Spitfire found in scrapyard sold for £1.78 million



Thirty years ago this Spitfire was little more than a rusting shell in a South African scrapyard.

Yesterday the fighter, airworthy again after years of painstaking work, fetched a record £1.78million at auction.

It was bought by British adventurer Steve Brooks who plans to keep it in this country and keep it flying.

The rare two-seat Spitfire over Truxton Airfield near Andover, Hampshire which was sold by a private seller for £1.78 million

'I'm a great believer that things like this were built to be used, not to be museum pieces,' he said. 'The Spitfire is a terrific flying machine, it's also British and should stay in Britain.'

Its auction at the RAF Museum, in Hendon, North London - kicked off with the words 'It's Spitfire time, ladies and gentlemen' - marks the latest chapter in the fighter's long history.

It entered service in 1944 and was sold to the South African Air Force in 1948.



Discovered on a scrap heap in 1979, it passed through the hands of a number of owners. Originally a single-seater, it was completed in July last year as a two-seater in Dutch markings - because the Dutch air force flew two-seater Spitfires.







The plane was the first airworthy one of its number to go under auction for 20 years.

Auctioneers Bonhams said it believed its sale price was a world auction record.

Buyer Mr Brooks, a 47-year-old father-of-two, from West London, has already flown a helicopter from North Pole to South Pole and was the first person to drive across the Baring Straits from America to Russia.

He admitted he may have gone 'slightly over' his budget in the auction room but said it was worth it.

'I'm a pilot already but I'm going to learn to fly it.'

The TR MK IX, serial number SM520, is one of only seven flying Spitfires with two seats.

Steve Brooks stands next to a Spitfire similar to the one that he has just bought at auction for £1.78 milliion

Built by the British Vickers-Armstrong company in 1944, this particular Spitfire arrived in service too late to see action in the Second World War. While with the South African Air Force it is thought to have had a couple of accidents before being left to scrap.

It was later sold on to British aviation enthusiast, Charles Church, who later died in a Spitfire crash.

Mr Church began the long process of restoration before the aircraft was sold in 1989 to another buyer, who eventually resold it to Paul Portelli, the founder of World's End Tiles, in June 2002. He commissioned the company Classic Aero to restore the aircraft to its former glory.

A dedicated team of experts have poured hours of time into sourcing replacement parts, restoring old ones and rebuilding every inch of the plane - plus a few more in the form of the extra seat.

Peter Tuplin, of Classic Aero engineering, restored the MkIX rare two-seat Spitfire (and below)







Some parts like the bullet proof windscreen panel and control colum remained, but others such as the four-blade propeller came from as far a field as Germany.

All the parts had to undergo rigorous safety checking and the flying machines had been approved by the Civil Aviation Authority.

The plane itself took shape at Thruxton Aerodrome, in Hampshire, from where it took its first flight.

It has, said the auctioneer, clocked up just 15 hours air time, will need a final check at 20 hours and a full service at 25 hours - the 'equivalent to an MOT'.

It was completed in July last year and ready for sale this year, seven years after Mr Portelli purchased it — and two years after he too died, of cancer — the job is finished.

The day before the auction the plane flew a poignant mission to release Mr Portelli's ashes.