Spitfire TE288

[petera]

TE288 - Try identifying it in 2050 as a new young enthusiast/researcher poring over old images from the 1945/2005 period.

1) You have the real TE288 mounted on a plinth at the Brevet Club at Christchuch NZ.

2) You have its replacement, a beautifully crafted GRP replica, painted as 'TE288' and mounted on the same plinth. It was lost to vandals.

3) You have the further replacement replica again painted as 'TE288'.

4) You have a further GRP replica from the same tooling and plinth mounted at Perana Park Hamilton NZ.....also painted as 'TE288'.

5) You have yet a further GRP replica, same tooling, at the shopping centre at Westgate, Auckland NZ....you have guessed it, painted as 'TE288'.

6) You have the real TE288 at RNZAF Museum, Wigram, coded OU-V of 485 Squadron (this just happens to be the same code currently on the Grace Tr IX), ostensibly representing 'Rongotea', that carried the partially over painted genuine serial of TB675. For reasons of manpower, so the museum advised me, the aircraft carries neither the alias serial, 'TB675', nor its genuine serial TE288.

7) By a quirk of coincidence the original TB675 carried the codes of two units it served with OU-V of 485 Squadron and 4D-V of 74 Squadron.

8) RW393, a low back Spitfire XVI of the RAF Museum roving fleet, is currently painted as 'TB675' 4D-V

9) TE311, a low back Spitfire XVI restoration in progress by BBMF, currently carries the codes 4D-V.

Confused?

Wigram - Surely time to get the stencil and spray unit out and rectify your 'orphan'.

PeterA

With thanks to DH on some of the finer points.

[Dave Homewood]

Confusing indeed. You could almost write a book about it all.

Perhaps someone could do some historically creative stencil tagging at Wigram? I'm certain that 'manpower' problems cannot be the real reason. Unless they think the aircraft has to be removed from display and the serial painted on in the workshops? I can't see why it cannot be done on site in No. 1 Hangar.

[marsfka]

Oct 14, 2007 13:10:59 GMT 12 Dave Homewood said:

John Noble of Dunedin has kindly sent through the following photos of TE288 for me to post here




He says:
"I have a couple of photos of TE288 at RNZAF Wigram taken December 1963/64 in colour.

These photos were taken on my old Kodak 127, must have had some extra pocket money as they were taken on colour film. Senior ATC Cadets from No.5 Dunedin and No.26 Oamaru Squadrons Air Training Corps were on a base visit to Wigram at the time We also had an official photograph taken seated/standing in front of TE288."

[Antonio]

From Westgate



To Whenuapai



Speaking of accurate schemes........

[No longer identifiable]

Thanks Antonio. It's quite a coincidence that this morning I rode over to Whenuapai to get some video of the weather balloon release, and while I spoke to the gate guy I noticed a spitfire on a plinth further inside the base. I've never seen it before and wondered how long it had been there, and I also noticed the absence of the glass fibre replica inside the Westgate picture theater quite a while ago. Mystery solved!

[Dave Homewood]

SPITFIRE AS MEMORIAL

Brevet Club’s Proposal

A Supermarine Spitfire—outstanding single-seat fighter of World War II —may stand as a memorial to New Zealand airmen who served during the war, in front of the Canterbury Brevet Club’s proposed centre on the corner of Russley road and Memorial avenue. The aircraft has been given by the British Air Ministry, and is due to be shipped from Liverpool on April 19.

The president of the club (Mr L. R. Murray) said last evening that the Government had refused an import licence to get the aircraft into the country, but he added that further representations were being made to Government officials.

The licence had been refused, he said, because the £1000 freight charges had to be paid in sterling. ‘‘However, I didn’t expect the thing to leave before we had a licence,” he said.

The aircraft, Mar 16 No. TE288, was built at the Vickers-Armstrong factory in May, 1945, and has recently been on display at the entrance to the R.A.F station at Dishforth, Yorkshire. It has no engine.

The Spitfire Mark 16 entered service in 1944 with fighter-bomber squadrons of the 2nd Tactical Air Force and was the last major production version powered by a Rolls-Royce Merlin engine, a Packard-built 266 series of 1720 horse power.

The Brevet Club’s proposed memorial centre is expected to cost about £20,000. It will comprise a hall and club rooms, and will be erected on the north-east comer of Russley road and Memorial avenue. Mr Murray said he did not know how the Spitfire would be mounted. A similar aircraft in Perth was mounted on top of a 20ft steel pole, he said. Financial assistance would probably be required to complete the project, said Mr Murray.

PRESS, 1 APRIL 1963

[Dave Homewood]

PLANE FOR CLUB

Licence For Spitfire

(From Our Own Reporter) WELLINGTON, April 4.

The Christchurch Brevet Club will get its Spitfire from England for installation in its £20,000 memorial centre at Harewood. A licence has been granted, and arrangements have been made for the freight on the plane to be paid in New Zealand.

The previous hitch—it was not a refusal—came about because of the impression that £1000 in sterling was required. When the original application was made, the applicant was asked by the department whether sterling funds were held to pay the freight. There was no question of the licence being refused at that stage.

When the matter was referred to the Minister of Customs (Mr Shelton), after some publicity, arrangements were made for the freight to be paid in New Zealand.

As the aircraft was a gift from the Air Ministry, there is some doubt as to whether an import licence was really necessary.

PRESS, 5 APRIL 1963

[Dave Homewood]

SPITFIRE FOR BREVET CLUB

Gift From R.A.F.

A Spitfire fighter, one of the most famous British planes of World War 11, will arrive at Lyttelton on Friday aboard the Cumberland. The Spitfire is a gift from the Royal Air Force to the Canterbury Brevet Club. The aircraft, which is in a crate measuring 30ft by 13ft by 8ft, will be transported to the Royal New Zealand Air Force station Wigram. It will be stored until ready for assembly and delivery to the Brevet Club's memorial centre in Memorial avenue, where eventually it will be mounted.

According to the president of the club (Mr L. R. Murray) the Spitfire will later be assembled either by airmen at Wigram or by club members. There is no possible chance that the aircraft will fly, as there is only a dummy engine in it. Mr Murray said construction of the club's new memorial centre is well on the way, and it should be ready by November. The Spitfire will be taken to the site and mounted in the area in front of the building. The Spitfire was last in action over Europe.

PRESS, 18 JUNE 1963

[Dave Homewood]

Spitfire Arrives

A crated Spitfire — a gift from the Royal Air Force to the Brevet Club in Canterbury — was yesterday unloaded from the Cumberland, at Lyttelton. Today it will be transported over the Port Hills to the Royal New Zealand Air Force station at Wigram by a club member who is a haulage contractor. The Spitfire will remain stored at Wigram until shortly before the new memorial centre in Memorial avenue has been constructed. It will then be uncrated, reassembled. and placed on display

PRESS, 29 JUNE 1963

[Dave Homewood]

SPITFIRE FOR BREVET CLUB.
A Spitfire fighter, in a crate, is transported across the Heathcote bridge during its journey from Lyttelton to the R.N.Z.A.F. Station, Wigram, on Saturday. The Spitfire, one of the most famous British planes of the Second World War, which arrived on the vessel Cumberland, was presented by the British Air Ministry to the Canterbury Brevet Club. The plane will be the central feature of the club’s memorial centre being built at the corner of Memorial avenue and Russley road.

PRESS, 1 JULY 1963

[Dave Homewood]

SPITFIRE ON DISPLAY

Exhibit At A. & P. Show

The Spitfire fighter plane given to the Canterbury Brevet Club by the Air Ministry earlier this year will be on display art the Canterbury Agricultural and Pastoral Association's annual show at Addington on November 13, 14 and 15. The aircraft is at the Royal New Zealand Air Force station, Wigram, where in the next two weeks it will be unpacked and assembled by technical wing staff and members of the Brevet Club.

The Spitfire is considered to be in excellent technical condition, and to all outward appearances it is complete, although the engine is not. Instrumentation in the cockpit is also pretty well intact.

Members of the Air Training Corps squadron who have been studying the machine will answer general questions from the public. For the specialist - type inquirer several members of the club who flew Spitfires will be on hand.

The Spitfire display is expected to be combined with a recruiting display arranged by the Royal New Zealand Air Force. Before coming to the Dominion the Spitfire was used for exhibition purposes at the Royal Air Force station, Ruffworth, in England. After the show the Spitfire will be towed back to Wigram, where it will remain until it is moved to its permanent site outside the Brevet Club’s new memorial centre in Memorial avenue.

PRESS, 18 OCTOBER 1963





A SIDE-ATTRACTION AT THE SHOW.—This Spitfire fighter aircraft is a centre of interest to many visitors, particularly boys, at the Metropolitan Show. The aircraft was recently given to the Canterbury Brevet Club by the Air Ministry and will later be permanently displayed outside the club’s new memorial centre in Memorial avenue.

PRESS, 15 NOVEMBER 1963