undercarriage on impact. By the 17th July, P8088 was repaired and went into storage at 6 Maintenance Unit, Brize Norton on 19th July. On the 1st August she was then passed to Central Gunnery School, Catfoss. 22nd February 1944 saw NK-K taken to Heston Aircraft Co., Heston Aerodrome, Middlesex (just east of Heathrow Airport, the M4 now cuts through the middle of what was the aerodrome with the motorway services near junction 3 being built on the land) for repairs and was ready for collection on the 26th May, 1944 and delivered to 9 Maintenance Unit on the 14th June. The 1st July, saw P8088 allotted again to 61 Operational Training Unit and on 16th September, 1944, NK-K crashed into the ground at Lower Heath Coppice, Prees, Shropshire, killing Flight Sergeant John Cashel Barry RAAF, 22 years old from Wahroonga, New South Wales, Australia. He was buried in Chester Regional Cemetery.
One can only imagine the frenetic workload these pilots had to
live through compared to our average 21st century day at the office. The 1980s Museum display board reads; Spitfire P8088.
This aircraft of 61 OTU Rednal, Shropshire crashed at Lower Heath, Prees on 16th Sept 1944. Before joining 61 OTU it saw operational service with 66, 118, 152 and 19 squadrons.
P8088, ‘Bette’, is supplied with a Civil Aviation Authority
Certificate of Registration number G-CGRM/R1 which means that hopefully, one day, NK-K will be restored to a flying condition and the roar of a Merlin and its perfect flowing lines will once again grace the skies over ‘England’s green and pleasant land’.
In 1944/45, P8088 was recovered by Cosford recovery team and
stored for spares and scrappage. In 1978, further parts were recovered from the crash site by the Wartime Aircraft Recovery Group, Heritage Aircraft group. The remains were then passed on to Ibsley museum, Ringwood, Hampshire and displayed. The museum was closed down in the mid 1980s and the Spitfire display and boxed remains subsequently passed to a collector and ex-Cosford recovery team member, Mr Harrington, who then put it into storage. Over recent years NK-K has attended a number of events allowing a large number of people to enjoy it, sit in it, as well as generate some revenue for some worthy charitable organisations. The original aircraft has been modelled by Airfix and Revel in a 1/48th plastic kit as well as a 1/18th version made by 21st Century Models; although this is now apparently quite a collectors’ piece having gone out of production many years ago. Microsoft Combat simulator also has a version of NK-K which has been beautifully recreated for computer gaming. The vendor has supplied a CD Rom which contains all the
photographs of the aircraft, copies of technical drawings and a carefully noted inventory of every component in the project to help with identification as well as a copy of the original telegram from Bette to Captain Lumbsden and extracts from his pilots log book showing the dates of when the nose art was added and entries such as;
• May 17th ‘Dogfight’ 20,000ft • May 18th Submarines spotted • May 19th, Minor prang, Removed wing tip, to Cowley (repair Unit)
• May 25th Red1 Dogfight! • May 26th Chased Black JU88, lost in cloud
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