UK Auction House Offers Historic Aircraft Completely Restored And Airworthy

Bonhams will offer for sale from a private source an airworthy two-seater Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire aircraft, estimated value £1.5 million (over $2.13 million USD), on April 20 at the RAF Museum, Hendon, London.

This will be the second of the iconic World War Two Spitfires which Bonhams has offered within just seven months. Last September the auction house sold a non-airworthy 1945 Supermarine Spitfire for a record price of over $3 million NZ (£1.1 million Sterling). That plane was a 'Bubble Canopy' MK XVI, considered by collectors as less desirable.

The company is now selling the first two-seater Spitfire to be offered at public auction for over 20 years. Painstakingly restored to airworthiness over a five-year period, the Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire TR Mark IX is civilian-registered 'G-ILDA'.

Today, this Spitfire is being offered as a freshly-completed 'zero-hours' ground-up restoration to two-seat TR Mark IX specification; in effect a historic warbird absolutely ready-to-fly and in truly sparkling flightline condition. Originally it was a single-seat Mark IX, but the plane was converted to a two-seater in order to allow for a second pilot or a passenger.

The Supermarine-designed aircraft was built originally by the British Vickers-Armstrong company in 1944. It was delivered to the Royal Air Force's No 33 Maintenance Unit at Lyneham in Wiltshire where it was to be prepared to operational standard for service delivery. Its original serial number was 'SM520'. The aircraft was subsequently sold in 1948 to the South African Air Force, in whose service its operational history presently remains unknown.

Many years later, in the 1970s, it was rediscovered in a Cape Town scrap yard from which it was rescued by the late building developer and aviation enthusiast Charles Church, who initiated the inevitably long process of restoration. Old 'SM 520' (below) was then sold in 1989 to Alan Dunkerley, who eventually resold it to the late Paul Portelli in June 2002.

Portelli commissioned Classic Aero Engineering to restore the machine to its as-original TR Mark IX two-seat trainer specification. As work progressed upon the historic airframe at CAE's Thruxton facility in Hampshire, the mighty, supercharged V12 Rolls-Royce Merlin 266 engine was overhauled and returned to airworthy standard by the specialist Retro Track & Air concern at Dursley, Gloucestershire, and fitted with a four-blade Hoffman propeller.

"We are greatly honored to be entrusted with the sale of such a distinguished and historic aircraft," said James Knight, MD of Bonhams Collector's Motoring Department. "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."

FMI: www.bonhams.com