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UB425
OK let's start the ball rolling and clear some of the confusion gathered over twenty years.
There have been three aircraft painted as UB425.
1) The aircraft of interest to this thread, currently in the museum at Hatzorim, Israel. This was the original UB425 apinted as such by Bedek before dispatch to Burma from Israel. It got a far as Cyprus, developed problems and was rejected by the Burmese , for political reasons, and returned to Israel. I believe an engine change happened on or about this time.
2) This aircraft, the replacement for the above, saw service with the Burmese Air Force. It ended its days as a display aircraft at Mandalay being fitted with a Harvard T.6 tail unit. It was sold to the US and currently sits in the HFL hangar at Duxford awaiting its turn for restoration to flight. Its true RAF identity still is unknown despite exhaustive investigations. It is however thought to be 20-42 of the Israeli Air Force by virtue of the evidence of a conversion to PR windows in the structure, subsequently panelled over. In the tidy up of things Spitfire in in 1995, the Burmese, in error repainted the aircraft as 'UB424' and it currently still carries that mis-ident. The wings as fitted to this aircraft at Mandalay are currently located in New Zealand under repair for PV270. The owner, Brendon Deere, is aware of the significance of any internal markings that might aid the identification of the UK UB425.
3) This aircraft, on display at Hmawbi in the 1980s/90s was also painted as 'UB425' and in the general tidy up retained the mis-ident. It is actually UB424/PV270 of the RAF. Again sold to the US and then sold on to Brendon Deere in New Zealand.
PeterA
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