Rare Spitfire may fetch £1.5m
Peter Tuplin, managing director of Classic Aero Engineering, after touching down at Truxton airfield near Andover, Hampshire, in a rare two-seat Mk IX Spitfire, which auction firm Bonhams believes could fetch a record £1.5m when it is sold on 20 April. Retrieved from a junkyard in South Africa 30 years ago, the plane is now certified to fly after being restored by Tuplin's company.
Bonhams and Goodman's sold a 1945 Mk XVI in New Zealand for £1.22m in September, reportedly the record auction price for a Spitfire. That plane had been on display at the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, until 1997.
The one now for sale was delivered on 23 October 1944, one of 23,000 Spitfires built through the war. The aircraft was converted into a two-seat trainer by Classic Aero Engineering...
Read entire article at Guardian (UK)
Bonhams and Goodman's sold a 1945 Mk XVI in New Zealand for £1.22m in September, reportedly the record auction price for a Spitfire. That plane had been on display at the US Air Force Museum in Dayton, Ohio, until 1997.
The one now for sale was delivered on 23 October 1944, one of 23,000 Spitfires built through the war. The aircraft was converted into a two-seat trainer by Classic Aero Engineering...