Originally Posted by
DaveReidUK
At the risk of confusing matters, aren't "JMR" and "AU-J" the same aircraft ?
It depends on how you see it. The original "AU-J" was s/n TB886 flown by RCAF 421 Red Indian Squadron from 15/3/45. .
And Then There Were Two > Vintage Wings of Canada. There are a whole lot of pictures of TB886 during its active period, designated AU-J, here:
Plane Talking - HyperScale's Aircraft Scale Model Discussion Forum: Mk XVI Spitfire TB886 wartime pics. I added another pic. It clearly had clipped wings at that time.
I have not seen any pictures of this aircraft with rounded wing tips.
TB886 was transferred to the Royal Hellenic Air Force on 27 July 1949.
http://allspitfirepilots.org/aircraft/TB886
SL721, on the other hand, never saw war service. It was delivered to 6MU in August 1946, then transferred to Air Vice Marshal Sir James M. Robbin as "JMR" in 1946. AVM Robb had the Spitfire painted a special shade of light blue, and used the airplane from 1946-48.
History of Spitfire SL721. It has always had the rounded wing tips.
So, SL721's period under the ID AU-J is a bit of a vanity project. The "real" AU-J was a completely different aircraft. The pictures of "AU-J" with rounded wing tips are SL721 under that guise.
SL721 has been painted as a number of IDs post war. From 1958 to 1965 it was displayed at Beaulieu Motor Museum as JMR (repainted in 1962 as blue RAF “JMR”) ,
It continued to bear the JMR ID through various owners until 1973, when it was re-identified as "D-A".
Some time between 1976 and 1982 it was re-identified again as "WK-W", and continued to wear that designation until 1999 when it was repaired after a ground-loop repainted blue and re-identified as "JMR" again.
However, in 2015 it was again repainted and re-identified as "AU-J".
All of the above info comes from
http://www.goodall.com.au/warbirds-d...upermarine.pdf, p40.