For Aussie Spitfire Lovers

[Jim Oxley]

Those of you fortunate enough to live within a days drive of Canberra could possible have popped over to Temora Aiation Museum at Temora to watch the beautifully restored Spitfire Mk.VIII fly at their monthly shows.

It is the only flyable Spitfire in Australia. Well.....it was.
The Mk.VIII will soon be joined by a Mk.XVI! Below is a news release by the Museum.

"The Temora Aviation Museum, located in southwest New South Wales currently operates the only airworthy Spitfire in Australia, along with a historical collection of ex-military aircraft including a Lockheed Hudson, Wirraway, Tiger Moth, Meteor, Canberra, and Vampire. Regular Flying Days are held during which the Museum displays its collection in the skies above Temora. The addition of this Spitfire will give Museum visitors the unique opportunity to see two Spitfires in the sky together in Australia.

This Supermarine Mk XVI Spitfire TB863 is an ex-wartime example, built at Vickers Armstrong's Castle Bromwich "shadow factory", near Birmingham, in late 1944. The aircraft is currently located in New Zealand and will be shipped to Temora after the Warbirds over Wanaka airshow.

TB863 is powered by a Rolls Royce Packard Merlin and was one of the last built with the standard fuselage design. The aircraft was test flown from Castle Bromwich and subsequently delivered to No. 19 Maintenance Unit at RAF St Athan on 27 February 1945. It was issued to No. 453 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force (one of a number of empire units serving with the RAF) based at Matlask, Norfolk on 22 March as a replacement for a Spitfire which forced landed in Holland
Spitfire TB863’s restoration was completed in 1988 by The Fighter Collection at Duxford UK and since then has taken pride of place in Sir Tim Wallis’s Alpine Fighter Collection at Wanaka in New Zealand. The Spitfire is currently painted in a World War II paint scheme and wears the same markings as when it served with the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF) over the skies of Europe. "