Spitfire for sale – and she’s ready to fly! (From Daily Echo)

Spitfire for sale – and she’s ready to fly!

10:46am Wednesday 8th April 2009 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
• Comments(3)

A RARE two-seat Spitfire, which is due to go under the hammer, went on show in Hampshire yesterday.

The MkIX aircraft, with an estimated value of between £1.5m and £2m, is to be sold by a private seller on April 20 at the RAF Museum in Hendon, north London, by Bonhams.

It was shown to the media at Thruxton Airfield, near Andover.

The aircraft is the second of the legendary Second World War planes – which were designed by RJ Mitchell and made in Southampton – to be sold in the past year. Last September, the auction house sold a non-airworthy 1945 Supermarine Spitfire for a record price of more than £1.1m.

This latest Spitfire to come on the market has been restored to airworthiness over a five-year period and is ready to fly.

Bonhams said that the plane, built in 1944, was originally a single-seat MkIX which saw service with the RAF.

In 1948 it was sold to the South African Air Force. In the 1970s, it was rediscovered in a Cape Town scrapyard and rescued by the late building developer and aviation enthusiast Charles Church.

Others then restored it to flying condition in Britain.

James Knight, from Bonhams, said: “We are greatly honoured to be entrusted with the sale of such a distinguished and historic aircraft.

“As Bonhams is the last of the great international fine art auction houses to remain under British management, the sale of an aircraft so linked to the history and very survival of our nation has enormous significance for us here.”

Don’t miss the Daily Echo’s TV & Leisure magazine on Saturday, April 18, for a feature about the Spitfire, plus more pictures.