GREEK ‘SPIT’ AT BIGGIN
The restoration of the Hellenic Air Force Spitfire IX MJ755 (see News, April 2018 Aeroplane) has been entrusted to The Spitfire Company (Biggin Hill) Limited, and the aircraft is now in the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar.
F-6D MUSTANG FOR ITALY
A recent import from the USA, F-6D Mustang 44-84786 Lil’ Margaret has been assembled by Air Leasing at Sywell and was engine-running in mid-April prior to being delivered to a new owner in Italy. It is thought it will be based at La Spreta airport in Ravenna, where ex-Maurice Hammond P-51D Marinell is based with Carlo Coltri.
HELLCAT SOLD
The Fagen Fighters WW2 Museum at Granite Falls, Minnesota acquired F6F-5 Hellcat BuNo 98645/N9265A in late March from the Yanks Air Museum at Chino, California. Fagen Fighters will put the Hellcat through an IRAN (inspect and repair as necessary) process and hopes to have it flying during 2019. Yanks has another Hellcat, F6F-3 BuNo 40467, part-finished in its restoration shop.
REDS HAWK FOR EAST FORTUNE
The National Museum of Flight at East Fortune, East Lothian, put ex-Red Arrows BAe Hawk T1 XX308 on public display on 25 April. Retired from service during 2012, it is the first Hawk to have been operated by the RAF Aerobatic Team to go on display at a museum.
TYPHOON PROGRESSING
On 22 April the Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group, which is working to put Typhoon Ib RB396 back into the air, announced that its Tempest V rudder will go to Airframe Assemblies (AA) on the Isle of Wight at the end of May for modification to Typhoon specification, and that the wings will also go to AA for rebuild, subject to fundraising.
