WE had a 'baby spitfire' Chipmunk for a short time at Honington. During the intervening period between the Valiant being grounded to the squadrons being disbanded Chipmunks were issued to keep the pilots in flying practice. At 90 Sqn we received WP850.
This aircraft had spent a long time in Cyprus being used for reconnaissance duties during the Cyprus Emergency. To this end it had been painted in a standard grey/green camoflage finish with grey undersides. It only had about three hundred hours on so it was virtually new. We painted a 90 Sqn rudder flash on it and we had our minature Spitfire.
A lot of our squadron ground crew found out what it was like to be upside down in flight.