The Making of the film:
The survivors
Spitfire Mk.F24 PK724
Squadrons: No squadron service.
Type: VS356
Engine: Griffon 64
No RAF service
Serial/Reg. PK724
Role in film: Allocated not used, Currently: Display
History
This is probably the lowest houred Spitfire in the world with a total flying time of just 7 hours on its airframe. Built at Castle Bromwich, PK724 was delivered to No.33 MU at Lyneham on 30th October 1946, remaining in store for the next two and a half years. It emerged on 5th April 1949 and was despatched to Westland aircraft for modifications, but just nine days later it moved on, possibly to Scotland, and the work was eventually completed with the aircraft ready for collection on 2nd February 1950.
Delivered to No.9 MU at Cosford on 9th February the Spitfire was placed in store, to be declared a non-effective airframe on 14th December 1954. The maintenance serial 7288M was allocated to it on 31st October 1955 and on 4th November it moved to Norton for display duty, and was transferred to Gaydon, Warwickshire, for similar use on 1st December 1961; Here it remained in excellent health, until 1967, when it was moved to Henlow for possible use in “The Battle of Britain”. A survey found the airframe and engine to be remarkably well preserved and a rebuild to flying trim was considered but abandoned following damage to the wiring loom and PK724 returned to Gaydon on 13th August 1968. Upon closure of the base it was moved to Finningly on 20th February 1970 and prepared for display at the RAF Museum, Hendon where it was installed on 2nd April 1971. As off 2006 the aircraft was still at Hendon on display.
Current location – RAF Museum, Hendon, London - display
Other Aircraft