Spitfire MK297 pictures.

[Brad]

These were taken at Breckenridge and Harlingen around 1984-1985. The plane burned up in 1993 in Canada.

[C170BDan]

Ah... great shots, Brad. I'll have to dig mine out to post! One cool formation that flew at Breckenridge was Kermits Mosquito, the CAF Spit, Tigers P40 and I think Bills Spit. At that point that was the most British marked airplanes I had ever seen in the sky.

Good stuff...

[AIRIC]

This was a great formation flight consisting of MK297 with Kermit’s Mosi and the CWH Lanc and Hurricane.



A very sad day. This is the CWH hangar the day after it set on fire. MK297 was lost in the fire along with the CWH Hurricane, TBM and a few other aircraft and lots of other material. Luckily the Lancaster survived as it was in the section on the left.


Eric

[peter]

There was a story going round after the fire that the spit had combat history and was flown by bader??

[WebPilot]

As it was a Mk IX, Bader couldn't have flown it in combat, though he might have flown it post war.

[Steve T]

Peter--

The Bader connection probably stems from the CAF's choice of Bader's markings (from an earlier Spit variant) for MK297. The aircraft did have a combat history though, apparently on the same squadron with whom the famous Canadian Warren brothers served. At the time of the 1993 CWH hangar fire, MK297 had been sitting inactive at Mt.Hope for two and a half years, having suffered a minor prop strike on the weekend of the 1990 airshow (for a time she wore a Seafire XV prop for static display). During that time an agreement was reached between CWH and the CAF that the Spitfire would be refurbished and painted in its actual wartime RAF livery, and operate from CWH on behalf of the CAF, flying jointly with the CWH Lancaster and Hurricane as the Canadian Memorial Flight. The engine had been sent out for overhaul, and most of the airframe stripped to bare metal for the repaint, when the fire made everything moot...very sad. BTW the engine for the Hurricane was also out for overhaul and reportedly still exists.

S.

[JohnS]

Aren't some of the bits on the "plastic" Hurricane at the CWH from the original machine, I'm sure there was a notice in front of it stating that this was the case when I was there.


Taken during my visit on 1st Feb 2005

[peter]

I knew about the Canadian memorial flight, a shame really... I wonder what bits are on the hurri? Also I wonder if the merlin in static display is from the spit?

[Steve T]

Hi Peter et al--

Yes, there are parts of the late lamented C-GCWH/RCAF 5377 installed on the GRP mockup now on show at the Hope. Specifically, the main gear legs were salvaged from the hulk of C-GCWH and refurbished so the GRP mockup could be displayed "parked"...those GRP Hurris and Spits do not normally have landing gear, since they're intended for mounting in flying attitude on pylons (like the pair in Windsor, for example).

I doubt any Merlin on static show at CWH is from MK297; apart from any other considerations, the Spitfire was the CAF's and the engine would also have been theirs. CWH used to have a static Merlin III out of a Fairey Battle; of course during the Lanc rebuild they accumulated a number of other Merlins in various states of repair and the static one there now could also be one of those.

BTW, quite a bit of the Hurricane's core structure actually survived the fire, though warped and oxidized by heat. The core of the fuselage and centre section on a Hurricane is steel. Spitfires, however, are almost entirely light alloy (like the wing panels on a Hurri) so there was much less left of N9BL/MK297--basically just the gear legs and a few other small steel bits. I have often wondered what became of the rest of the Hurricane hulk, which I last saw in open store at Mt.Hope in late 1993 or early 1994. Very much indeed has been accomplished with less...

Cheers

S.

[peter]

I remember seeing a pic of the fire damaged centre section awhile ago. Wonder if it still survives?