R-R Spitfires PS853 & RM689

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Member for

20 years 8 months

Posts: 939

I appreciate there are older threads on these Spitfires but they have not been updated for some time. I was wondering if they are both still owned by R-R and from what I have been able to find out trawling the web is that one is still flying but the other may not fly again. Does anyone know the exact position as it is now? Thanks

Original post

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24 years 2 months

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Future tor RM689 appears to be ground bound

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17 years 5 months

Posts: 8,980

Yep, PS853 has a new hangar at East Mids and is airworthy, it has been out and about of late, as for the other, if you saw it, you would understand.

Member for

15 years

Posts: 1,712

Can you enlarge on your post #3 TonyT regarding RM689? Thanks

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20 years

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I interpret that as a subtle reference to the highly disrupted state of the remaining components of the aircraft.

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9 years 4 months

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Any idea if PS853 is currently airworthy? It's due at Duxford but, I'm led to believe it didn't appear at either Bournemouth or Little Gransden.

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12 years 4 months

Posts: 189

Propstrike, IIRC there was a new fuselage built by AA for RM689 some years ago, and a wing was being sourced. Whilst the 'original' RM689 was tragically 'disrupted' there was an effort to resurrect the aircraft around those components deemed salvageable. I think the rebuild was halted a decade or so ago and the partially rebuilt aircraft put in store. Happy to be corrected.

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15 years

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I did see RM689 under rebuild with Hull Aero at Catfield about 12 or 14 years ago but haven’t seen any updates on it of late. Hence my question in post #5

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20 years 7 months

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From my hazy memory, '689's rebuild had been put on hold due to financial constraints. The fuselage had been completed.

PS853 was out and about a couple of weeks ago, according to Facebook posts.

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18 years 6 months

Posts: 223

I don't think this ever the intention for 689, but just a artistic view as part of the application. I understand any simulator would have been a bespoke build rather than using the fuselage of 689.