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Chinese Spitfire??

Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:34 pm

http://www.panoramio.com/photo/25279612

On the Right.... it's a Spitfire???

For Google Earth: 40°10'50.98"N 116°21'28.85"E :wink:

Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:45 pm

It appears to be. Looks like another great museum collection I will never get to aside from via the internet. Collection is over 200 aircraft including MIG-15, MIG-17, Tupolev TU-4, Tu-16, Tu-124 (F-2, F-5, F-6, F-8), Xi'an (F-5, F-6, F-7, H-6), Chengdu (F-7), Harbin (Y-5, Y-12, H-5, Z-5) and Nanchang (CJ-5, CJ-6, A-5). F-7 (the Chinese MIG-21), F-86 Sabre, F-104S Starfighter, UH-1H, C-130, and many others......wow! Link to some more pics
http://www.china.org.cn/english/kuaixun/72761.htm
ahhh, here is a link with a better list, alpha order
http://www.aviationmuseum.eu/World/Asia ... Museum.htm
Last edited by Holedigger on Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:47 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:46 pm

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... WAu9aC7y60

Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:55 pm

incredible! I Wasn't dreaming....

maybe what is her serial number?

Tue Oct 27, 2009 12:59 pm

75-3524 XVI

Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:00 pm

thanks

Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:10 pm

Many enthusiasts here in NZ were saddened about TE330's departure from our shores, considering we all thought she was so close to flight....one of our NZ forum members (see this thread: http://rnzaf.proboards.com/index.cgi?bo ... read=10044 ) posted a link - now unavailable - to a Chinese site where someone posted some walkaround shots.

You don't really need to be a particularly clever person to figure out that a Spitfire being kept outside isn't really a good idea.

I for one am very disappointed TE330 is now in China, as opposed to NZ where her restoration may have been completed, but its the nature of the game. The birds go where the money is.

Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:15 pm

That serial didn't look right.it was what was listed...not sure what IT is, so perhaps TE330
TE330, a LF Mk XVIe owned by the Subritzky family of the North Shore, Auckland, New Zealand was sold for NZD$2.8 million in September 2008. [87] TE330 was built at Castle Bromwich in late April 1945 and in 1957 joined the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. It was sold to the Smithsonian Institution in September 1959[g], and was put on display in the USAF museum at Dayton, Ohio in 1961. In 1996 the aircraft was bought by a Hong Kong based businessman, James Slade, who shipped it to Don Subritzky for restoration work in 1997. In 1999 TE330 was sold to the Subritzky family.[88] The airworthy aircraft was bought at the auction in New Zealand by Hong Kong businessman Yan-Ming Gao who intends to donate it to the China Aviation Museum in Beijing.[87]

Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:35 pm

yes, very strange idea for a Chinese citizen to buy a plane who never served in Chinese Air Force or Chinese sky... :shock:

Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:40 pm

F3V wrote:yes, very strange idea for a Chinese citizen to buy a plane who never served in Chinese Air Force or Chinese sky... :shock:


Why? A pretty girl is a pretty girl, independent of the dress :)

Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:44 pm

...and it is a draw for westerners with $$$$$s, but no Mustang!?! That ain't right! :wink:

Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:49 pm

rreis wrote:
F3V wrote:yes, very strange idea for a Chinese citizen to buy a plane who never served in Chinese Air Force or Chinese sky... :shock:


Why? A pretty girl is a pretty girl, independent of the dress :)


that's my opignon :D my if I had Spitfire she would not be sleeping outside...

Tue Oct 27, 2009 1:57 pm

F3V wrote:yes, very strange idea for a Chinese citizen to buy a plane who never served in Chinese Air Force or Chinese sky... :shock:


Can you be absolutely sure of that?

There are some who say that when the Russians dumped their Western hardware post WWII.....

PeterA

Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:02 pm

I never saw any pics about Chinese Air Force Spitfire :)

but they bought that Spitfire anyway :D

Tue Oct 27, 2009 2:25 pm

Holedigger wrote:...and it is a draw for westerners with $$$$$s, but no Mustang!?! That ain't right! :wink:
The Mustang is inside. I've seen at least 2 Mustang survivors on display in the Beijing area.

I don't think this museum is a large draw for westerners, poor or wealthy anyhow since it is about an hour from downtown where most of the westerners are, and everyone pays the same price for admission. The military museum downtown is a far better draw but features mainly Soviet era (and their Chinese copies) prominently indoors. The western stuff is all outside under a tin canopy.
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