Surviving Spitfires

[Pat Carry]

wow, I had no idea there were so many left worldwide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_su ... _Spitfires

[Mike]

And they keep building more of them!

[Pat Carry]

When was the last Spitfire made? 1946ish?

[Mike]

2013

[T J Johansen]

T J

[Sopwith]

Mike's right, they are multiplying a bit like BSA Goldstars and Rocket Goldstars. Still no bad thing, can't have enough of a good thing.

[Pogo]

When was the last Spitfire made? 1946ish?

Interesting question. Makes me wonder how many flying Spits there are today, and how many Mustangs (roughly)? And for that matter, what's the most numerous WWII warbird flying at the moment (or quite possibly so)? My guess is Mustangs and Spits lead the pack, and further guess the former outnumbers the latter. How'd I do?

At the risk of causing an explosion, I wonder what's the status of BG's Spit, and of BG himself for that matter?

[Kyleb]

At the risk of causing an explosion, I wonder what's the status of BG's Spit, and of BG himself for that matter?

Bill posts with some frequency on the EAA forums. IIRC, the Spit project is moving forward slowly.

[k5083]

The top authority on preserved Spits is an occasional poster here. The bottom line is that the number of truly active Spits has hovered around 50 airframes for at least the past 30 years. There are over 100 active Mustangs, some say closer to 200. Avengers and possibly B-25s also outnumber Spits.

August

[seagull61785]

Are you including the ones rumoured to be operated by the Burmese Underground?

[Matt Gunsch]

The most numerous WWII Warbird flying is easy, the NAA AT-6

[JohnTerrell]

By my count, there are currently about 55 active Spitfires, 174 active Mustangs (20 of which are based in Europe alone (including the most recent export)), 37 active B-25's, and as I recall, something like over 300 active AT-6/SNJ/Harvards.

[JohnS]

wow, I had no idea there were so many left worldwide. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_su ... _Spitfires

I am glad my efforts on this Wiki page are of interest. I do try to keep the page reasonably up to date and have been adding further information as and when time allows.

Obviously the airworthy statistic is subjective, but by my count the number that fall into this category currently is 53. This reflects a couple that have not flown for a few years which are no longer included in the total. Interesting statistics though, and as someone has already pointed out the airworthy number seems to hover around the 50 mark and has done for a number of years.

Please take a look at the page and if you have any updates or see one that is wrongly classified please PM me, always happy to gather more information.

Regards,

John
(aka JBS007 on Wikipedia)

[SaxMan]

I believe the number of Avengers actively flown is hovering in the mid-to-high 30s...pretty consistent with the B-25's numbers.

[Mike]

And even more PT-17s, surely they must be the most numerous type?