It will be a great pleasure to see this aircraft when I visit Duxford this summer, and we are very lucky Mr Grey wanted to buy it.
From the photographs it doesnt appear to be the original WG655, an identity with a lot of history on the UK airshow circuit, but in fact is a different fuselage which likely has a history and tail number of its own which would perhaps be more appropriate and accurate to use now rather than sentimental choice WG655. Alternatively this plane could be a new build fuselage with the wings & tail of WG655 which may explain the choice of tailnumber – just historically curious with no intention to criticise…….

I didn’t realise that it was’nt mentioned that often!
One Valiant remained a flyer at the end of the ’60s and appeared at the Abingdon show in ’68.

INTERESTING – which airframe was kept airworthy for the extra 4 years and what was it used for???

It looks fibreglass to me! A repro like the RAF museum gateguard……….

Thankyou Mark for sharing:)
I can see a few identities that were later revised and a couple that have since been scrapped – So Biggin Hill was just about the last RAF station to scrap Spitfires kept for parts for flyers like Thum and the embryo BBMF……..
This list reminds me of that 1950s Hurricane picture thread from last year showing the parts donors including a white one with a fine war record…….. So sad that a few dozen Spits,Hurricanes,Beaufighters and Mosquitos were well cared for a treasured by some on their airfields to survive in good shape until 1960 only to be scrapped……..

You got it quite wrong as Finns had bought or were donated some five planes at the end of March. 😉 To my mind it’s greater accomplishment to form an air force from scratch and create it equal to other branches without any outside help (except for planes)!

And were these planes armed or merely pilot trainers ? There is no ´Force´ without guns,and without operational capability you have only a name not an air force!
The Finns may have been first with their independent management appointments but I have read nothing in this thread about them having any operational capability before the RAF was formed

What a great thread, wonderful to read something of the level of collecting behind projects,and amazing to see these photos of relics that form the basis of restorations- thanks to Mark 12 for sharing:)
I can see that EN199´s fuselage was substantially scrapped, somebody didnt bother to finish the job…..Malta was littered with half scrapped buses in the 1980s & 1990s too…….

It looks like a wonderful place to visit, and its particularly interesting to see the Mosquito remains.
Please could you show more of the silver Spitfire? Those yellow/black stripes instead of red/white are a surprise!