Two Spitfires in boxes
Megan
In the words of Meatloaf, you took the words right outa my mouth!
As a kid, I used to visit Bankstown aerodrome, as it was then called. It butted onto Syd Marshall's backyard, which was a treasure trove of old aeroplanes. Syd also had his hangar on the airfield proper, with mainly civvie types from the 1930s. One of my first flights was in his Anson (VH-ASM).
But in his backyard was the stuff! He had a camouflaged DC-2 from WWII, I think A30-11. And he had two Spitfire VIIIs in wooden crates, as you correctly identify, MV154 (A58-671) [to UK] and MV239 (A58-758) [to Scone].
Syd assembled MV154 in his hangar in about 1962, and it was wheeled out one Saturday as a photo op. A lot of the keen local enthusiasts were there - Eric Allen, Nev Parnell, myself. In those days I could afford one picture only in colour! Perhaps it then went at this stage to Sydney Technical College - I may be wrong but I think that both were in crates in his backyard through the '50s.
Robs Lamplough "exported" this aircraft to UK (legally? I am not sure), where I think it is still on the display circuit as G-BKMI. It was flown for a long while by ex-Bucc mate Pete John, who I hassle everytime I see him to return it back here - to its rightful home!!! He disagrees for some reason, and it is inappropriate to repeat his responses on this forum! Of interest, UK also tried to "export" Syd's Bf109G, which was stopped at the last minute and is now on display at the AWM Canberra.
Meanwhile, the Spit that didn't get away, MV239, was acquired by cropduster the late Col Pay as VH-HET, and is now flown by the Temora Air Museum in NSW. It is displayed as Bobby Gibbe's Darwin-based RG-V. I once asked the late Bobby, "why did you have V as your individual aircraft marking all the time?" He replied: "V for Victory, old boy!" What a star.
BBad
Last edited by BBadanov; 5th Aug 2015 at 11:00.