Swandean is part of my home town of Worthing & not far from where I'm sitting now. I remember when my brother & I were young & then living at Lancing, a couple of miles to the east, our father sometimes took us to see the Swandean Spitfire. This wasn't at Shoreham Airport but parked on the forecourt of the Swandean Garage. Of course, we thought it was wonderful to have our own local Spitfire that we could see at any time we wished for the price of a short bus ride. One day it disappeared & I often wondered what happened to it. While reading an old copy of Aeroplane this week I saw it mentioned which reminded me of the whole fascinating story. I've copied some of the following from this site.
http://www.spitfiremk2a.co.uk/my-history-sl721.htmlIn February 1955 this Spitfire (Mk XVI SL721) was bought for £150 From the Air Ministry by Mr. F.M.Wilcox, a Worthing garage owner, and it was delivered to Swandean Garage Ltd. In Arundel Road, Worthing, and for many years was exhibited in a compound on the garage forecourt. The aircraft was well preserved by Mr.Wilcox, as was evident in later years when it was overhauled in Chicago and found to be in first-class condition. Mr.Wilcox ran the engine for some 40 minutes each year, usually on Battle of Britain day, it being inhibited after each run. In September 1958 the aircraft was loaned to RAF Thorney Island for the Battle of Britain display and was actually flown, although this was at the time very unofficial, the pilot to this day being unknown!
As the Swandean Garage was expanding Mr. Wilcox decided to take up an offer from Lord Montague of display space at the new Beaulieu Motor Museum. It was exchanged for a vintage 8-litre Bentley but remained at Beaulieu for while before being sold to the Marquis of Headfort by its new owner. It finally ended up on the other side of the Atlantic & first flew in the U.S.A. on 11 May 1967. I was pleased to discover that while it's suffered many accidents during its lifetime it's still flying today. More interesting information on SL721 from local historian Valerie Martin here.
http://www.findonvillage.com/0761_the_swandean_spitfire.htmThinking about this reminded me that when I first joined the ATC at Shoreham in 1956 we had our very own Spitfire. This was a much later version & wasn't really ours. It belonged to the Brighton branch of RAFA & had been parked (or rather dumped) on land that we shared with the local TA. We could look at it but were forbidden on pain of death to sit in it or even open the canopy. I'm pretty sure the engine had been removed & it was in a sorry state. It disappeared at some point during the next few years while I was with the ATC but these things often happened in those days & I never gave it much thought. After a bit of hunting around I found out what happened to it. It's now on static dsiplay in Australia. No mention of a serial number.
http://www.raafawa.org.au/wa/museum/spitfire/history.htmlThe Western Australian Division of the Air Force Association bought the Spitfire on 5 August 1958 and, on 14 May 1959, it was shipped from London to Fremantle aboard the MV "Queensland Star". The purchase price had been £100 but this was reduced to £87/10 when some slight damage was done to its forward fuselage while being dismantled. Transporting the Spitfire to Perth cost over £500.I'm sure this will interest Ozzy if nobody else.
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