Just checking mate…
An aviation enthusiast has called for people to check their garages, sheds and barns for…. World War II fighter jets.
Posting in the “Two-Seat Spitfire” page on Facebook, an admin shared his ambition to follow in the footsteps of ‘Mr Spitfire’ Peter Arnold, who travelled the World in order to assemble the iconic warplane in his house in Newport Pagnell, near Milton Keynes.
Interviewed earlier this year, the 80-year-old said he had spent more than 50 years searching out the composite parts to complete his dream project.
“It goes right back to my school days when I was 15,” he told ITV News. “Usually you’re interested in buses or trains, and then old aircraft, just before you get interested in girls. At 15 years of age it was second world war aeroplanes, and spitfires in particular – and it’s never left me.”
Across the world, there are less than 300 Spitfires left and just 74 of them are capable of flying.
Arnold has owned seven of them.
But he said: “I’m not in this league [of] multi millionaires, I’m just a middle-ranking engineer who is ahead of the pack hunting down all these bits, chasing parts around the world, setting up horse trades, swapping bits. I don’t just find parts for my projects either, I help others too.”
Inspired by his heroics, one aviation enthusiast put out a call for anyone with a “Spitfire in their shed, a bulkead in their barn or a Merlin in their mate’s garage”.
The post has been widely shared on social media, with people heading out to check behind the boxes at the back to see if a warplane might be hiding there.
If you find anything, make sure to give him a shout!
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