Are people aware of this adventure? A guy from England is flying a Spitfire IX (MJ271/G-IRTY) around the world (in fairly small hops it must be said). He left Goodwood (former RAF Westhampnett) on August 5th along with a PC12 support aircraft and crossed the Atlantic via the Faroes, Iceland and Greenland (not yet part of the USA ). They have had a few days in Canada and yesterday flew from Bedford Hanscom Field to Islip Long Island MacArthur Airport. They are already behind schedule and seem to be stopping in different places to the planned route but should in the northern USA/Canada for the next few weeks. The route map and plan are here: https://www.silverspitfire.com/about/route-map/ Week one update is here: The plan is to be back in the UK for tea and medals in time for Christmas! This is the aircraft the last time I saw it (incomplete and wearing an incorrect serial) at Duxford in 2015: Image Unavailable, Please Login
I love following this. Spent a fair amount of time with Spitfires at Goodwood over the years. The pilots and team are geniuses (read the bios) with exceptional fortitude and endurance. This is amongst the best Freedom photo, IMO.
She's here in Colorado today.... for a couple days, I think.. I've never seen an unpainted Spit... gorgeous...
A perfect example of the old industrial design creed of " Form Follows Function." I feel that this is the ultimate aerodynamic sculpture and it is shown here in its unadorned purity. It has no equal.
The route is all over the place. Yesterday (the 22nd) they flew from Bowling Green-Warren County Airport (BWG) in Kentucky to Monroe Regional Airport (MLU) in Louisiana. Neither of those places were on the original schedule so who knows where they will be going next! No action so far today.
Well, that doesn't work... I was going by a local radio station saying it was in Erie, CO yesterday... they also said they were behind schedule.
I have not found an actual schedule. I am tracking them using Flight Radar 24. The Spitfire (G-IRTY) does not always show up but the support plane (PC12 with Danish registration OY-THP) shows up better. Right now neither of them are showing up but were last seen heading South West.
This is the planned schedule, and current status. Love to know more about the escort plane(s) too. https://www.silverspitfire.com/about/flight-tracker/
And the Red Arrows will also be flying over Seattle: https://www.raf.mod.uk/display-teams/red-arrows/us-canada/
I live near the Va beach Aviation museum they have a Spitfire there along with many old military planes .. and I have had the pleasure of watching him go through the preflight startup and take off on his grass runway ....truly an exciting event for a non aviation guy like me but that is an beautiful plane.....
QUOTE="luvair, post: 146777894, member: 20196"]This is the planned schedule, and current status. Love to know more about the escort plane(s) too. https://www.silverspitfire.com/about/flight-tracker/[/QUOTE] Yes had seen the planned schedule... they were supposed to have been and gone from Colorado already, but are not close to being here yet. Was hoping to see the plane at ERIE, CO airport...
Please be careful before going to see this aircraft based on the posted schedule. You could go along and wait for days to see nothing! Yesterday (the 23rd) the Spitfire and support team flew Monroe-Huntsville-Comanche Ranch and none of these stops were on the original schedule. The schedule that both Luvair and I posted links to has been updated. They were behind schedule before they left the UK so things will probably fall back even further. At least they have updated their website now but currently just about everything is TBC. Still an epic adventure though and they are still planning to be back at RAF Westhampnett on December 8.
On the ground right now at Paine Field after flight from Redmond, Oregon: Image Unavailable, Please Login
