Lewis Air Legends Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Vb "Marion"

Lewis Air Legends, of San Antonio, Texas, is the owner of this beautifully restored combat veteran Supermarine Spitfire Mk. Vb BL628 "Marion", which is available for airshows, flybys, film.

Undoubtedly the most famous British combat aircraft of World War II, the Spitfire is as deeply ingrained in the collective psyche of most Britons as the P-51 Mustang is in most Americans'. First flown on 5 March 1936, the Spitfire sprang from the design desk of R.J. Mitchell, who had previously submitted an unsuccessful design for a similar fighter, the Type 224. Once given the freedom to design an aircraft outside of the strict Air Ministry specifications, his Type 300 emerged as a clear winner; so much so that a new Air Ministry specification was written to match the new design.

The Spitfire Mk I became operational at Duxford, Cambridgeshire, in July 1938, and as time went on, the Spitfire was to become one of the most versatile and most-modified aircraft in existence, with various wing designs, armament changes, and engine changes dictating its many identities.

By the time WWII began in September 1939, nine squadrons of Spits were operational with the RAF, and the Spitfire quickly lived up to its good reputation by downing a German He 111 over the UK the following month. Ten more Spitfire squadrons were on strength by the fall of 1940, when the Battle of Britain tested the nation's resolve and military resources. Spitfires soon began overseas operations, in Malta, the Middle East, and the Pacific.

The Spitfire served, and continued to be built, throughout WWII. It served in many theaters,
and with many Allied nations, including the USA and the Soviet Union.

The Mk. V, of which 6479 were built (2447 as Mk. Vc), was the first Spitfire variant to be used as a fighter bomber as well as being the first variant to be widely utilized overseas. Both the Mk. Vb and Vc could carry a belly tank for longer range.

Spitfire BL628 (RAF Serial) was built at Castle Bromwich in the Birmingham region as a VB with two 20mm cannon and 4 303 Machine guns. It was sent to RCAF squadron 401 at Gravesend in February 1942. It became the mount of Canadian G. B. Murray ("Scotty") and he named it "Marion" after his girlfriend.

Scotty flew it for 100 flights during the period to August 1942 with a total of 99.5 hours on fighter sweeps over France and Holland. He damaged 2 FW190 and destroyed one in this aircraft. During this time he shared the aircraft on an occasional basis with other famous Canadians including, the CO, Sq Ldr Keith Hodson, the famous Eagle Squadron leader Colonel Don Blakeslee who was first with 401 then moved to the USAAF squadron, Don Morrison who sadly passed away recently , Ian Ormston, Ian McLennan, and many others. BL628 had many actions against FW190. The aircraft subsequently served with a number of squadrons including an American squadron for a short time.

It was then transferred to the Royal Navy and converted to a Hooked Spitfire in 1943. In Belfast Ireland it was used to train 899 RN Squadron pilots before going to St. Merryn, Cromwell in 1944 where it ended its career.

It is in the same place that the fuselage was found in derelict state some thirty years later, acquired by Peter Croser & Michael Aitchison from Australia in 1977. The fuselage had been with the Charles Church organization for rebuilding, using a lot of parts from other Spitfires scrounged in Australia, plus from BL628 itself. Where there were no suitable "genuine" parts, new items were fabricated by that organization for the build.

The fuselage came to Australia in 1996, still with a lot of work to be done. The wings were always going to be a real challenge. a port Seafire XV outer wing was stripped for everything usable, and a lot was usable in the Mk Vb wing; however, the wing had been outside for a lot of years and a lot was throw-away pattern-only parts. A mixture of Mk Vc and VIII wing parts were available, but there were no usable spars or leading edge skins which on the Spitfire is a rigid "D"-section leading edge. It was decided to have Airframe Assemblies on the Isle of Wight build a set of left and right D-sections, with reconditioned parts where available supplied by us to be incorporated. This included all landing gear attach parts, cannon front mounts, and machine gun blast tubes, wingtip fittings, etc. It was also decided to purchase new manufacture aft-of-spar ribs and flap "kits" from Airframe Assemblies also.

Avspecs in New Zealand came into the picture, and as they were set up to do major Spitfire work, they would finish the wing build, again using a significant amount of items refurbished or manufactured.

The amount of parts that had to be made from scratch was incredible, and the list included major propeller items for the whole piston and cylinder group, including the spinner front support. While making those propeller parts, they received requests from other Mk V Spitfire projects. Avspecs did a great job finishing the project, but as they said: It was the first time they had ever tackled a project where all the hard yards had been run.

The first post-restoration flight took place on September 29, 2007. Well-known US warbird operator Steve Hinton perhaps summed it up, after its test flight in California where it was re-assembled for the new owner Rod Lewis, when he said it was the nicest Spitfire he had flown, admittedly not with all the grunt of the later more powerful Marks, but he felt very privileged to put it to work and show it off for the restorers as a tribute to their efforts.

Spitfire BL628 "Marion" won Best Fighter at 2008 EAA AirVenture at Oshkosh, WI. This was probably the first time the vast majority of attendees had seen an early-war Spitfire. It is different in that it has a 3-blade propeller, siamesed exhausts rather than individual stubs, slightly shorter front fuselage (the Mark of Merlin was shorter due to no intercooler...), different armored windscreen and different wheels.

The successful restoration of "Marion" brings up the number of airworthy Spitfires Mk. V's in the world to seven.

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