Spitfire Survivors – Then and Now: Vol II
Here’s an extract from the chapter on SL721 covering the period between Worthing and Blackbushe – I’m afraid it won’t be published until Vol II comes out next year.
In February 1955 this Spitfire was bought for £150 from the Air Ministry by Mr F. M. Wilcox, a Worthing garage owner, and it was delivered to Swandean Garage Ltd in Arundel Road, Worthing, and was, for several years, exhibited in a compound on the garage forecourt. The aircraft was well preserved by Mr Wilcox, as was evident in later years when it was overhauled in Chicago and found to be in first-class condition.
Mr Wilcox ran the engine for some 40 minutes each year, usually on Battle of Britain day, it being inhibited again after each run. In September 1958 the aircraft was loaned to RAF Thorney Island for the Battle of Britain display and was actually flown, although this was at the time very unofficial, the pilot to this day being unknown!
As the Swandean Garage at Worthing was expanding Mr Wilcox decided to take up an offer from Lord Montague of display space at the new Beaulieu Motor Museum. SL721 was moved to its new home, being fully cocooned and then repainted with its blue colours and code “JMR” in 1962. Monty Thackray of M. D. Thackray Ltd had for many years tried to buy SL721 from Wilcox, but it was not until 1965 that a deal was struck. SL721 passed to Thackray in exchange for the vintage 8-litre Bentley that Wilcox’s father had once owned, the aircraft staying at Beaulieu. Its new owner, however, soon sold it to The Marquis of Headfort. Early in Thackray’s ownership an American had expressed interest in the aircraft, but the sale went through, the American being unlucky. He did, however, come back a second time and Thackray repurchased SL721 for re-sale in the U.S.A.
William D. Ross of Chicago bought SL721 from Thackray and contracted Simpson’s Aeroservices Ltd of Elstree to dismantle and arrange shipment of the aircraft, and in December 1965 SL721 was crated and shipped to the U.S.A., being delivered to Bailey Johnson of Mustangs Unlimited of Atlanta, Georgia, for rebuilding. Bill Ross contracted Battle of Britain Flight Chief Tech Stan Puchynski, recently retired from the RAF, to assist in the rebuild. The engine, a Packard Merlin 266, No. 361736, fitted in July 1948, was overhauled by Paul Szendroi in Chicago and the completed aircraft first flew in the U.S.A. on 11 May 1967, with George Roberts at the controls. SL721 had been registered N8R to Bill Ross and was soon based at his Du Page County Airport facility. Painted in camouflage with codes “JM—R” the aircraft graced many airshows in the late 1960s and early 1970s.
In 1972 the engine was overhauled again to improve fuel consumption and new fuel tanks were fitted, but English collector Doug Arnold had long expressed a desire to buy SL721 and by early 1973 a deal had been struck. SL721 was shipped from Baltimore to the U.K. and reassembled at Leavesden, Hertfordshire, having been registered G-BAUP, the aircraft emerging with owner’s initials “D-A” as the code. The aircraft moved to a new base at Blackbushe, Hants, but did not fly much in the Arnold ownership, and before long had been sold back to the U.S.A., the new owner Woodson K. Woods of Scottsdale, Arizona, having the aircraft repainted with his initials WK-W and with registration N8WK, making its first flight as such from Deer Valley Airport on 19 September 1977 after attention from British engineer “Buster” Paine.
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