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Re: Peter, forget the above post, I know now but.....

Posted by PeterA on Thu Aug 22, 2002 11:24:19 AM

In reply top Peter, forget the above post, I know now but..... posted by Cees Broere on Thu Aug 22, 2002 09:39:42 AM

: ....it took me several times to read you message when I fi
: nally understood that the wings of this aircraft had come
: from the USA to the UK (split in India).
:
: Now, question that springs to mind is:
:
: To which fuselage will they be mated, RR232 perhaps?
:
: Cees(depuzzled, but curious)

Cees,
You have to put all of this in a 1977 context.
My namesake almost rejected an Indian Spitfire because it had half a dozen 2" dia holes in the rear fuselage. Today a data plate, RAF serial provenance and a couple of square feet of structure and - Hey presto, a Spitfire fuselage!
When the Haydon-Baillie brothers located and negotiated the second tranch of Indian Spitfires, they pre sold two pairs of XVIIIs to the USA, shipping the two XIVs and the star Mk. VIII to the UK. The condition of the XVIIIs was variable and to maintain the equity they decided, whilst still in India, to let the wings of the last XVIII, HS649, go to Rudy Frasca in Illinois and ship the battered and twisted fuselage back to the UK with XIVs/VIII.
HS649 would not yield its RAF ID other than the tail unit was from TP285, so it became TP285(provisional). Rudy Frasca passed the wings down the trail and they ended up with the mysterious and now late Don Knapp in Miami, who had a pair of Mk XIVs, RM694 and the ex Belgian RM927 and insufficient wing structure to service a pair of restorations. The estate of Don Knapp passed the aircraft to race driver Vern Schuppen who in turn passed them onto the current owner who has them in store in Buckinghamshire, UK, pending restoration to flight. Whilst Mr Knapp was friendly, he was adament that I was not going to see these wings whilst I was in Florida even though they were in the adjoining workshop! I finally did get to inspect them in the UK in 1999 and TP263 was clear to see. Over twenty years after leaving India to establish a provenance! In the mean time the fuselage had been straightened and converted to high back and traded with Overloon using non flying wing residue from the then current projects.
RR232 another story, another time.
Peter

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