Spitfire T.IX TE508 'Grey Nurse'
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- Опубликовано: 22 апр 2024
- Supermarine Spitfire T Mk.IX, TE308, 'Grey Nurse', in action with at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford on 13 April 2024.
Spitfire TE308 was built at Castle Bromwich and delivered to
39 Maintenance Unit (MU), RAF Colerne in summer 1945. This ‘low back’ Mk IXe single seat Spitfire never saw combat and ended the second world war in storage where it stayed until 1950. It was then transferred to 29 MU High Ercall, before being sold to Vickers-Armstrongs Ltd.
It was chosen as part of a batch of single seat Spitfires for conversion to two-cockpit, armed training aircraft, destined for international military sales. It is believed TE308 was bound for Egypt but the sale never happened.
With an absence of affiliation to an active RAF squadron it was decided to do something more unusual with the livery of this aircraft. TE308 currently flies in homage to the striking designs carried by the 457 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force. All of the squadron’s Spitfires were painted with a shark’s mouth, giving them the nickname of the ‘Grey Nurse Squadron’. The Squadron had some notable characters including Pete Brothers, Clive ‘Killer’ Caldwell and Bruce Watson.
Initially formed in 1941 and based in Southern England under Squadron Leader Pete Brothers, they flew missions over Nazi-occupied France, made up almost exclusively by Australian pilots and crew later transferring to Darwin as part of No.1 wing Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF)
and seeing action in the South Pacific. Later moving to Morotai (Indonesia) and Labuan (Malaysia) the squadron took part in operations against Japanese forces before being disbanded on November 7th 1945.
The Spitfire wears the registration A58-606 and the squadron code ZP-W as flown by 457's Squadron Leader Bruce Watson.
Following the T IX two seat conversion, TE308 joined five other two seat Spitfires which were sent to the Irish Air Corps (IAC) in 1951. Marked as ‘163’ in the distinctive Irish green colours the aircraft flew alongside ‘159’ (MJ772) and ‘158’ (MJ627) both of which also form part of the fleet at Biggin Hill.
After decommissioning in 1968 the aircraft was purchased, overhauled, registered as G-AWGB and then leased to Spitfire Productions Ltd for use in filming ‘The Battle of Britain’ with stints in the UK and France.
After a time in storage and changes of ownership in the UK, TE308 was purchased by Canadian businessmen Don Plumb and Jerry Billing who refurbished the aircraft in Ontario. Flown initially in 2 seater configuration and then with a fairing that covered the rear cockpit.
Further changes of ownership saw the aircraft move to transport museums in Maine and Arizona. In 1983 the aircraft moved to Aspen, Colorado and was a regular on the North American display circuit for 25 years. Following a ground collision with a Hurricane in Texas in 2008, the aircraft was restored in Colorado before being purchased by Warbird Experiences Ltd of Biggin Hill where it was comprehensively inspected and overhauled.
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I have flown in that beautiful plane :-) Out of Biggin Hill where she is based. Flight of a lifetime!
Very nice. I hope to do that one day and Biggin Hill is fairly close.🤞
The beautiful lines of the spitfire and a lovely sound
The Spitfire is a perfect aircraft for the shark mouth, if you ask me.
I watch them at headcorn in kent, the lucky devil's who get a chance for a flight in one
This is normally doing flights from it's home biggin hill
Is this col pay old spit if so when did it get the second seat 😮
No, it's a different Spitfire with a similar paint scheme. The single seat ex Col Pay Spitfire, VH-HET, is still in Australia flying with the RAAF 100 Squadron Temora Historic Flight Collection.
So what was actually happening in this video? Seems like the same guy in the back seat each time... Is it a training flight or some such? or just a multiple joy flight? Lucky backseater if it is ;-)
The film was shot over a 6 hour period. The Spitfire was flown in from its base at Biggin Hill to do passenger experience flights for Classic Wings www.classic-wings.co.uk who also do pilot training on some days. The first arrival may have been the initial landing with the flying team aboard and the others have 2 different pilots and different passengers wearing the same helmet. The final clip from the start up is the flying crew/pilots re positioning the aircraft back to Biggin Hill at the end of the day.