Battle of Britain Spitfire to fly again when pilot Pat Hughes’ plane is repaired

“Hughes’ Spitfire crashed east of this. I don’t know if he was thrown out or bailed out, but his body ended up in a backyard about 200 yards from where we lived. My father saw it all happen. He was in the Home Guard. He said the Spitfire hit the Dornier.”

Spitfire wreckage recovered from the crash site in 1968 rotted in a museum. Once rebuilt, the aircraft will be one of only four Mk 1 Spitfires flying worldwide.

The hull is being rebuilt on the Isle of Wight with a $150,000 grant from the Australian government. The Rolls-Royce V-12 Merlin engine will be produced in the USA and other parts will be produced using 3D metal printing technology by the University of Sydney engineering faculty.

The entire aircraft is donated to Hunter Fighter Collection Inc., a non-profit charity organization. It will be assembled in Scone by . The work will be done by Vintage Fighter Restorations, which has rebuilt other aircraft, including Spitfires.

Hunter Fighter Collection publican John Parker said about 400 kilograms of debris, or about 60 percent of the plane, was found there.

“It is a very important aircraft in terms of the remaining components we need to work on,” he said.

Ross Pay, president of the Hunter Fighter Collection, says Hughes’ plane will likely be the most historically valuable Spitfire to fly again.

Seeking donations and corporate sponsorship, he said: “The fact that the aircraft was flown solely by Pat Hughes makes it one of, if not the most famous and important Spitfire restorations ever carried out.”

Chris March is Hughes’ distant cousin and lives near Scone. “He was my grandfather’s first cousin,” he said. “I visited Pat’s grave in Hull in Yorkshire. You’d like to think there are some wealthy philanthropists interested enough in military aviation to support this venture. Pat’s story is not well known. He went to Fort Street School in Petersham.”

After the crash, Kay asked about Flying Officer Butch. He learned that the day Hughes died, he ran away from the police cafeteria and disappeared. She was pregnant but lost her baby when she was four months old. Kay remarried, but when she died in 1983, aged 66, her will called for her ashes to be placed next to her first husband’s grave.

He mentioned in an interview that he met her in heaven. “We’ll finally spend time together,” he said.

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