Presentation Spitfires
 

Is there someone out there who can provide the identity of the presentation Spitfire funded by the good citizens of Islington please?

Thanks

"Borough of Islington" - a Castle Bromwich built Mk V (Vb or Vc)

hopefully some kind person could find the airframe history.......

ER206 a Spitfire Vb/c.

Ciarain.

ER206
 

Lifted from the Air-Britain book "Gifts of War" - Presented by the London Borough of Islington, whose Spifire Fund appears to have reached its objective around May 1942, Mk.Vb (trop) ER206 was allocated to No.46 MU Lossiemouth on 29 August 1942 and passed on to No.43 Satellite Landing Ground at Leanach on 11 September. It was back with No.46 MU Lossiemouth on 1 October and despatched to No.215 MU Dumfries on 10th to be collected by No.3 Packed Aircraft Transport Pool at Newhouse-by-Motherwell seven days later. It was shipped to Gibraltar on 25 October, arriving on 9 November. After assembly and testing the aircraft was flown to North Africa and allotted to No.152(Hyderabad) Sqn at Souk-el-Arba. During the move to Constantine on 31 December ER206 tipped on its nose at the hands of Plt.Off G.Balcombe, who was unhurt, and the damage repaired on site. On 6 February 1943, the engine failed while on a sweep, and it crashed south of Pont du Fahs, Sgt.D.G.Boyce being unhurt. ER206 was struck off charge on 28 February 1943. The book has a small photograph of ER206 taken at Castle Bromwich.
Bill

Very many thanks to you all, that is extremely helpful.

Regards

Steve

Any chance of a scan of the photo of ER206 please? I need it for a presentation in Islington this September.

Thanks very much.

Bill,

Any chance of a scan of that photo if possible please?

Thanks

Steve

Presentation Spitfire 'West Godavari'
 

Is there someone out there who can provide the identity of a presentation Spitfire funded by the public in 'West Godavari' province in India please? The best guess is that it is Spitfire IIa (L.R.) P8439. If so, it seems mighty odd that it was dedicated once before as 'Crosby' ( a township within Liverpool), thus generating two sums of money. Apparently, the usual amount put forward was £5000. The surviving images show no serial number

Many thanks,

Roger

ER206.
 

Spit' MkV, ER206. Test-flown by Cheif Test Pilot, A.A.D.Henshaw 27/08/42, on a 35min Test-Flight from VACBAF.
There were a lot of 'Presentation Aircraft' around that period. By this time, they were just using a set of simple military stencils about 3" to apply the name to the fuel-tank cover.
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ER810, a MkV Trop, was test-flown by A.A.D.H on the 14/10/42 for 40min, and was named 'INCA'.
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At this time, a/c were reaching the Flight-Test Dept at VACBAF in a very disjointed sequence of serial-numbers. These MkV's were randomly fitted with both DH and Rotol airscrews.