Supermarine Spitfire Mk LFXVIe, N75460 / CBAF.11446, China Aviation Museum
This picture is © George Trussell and may not be used or published without permission.
Registration: N75460
Construction Number: CBAF.11446
Code Number: TE330 / HT-B
Model Supermarine Spitfire Mk LFXVIe
Operator: China Aviation Museum
Airport: Datangshan, China
Photographer: George Trussell
Date Taken: 02/11/2010
Date Submitted: 16/11/2010
Purchased from New Zealand by a Chinese buyer in Sep 2008. I first saw it at Biggin Hill in 1957. Further info: This aircraft was the gate guardian at RAF West Malling in the late 1950s, before being restored to flying condition and presented to the USA in 1960. By 1970, it was in the USAF Museum at Wright-Patterson AFB, Dayton, Ohio where each year, when the RAF Exchange Officers at the base held their Battle of Britain cocktail party, it was taken out of the museum by the kind curator and placed on the grass outside the officers' club to greet the guests. Eventually it found its way to New Zealand, swapped for something more relevant to the Museum, eventually into private hands where it was never quite restored to fly, and hence to China.
Picture ID:1261683