Packing up TE 294, the F/L Arnold Roseland Spitfire
In 1999, members of the Comox Air Force Museum on Vancouver Island, began a decade long project to construct a Supermarine Spitfire IX from the ashes of a former South African Air Force wreck. When finished, this Spitfire will fly in the markings of one that served in the Second World War with the famous and still existing 442 Squadron – based today at Comox.
The Comox team invested thousands of hours of their own time and resources to take the pile of twisted metal and bring it to life as a fully restored Spitfire fighter. The progress was slow, but of the highest quality possible – equal to any restoration extant – and all from volunteers with little experience. Some even took courses in the skills and technology needed to bring it to flying condition. They had an endless supply of skill, energy, time, enthusiasm, knowledge and commitment – but were in short supply of the funds needed to move forward. Nearly ten years after they began their dream the project was at full stop, with no foreseeable funds.
The Air Force, the Comox Museum and Vintage Wings of Canada entered into an agreement where Vintage Wings acquired the projectf or the symbolic sum of one dollar, and with a guarantee of the estimated $1.5 million dollars necessary to complete the project.