The Two Place Spitfire made it to New Zealand and has flown

[Warbirdnerd]

Glad to see the export issues were settled and this bird was allowed to continue on it's way...

http://www.tv3.co.nz/News/Story/tabid/2 ... fault.aspx

[Bill Greenwood]

Nice write up. However the part about needing "all your skills" of an expert aerobatic pilot gives the impression that a Spitfire is hard to fly and it is not. Whether in normal flying or aerobatics it handles well. Otherwise how do you think they could have built almost 23,000 and virtually all of them were flown for the first time solo by a pilot with no time in type. Now these RAF pilots were well trained and they weren't handicapped by having gotten used to nosewheel or jets before the Spitfire.

[n5151ts]

how many double cab spits are there in the world in relationship to the singles. It seems to me that most of the press lately has shown more double cabs flying.

[blurrkup]

This is a list of 2 seaters that I can think of.

Airworthy

ML407 - Carolyn Grace UK
IAI 161 - Historic Flying UK
PT462 - Anthony Hodgson UK
MJ627 - Maurice and Peter Bayliss UK
MH367 - Doug Brooker NZ

Under Restoration

TE308 - Bill Greenwood USA
MT818 - Paul Andrews UK
SM520 - Owner unknown UK (Currently undergoing engine runs so likely to join airworthy fleet soon.)


Out of these MT818 is the MkVIII trainer prototype.
ML407, IAC-161, MJ627 and TE308 are original Vickers conversions, (ML407 does not though have the original shaped rear canopy).

PT462, MH367 and SM520 are all new conversions.