. Outlook – sunny.

LA546 – This is just the front firewall and data plate plus a few trinkets with Craig Charleston. One for the long term.

Mark