In May 2019, the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar announced that a fourth two-seat Spitfire would be joining its collection with the addition of MkIX Trainer TE308, which had been purchased in the USA. This was a very well-known aircraft, which had flown regularly in the hands of its previous owner Bill Greenwood until April 2008, when it was damaged in an accident. Now it's made up a quartet of Spitfires available for customer rides - and, what's more, appears in a colour scheme never previously seen in the UK. TE308 was built at Castle Bromwich in 1945 as a low- back Spitfire HFIXe, fitted with a Merlin 70. It was delivered to No 39 Maintenance Unit at Colerne in June 1945, but was never issued for RAF squadron service and remained there until January 1950, when it was briefly transferred to No 29 MU at High Ercall. On 19 July 1950 it was sold to Vickers-Armstrongs, having been selected for conversion to two-seat configuration at Hursley Park, Hampshire. It was included in the order for the Irish Air Corps and became IAC 163. TE308 is unique in that it is the only two-seat trainer to have been factory-converted from a low-back single-seater - the high- back variants were simpler and less expensive to modify in this way.
展开▼
