Spitfire Break-up 1949 !

[siegfreid]

Sorry about the quality of this photo but it's the best I could do with the scanner . Picture was taken in about 1949 in a field next door to Brize Norton in Oxfordshire & shows me & my elder sister in the cockpit of a Spitfire . It was one of dozens there that had been sold for scrap & were awaiting the breakers hammers ! I think they were disposed of for about £25 each . With the benefit of hindsight , quite a bargain.........

spit.jpg

[Weasel]

Hi Siegfeid,
What a nice memory to have even if you did not manage to stick a spitfire away for posterity, i reckon you could have got quite a lot for £25 back then. Still it would be worth considerably more now, best regards Weasel.

[DICKAREN]

Hi Mike,
Great photo and a great experience for you. Half a dozen of those for £150.00 would have made you a nice fortune!!!

best
Richard

[siegfreid]

Thanks you chaps ! Yes , if my pocket money could have run to getting half a dozen , I reckon they would be worth about £15 million in todays money ! It would have been nice to just keep one for interest , never mind the value .

[Darrol]

good memory to have..also so tormenting...£25 now gets you a small relic engine bit

[beihan62]

Hi siegfreid,What a memory for you,a chance to sit in an "as is"Spitfire,many of the wheels were used on farm carts and I have "rescued"many of them and they have been put back into the restoration circuit,many were only fit for static aircraft but this then released the "fit to fly"ones back to restored Spitfires,a lot of the cockpit canopies found their way into gardens as closhes,I am pleased you have a photo of your unique and enviable oportunity to sit in a real piece of history,thanks for showing,
Regards,
Don,

[siegfreid]

Don . Funny you should mention cloches . We lived near that field after the war & EVERY garden & allotment had cloches fabricated from aircraft canopies . They also used to break up the Horsa gliders at Brize & there were dozens of smallholdings in the area that used the bodies as chicken coops & sheds . I can remember still seeing some of them in the 1960's but , sadly , all are now gone . Mike.

[skull181]

Here's myself in a Spitfire,, I think this one cost more the £25 though.

[butterfly]

Love the photo Mike, and a wonderful keepsake to have. What a wonderful experience to have had - thankyou for sharing an image from your childhood.

regards Kev

[beihan62]

Hi Mike,Re cockpit canopies,some years ago I recovered some cockpit canopies from local gardens,these were from Brewster Bermuda,(known in the USA as Buccaneer)I was contacted by the group restoring the plane (via a pic in a magazine)and was told that they needed a full set of sliding canopies and could not find canopies anywhere,I donated my canaopies to their rebuild together with a correct dated direction indicator (compass)and they are now on the restored Bermuda/buccaneer,if you type Brewster Bermuda and go to wikipedia site,there is a pic of the completed aircraft in the Naval Air Museum fitted with the canopies,another interesting bit of info,Spitfire main wheels were used on early Meteors as nose wheels,
Regards,
Don,