The new owner of JJ enjoys flying her so much that she can be spotted in the circuit here on three or four days each week 🙂 🙂

Could have been the originator. If you delete the first post in a thread the whole thing goes!

Hi Warbird,

Check out Harolds website and you will see what he has in mind. I presume he has tried (or decided not to) Airframe Assemblies.

Well it proves we can be polite:)

Thats right warbirduk. You can find evidence of just about every permutation of application of invasion stripes. In some cases they are quite neatly done with teh codes and serials unobscurred. In others they look like they were “put on with a 12 inch soft broom” to quote Mark 12.

Picture below shows a Spitfire where they got the width of the stripes too narrow (should be 18″ each), looks very odd.

Eddie, the CC aircraft incorporated many modifications (calling it mucking about may be slightly unkind) but the majority were from Supermarine in the first place. The difference was that they were assembled in to a Mk IX or Mk V airframe, minus weapons bays, plus additional tanks etc. The mods included thicker skins, 442 short ailerons, Mk VIII airframe strenthening, replacement cowling fasteners, revised fuel system and so on. Quite a number of things really but the the essence of the Spitfire was always there and the cockpits looked quite stock. With hindsight perhaps it was not the way to go but this was before Historic Flying came along and showed the way and the aircraft were not restored as commercial ventures but purely for Charles Church himself. By all accounts he was happy with them. My biggest regret ws not putting an authentic paint job on 344 as this would have transformed her appearance. Spitfires not in camouflage just do not look quite right (but that one certainly flew right).

Far from the truth (sadly for Mrs Susanah Church). Kermit bought the three Charles Church aircraft for a song. £1.5 m for all three would be nearer the truth.