Spitfire 'Spy Plane' - Spitfire PR Mk.XI PL983

The Aircraft Restoration Company's Supermarine Spitfire PR Mk.XI, PL983, G-PRXI, displaying in the air and on the ground.
The aerobatic display, with pilot John Romain at the controls, was filmed at Old Warden Airfield during the Shuttleworth 'Drive-In' Airshow on 2nd of August 2020. The ground shots were filmed at the aircraft's base at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford during the 'Showcase Day' held on 4th August 2020.
Supermarine Spitfire PL983 is a Photo Reconnaissance (PR) variant of Reginald Mitchell's famous World War 2 fighter design. Photo Reconnaissance Spitfires carried no weaponry, relying solely upon speed, height, surprise and the pilots flying skills for protection.
PL983 was built at Reading by Vickers-Armstrong's Chats Hill and Aldermaston Works. It was delivered to 6 Maintenance Unit (MU) Royal Air Force (RAF) at Brize Norton on 31/10/44 and issued to No.1 Pilot's Pool (PRHQ) at Benson on 24/11/44. It transferred to 34 Wing, 2nd Tactical Air Force on 5/1/45, moving on to 4 Squadron, where it sustained battle damage on 22/2/45, and then to 2 Squadron on 6/9/45. It returned to 6 MU on 12/1/46, then went to 39 MU, Colerne on 15/7/46, back to 6 MU on 29/7/46 and then to 33 MU at Lyneham.
On 22/7/47 it was contract loaned back to Vickers Armstrong, Eastleigh for onward loan to the United States Air Attaché, Livingston Lord Satterthwaite. With the American civil registration NC74138 it was officially handed over on 27/1/48 and flown by the ex Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) pilot, Lettice Curtis from Eastleigh to Hendon, to join the U.S. Embassy Flight. Lettice Curtis flew it again on 15/8/48, for an air race, gaining first place in the Wiltshire Flying Club's Thruxton Air Races. She flew it again on 28/8/48 when it was 5th in the Lympne International Air Races, in the process breaking the Women's National 100km closed-circuit speed record.
Lettice Curtis' original signature, added more recently, now appears next to the cockpit on the Spitfire's outer port side.
It was returned to Vickers-Armstrong Ltd and in 1950 ferried to the Shuttleworth Collection at Old Warden with registration G-15-109, where it was placed on external static display. A restoration to flying condition was started by a volunteer team at Duxford on 30/8/75, but the Shuttleworth Collection sold the unfinished aeroplane at Christie's Duxford auction in April 1983.
Purchased for £110,000 by wartime French pilot Roland Fraissinet, it became the first Spitfire to be restored by Trent Aero Engineering and made its first flight in July 1984 at East Midlands Airport.
Sold on 20/6/88 to collector Doug Arnold, it featured in the TV series ‘Piece of Cake’, but saw little air display use. Following his death in November 1992, PL983 was placed in dismantled storage until being re-assembled at North Weald prior to sale to Justin Fleming in 1999. Operated by Martin Sargeant, it was overhauled and re-flown, but sadly met with an accident at Rouen, France in June 2001. The severely damaged Spitfire was purchased by the Aircraft Restoration Company and moved to Duxford in 2003.
PL983 became the in-house project of Historic Flying Limited (HFL) and work began on the restoration in 2006.
The fuselage was sent to Airframe Assemblies on the Isle of Wight while the wings were constructed by HFL. The exact Rolls Royce Merlin 70 engine which powered PL983 during the war was found and overhauled. The Merlin 70 has a different supercharger gearing compared to the Merlin 60, to improve the aircraft’s performance at higher altitudes. A reconnaissance wrap around clear view windscreen has been fitted to replace the armoured version fitted to the fighter variants. Following the pioneering fitment of a mock camera instillation on the Rolls Royce Spitfire PS983, HFL have also put the same lens assembly fitment into the side camera hatch on PL983.
On completion of its latest restoration, PL983 first flew again on 18 May 2018.
Between 2020 and 2022 the aircraft was decorated with the phrase 'Thank U NHS' on its underside and had the names of numerous people connected with the National Health Service (NHS), who were nominated for their contribution in helping others during the Covid Pandemic, written on its fuselage. This raised £150,000 for NHS Charities.
For more information about the history of PL983 see - www.aircraftrestorationcompany.com/spitfire-pl983
AND ESPECIALLY -
vintageaviationecho.com/spitfire-prxi-pl983/
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[@FireflyActual]

I'm really happy I was able to watch this on a large monitor and with headphones on. Outstanding video, it encapsulates all the majesty and the beauty of the Spitfire in 7 minutes and 30 seconds (bonus points for featuring the most visually appealing variant of them all). Love the walkaround at the end, in 4K every detail stands out.

[@HighFlight]

Thank you. It means a lot to me to know that you've enjoyed the film. There will be more, of Spitfires and many others!🙃🙂

[@FireflyActual]

@@HighFlight Excellent, looking forward to it!

[@FireflyActual]

@@the_black_douglas9041 Are you sure this is the thread that you wanted to respond to?

[@453421abcdefg12345]

A really fantastic display, that could only be Dan Griffith flying PL983, very many thanks for posting this, and the excellent ground shots! Chris B.

[@HighFlight]

Thanks Chris. I'm pretty certain that the pilot was John Romain.

[@453421abcdefg12345]

@@HighFlight That is interesting, I have just seen your extended "Show More" bit and saw John Romain mentioned, the flying style is very much like Dan with no straight lines at all, you did well with the static shots here, a lot of detail that is never seen .Chris B.

[@HighFlight]

@@453421abcdefg12345 Thanks Chris. John Romain learned his display flying from Ray Hanna, among others, which goes a long way to explain his style.

[@453421abcdefg12345]

@@HighFlight Ahh the Biggin Hill down in the valley club !

[@HighFlight]

@@453421abcdefg12345 That's the one!

[@gregmctevia5087]

Outstanding. Great catch.

[@kenjohan]

Certainly not a "spy plane" It is a photographic reconnaissance aircraft.

[@HighFlight]

Exactly what the press would describe as a 'Spy Plane' and how aerial reconnaissance and intelligence gathering started out from its early days in WW1 - a photo reconnaissance platform with electronic, radio, and various other sampling and analysis capabilities added later as technology improved e.g. Lockheed U2 which, among other things, still takes intelligence and reconnaissance photographs from the air!

[@carmenopramolla5262]

Agree

[@the_black_douglas9041]

Eh? The squadron this plane came from and indeed its revolutionary photo reconnaissance tech only came into existence due to the efforts of Sidney Cotton, who was at times a MI-6 operative. Cotton even innovated with the particular shade of sky blue ‘stealth’ paint. Furthermore, Cotton was a friend of the RN’s Ian Fleming and was the real life inspiration for Fleming’s fictional character James Bond. So one would be justified in say ingit’s a fair call to describe this as a spy plane.

[@ToddSauve]

@@the_black_douglas9041 Fleming drew upon a number of people for his compilation character James Bond. Dusko Popov is another of them. The Spitfire XI could fly all the way to Berlin and back to Britain, so it was not only the Mustang that could do this.

[@andrewmontgomery5621]

Is that the one with the"Thank U NHS" painted on the underside?

[@HighFlight]

It is indeed.