I've just added Spitfire Mk.IX LZ842 (G-CGZU) to 'the list'. It had its first post-restoration test flight performed yesterday morning, from the historic Biggin Hill Airport in the UK, with Pete Kynsey at the controls.
This early Mk.IX Spitfire had been, intermittently, under restoration at the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar since November 2012, when the restored fuselage first arrived. In the years since, it spent some periods of time as only a back-burner project. I am a huge fan of of the North African/Mediterranean Theatre color scheme, so I have been really looking forward to seeing it completed/flying ever since the first photos emerged of the painted fuselage back in 2014. The aircraft has been accurately restored to its early marque design, including early upper engine cowl and small carburetor intake (among other details).
LZ842 served in Malta and Sicily with RAF No 93 Squadron and No 232 Squadron. It later was reassigned to RAF No 327 (free French) Squadron in October 1944. With No 327 Sqdn., LZ842 was damaged in a forced landing at Mourmelon-le-Grand in northeastern France when it hit a bomb crater which put it out of action for the rest of the war. After the end of WWII, it was one of 136 Spitfires supplied to South Africa, with LZ842 arriving by ship at Cape Town on April 28, 1948. Only serving until 1952, the aircraft wound up being sent to a scrapyard, where what remained of the airframe was eventually recovered in 1989. Peter Monk acquired the project in 2003, and later sold it to the aircraft's current owner, Mark Bennett, in 2005. LZ842 has been restored in the markings/color scheme of No 232 Squadron.
Here is video of an engine run performed a couple weeks back:
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