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By: - 8th April 2018 at 08:41 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
A couple of hours research and you will have your definitive list or you could wait a few days and buy the Two Seat Spitfire book by Greg Davis.
There is this old thread is a good start and a lot more interesting than a list.
https://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?46580-Two-seat-Spitfires-How-many
https://m.facebook.com/TheTwoSeatSpitfirePage/?locale2=en_GB
Then there’s Spitfire Survivors volume 1. The book and Facebook page updates. https://www.abebooks.co.uk/book-search/title/spitfire-survivors-now-volume-mks/author/arnold-peter-riley-gordon-trant
Spitfire International https://www.air-britain.co.uk/actbooks/acatalog/Spitfire-International---Special-Offer-58.html
The BHHH and Airframe Assemblies Facebook pages will give info on recent projects.
Perhaps a brief read of Key Publishing’s Warbird Directory and top it off with a look on G-INFO. https://siteapps.caa.co.uk/g-info/
Without access to the hard copy books your list could be pretty complete within a day using the online sources and a search engine.
To get you started...
T8 MT818 G-AIDN now based at Biggin Hill
T9 IAC
PV202 IAC161 DX
MJ627 IAC158 BH
ML407 IAC162 Sywell
MJ772 IAC159 BH damaged
TE308 IAC163 USA damaged
T9 Indian Air Force
ML417 converted by Vickers to twin stick for IAF 1948 (HS543). Converted back to single seat in 1984 Booker, UK. Now in USA
T9 Modern conversions
PT462 DX
SM520 Goodwood
NH431 Sywell/DX
MH367 New Zealand
EN570 under construction IOW (LN-AOA)
BS410 under construction BH
Then there is the fun of speculating other possibilities for future conversions. MJ271 as T9 or perhaps RN203 as a T8.
[Updated with comments from below]
By: - 8th April 2018 at 10:26 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Do you have any further details on the two seat Spitfire book, I've tried to find it in a search but no luck.
By: - 8th April 2018 at 10:55 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Difficult to call MH367 a modern conversion when is was built by Dick Melton as an entirely new aircraft before the identity if MH367 was found in the Chippenham scrapyard
By: - 8th April 2018 at 11:17 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
@LAHARVE
Been a slight delay due to change of publishers and having to go through the proof process again - think it will be available through Amazon when on sale
@Merlin70
Isn't TE308 still ground bound after it's accident?
By: - 8th April 2018 at 11:46 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I was simplifying things for the OP to get them started. MH367 or DM008 as it was to Dick Melton was, as we know, a new build with some provenance grafted to it at a later date. Discussing it again will only open up the undefinable, what constitutes an original, Trigger’s broom or a re-build. A potentially controversial way to define it is that DM built a fuselage before kicking around in the dirt/sand for a crashed wreck to add provenance, unlike the modern industry that starts with a card board box of oxidised castings, aluminium fragments, a piece of wire and some bakelite shards and builds a new a/c. [Cue gasps and rhetoric.]
Current flight status wasn’t foremost when I listed the current twin sticks. Both '772 an '308 have had unfortunate incidents and will fly again when time, priorities and funds align.
The Facebook page for Two Seat Spitfires promises to provide a link to purchase the book sometime in the next week.
Someone could compile the definitive list for the OP relatively easily, however, the info is all readily available; just not in the suggested format. Compiling such a list would also inform the OP on the current and past history of the airframes, ownership etc.
By: - 8th April 2018 at 12:37 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
You could add BS410, EN570 and 'AB123', the latter being visible 'South of the river'.
Mark
By: - 8th April 2018 at 12:59 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I had read that MJ772 would hopefully be up and about again this year.
By: - 8th April 2018 at 13:01 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Tim
Thanks - I was only asking if it was still awaiting repair/undergoing repair.
And I'm up to speed on Greg's book... ;)
By: - 8th April 2018 at 13:02 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Thanks Bob and merlin70, I'll have to put that in the wish list.
By: - 8th April 2018 at 15:37 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
By: - 8th April 2018 at 16:25 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
@Mark12. Are there references in the public domain for the 'AB123' restoration you make mention of?
Would you care to speculate on whether the current Air to Air and pleasure flight industry might encourage a MkXIV restoration to go the route of a conversion to VIII(T)?
By: - 8th April 2018 at 17:06 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Merlin 70. Nothing in the public domain to my knowledge on 'AB123' although the fuselage sheet metal is complete.
Speculation on a Mk XIV...A lot of work for not much gain I would have thought.
Mark
By: - 8th April 2018 at 17:55 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Ok. We will have to wait patiently to see details emerge.
On the MkXIV to VIII(T) I guess it depends upon whether someone with a MKXIV and a merlin decided to go on an adventure :-). Although I'm a fan of the XIV the revenue option is a conversion to T8. May be one day. :-)
By: - 8th April 2018 at 19:17 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Wasn't SM832 going to be restored as a mk VIII originally albeit in single seat form?
By: - 8th April 2018 at 19:18 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
“AB123” are you sure if that serial I heard it was “ZY987”
By: - 8th April 2018 at 19:19 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
We should also mention ML417...converted by Vickers to a trainer, but restored back to single seater config.
By: - 8th April 2018 at 21:02 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
@paulmacmillan. As Peter used the nomenclature for a spurious registration, I assumed it to be a serial not currently in open forums. Then you go and give it away. Outrageous.
Although I think there’s a typo. AA have disclosed T9 EN570. I don’t recall a EN520.
By: - 8th April 2018 at 22:45 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
As I recall, there as the possibility of a Mk.VIII being converted to two-seat status - JG668 - and a Mk.IX crash recovery - TE566 - to be converted to Tr.IX spec.
Any more word on these?
By: - 8th April 2018 at 22:58 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Although I think there’s a typo. AA have disclosed T9 EN570. I don’t recall a EN520.
Typo corrected.
By: - 12th April 2018 at 00:30 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I know that this thread is about extant two-seat Spitfires but it stirred a memory of something I had read in the distant past and, at last, I found it.
It is a 1947 report of a 'field' modification of a 'tropicalised' Spitfire Vc, in 1944 at Catania, Sicily. The pilot carried out liaison work and took his batman with him when performing these duties. A compartment was fitted in front of the regular cockpit and behind the engine. This compartment had a windscreen but no cover. The aircraft in question was ES127 of 261 Squadron (code: KJ-I), described as "almost certainly .... the first two-seat Spitfire".
The name of the pilot is not given (nor that of the batman, for that matter).
Posts: 168
By: KurtB - 8th April 2018 at 08:23
Good Morning Guys,
I was just looking through the Duxford thread, and musing at the recently refurbished Welsh 2 Seat Spitfire and it got me wondering how many are out there now? Obviously a fab idea if you’re an owner, and a “golden era” for non pilots to experience the thrill of flight in an icon. How many have been newly converted? How many of the original Irish ones are still flying as two seaters? Maybe this thread could be a good reference for the type?
Perhaps we need a layout like this, but could modify it if I’ve neglected anything:
Former Military Serial:
Civilian Identity:
Currently Marked as:
Factory T.9 Conversion: Y/N
Converted By Whom and When:
Current Operator:
Passenger Flights Available: Y/N
I think that covers it, but over to you guys to fill in the blanks.
Many thanks,
Kurt