FlyPast 08.2018

August 2018 FLYPAST 77

Aero Club acquired it and based it at

Eastleigh, Southampton, where the

Spitfire prototype had flown for the

very first time 20 years before.

The trainer was flown by Bellamy

and other owners for periods from

1956 to February 1978 when it was

damaged in a landing at Baginton,

Warwickshire. It was shipped to the

USA in 1983, returning to the UK

in 2007.

Painstakingly restored by Personal

Plane Services (PPS) at Booker,

Buckinghamshire, G-AIDN took

to the air again on March 30, 2016.

Today it is part of the Biggin Hill

Heritage Hangar ‘fleet’.

LOYAL CUSTOMERS

Vickers was successful in selling

20 Type 509 Tr.9 – or T.9 –

conversions to existing Spitfire

operators. The engineering work

required could hardly have made

the effort cost-effective for such a

small batch.

Consideration was given to

adapting the Rolls-Royce Griffon-

engined Mk.18 into a fighter-

trainer, as the Type 518. With its

low-cut rear fuselage and teardrop

On February 17, 1948, it was flown
to the Aeroplane and Armament
Experimental Establishment at
Boscombe Down, Wiltshire,
for evaluation, even though an
official requirement did not exist.
Boscombe’s conclusions where that
it flew very much as the Mk.VIII
did, but the rear cockpit offered poor
visibility and it was a tight squeeze.
In 1948 the RAF standardised
on Arabic numerals in place of the
Roman style for its designations;
hence Tr.VIII became Tr.8.
From here on in, we shall adopt
Arabic numbering.

ENDURING PROTOTYPE

Vickers undertook an arduous

campaign to get the RAF to lean

towards the idea of a Spitfire fighter-

trainer. Predictably, the service

was content with the Harvard.

For a while it looked as though

the Volunteer Reserve – the Royal

Auxiliary Air Force and even the

Royal Navy VR units – might

have a need for such a craft. It

was not to be.

Delta-November was retired to a

corner of a hangar at Chilbolton

in 1952 and was stored. In August

1956 Viv Bellamy of the Hampshire

To p

Dutch Tr.9 H-99 carrying

its former RAF serial –

BS147 – under the fi n

fl ash, 1948. PETER GREEN

COLLECTION

Above left

Spitfi re Tr.9 159,

previously MJ772, one of

six two-seaters delivered

to the Irish Air Corps

in June and July 1951.

Damaged in September

2015, it is presently at

Biggin Hill. IRISH AIR CORPS

Above

Inside the rear cockpit of

Spitfi re Tr.9 ML407.

DARREN HARBAR

Left

The one-off Egyptian Tr.9,

684, with a long-range

‘slipper’ tank – probably

for its delivery eastwards,

on April 13, 1950. PETER

GREEN COLLECTION