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Rare World War II fighter plane grounded here, temporarily
McCOOK, Neb. — A British fighter plane known for its epic dogfights and agility in the sky during World War II is now quietly waiting to be repaired in a McCook hangar.
Backed safely into a corner at one of the largest hangars at Red Willow Aviation rests a Supermarine Spitfire Mk IX, one of only 12 in the U.S. today that is still flyable, according to its pilot, Warren Pietsch.
Owned by the Texas Flying Legends Museum in Houston, Texas, the Spitfire had performed in an air show on Memorial Day in Texas and was flying with other warbirds from the show — a TBM Avenger, FG-1D Corsair, P51D Mustang, Texas Warhawk P-40E, FM-2P Wildcat — to the Dakota Territory Air Museum in Minot, N.D., a sister museum to the TFLM. When the fleet of airplanes stopped at Red Willow Aviation for fuel, Pietsch, the Spitfire’s pilot, noticed that it was losing oil pressure. After inspecting the engine, it was discovered that it needed to be replaced, said Griff Malleck, president of Red Willow Aviation.
See a gallery of photos of the Texas Flying Legends visit here.
After refueling, the rest of the planes took off for Minot, leaving the Supermarine Spitfire grounded in McCook for a new engine.
Only not just any engine will do. The Rolls Royce Merlin engine will come from Los Angeles and is expected to be done by the first part of August, Pietsch said. It will then be transported to Red Willow Aviation, where it will be installed into the Spitfire.
It’s been a long journey for the 73-year-old warbird. The Spitfire series were manufactured during World War II and became famous for their top rates of speed, over 400 mph, as well as their rapid rates of climb and agility, thanks to an unique elliptical wing design and the powerful Rolls Royce PV-X11 (Merlin) engine. Equipped with up to six guns, the Spitfires were instrumental during the “Battle of Britain,” when the Nazi Luftwaffe pounded England by bombs every night for three and a half months beginning July 10, finally driven off by the Royal Air Force’s Hawker Hurricanes and plucky Spitfires.
The history of Supermarine Spitfire MK IX in McCook began with the Royal Air Force as serial MK959, according to warbirdnews.com. Manufactured in England later in the war in 1944, it was assigned in May 1944 to the 301 Polish Squadron based in England, with its main focus transportation targets in France prior to the invasion of Normandy. Nine days after D-Day, Spitfire MK959 was transferred to the 329 Free French RAF Squadron based at Merston, England and flown by five different pilots on 19 combat missions, flying over the D Day Beachhead on patrol. The plane currently wears the same codes (5A-K) and invasion stripes she flew with 329 Squadron during this time. Transferred to the 165 Squadron in August 1944 as Sx-M based at Detling, it continued to fly combat missions.
After the war, it was sold to the Royal Netherlands Air Force and again saw action with the Dutch 322 Squadron over the Dutch East Indies during the Indonesian fight for independence in the late 1940s. It was used as an airfield decoy during the Cold War and then for years, mounted in front of officers’ clubs as a display item.
By the time veteran airplane restorer Raybourne Thompson of Texas purchased it from the Dutch in 1995, the Spitfire was a corroded shell of it itself, “basicially a pattern,” according to an article in warbirdnews.com.
Thompson spent a decade restoring her and decided to paint the MK959 in the Free French scheme, the mascot being the half stork, in honor of Andre Rose, the only living pilot who once flew the Spitfire and the Free French Unit. The Texas Flying Legends Museum acquired her in 2012 from a buyer who bought it from Thompson, adding it to 11 other restored World War II fighter planes.
For Pietsch, director of operations and chief pilot of the Texas Flying Legends and one of the founding members of the Dakota Territory Air Museum, World War II fighter planes deserve a place in history.
Much like flying monuments, the planes are “a history lesson that represents things done in the war that saved our way of life,” he said, with the air shows a way to bring honor to the veterans who served.
“The planes are a window to the past and an education for the future. They continue the story.”
As for the Spitfire in McCook, Pietsch will return when the engine is in place, give it a few practice runs in the sky, then fly her back to North Dakota. It will be on display through August with other World War II fighter planes and if deemed mechanically sound, perform its signature acrobatics in upcoming air shows as originally scheduled.
There is a total of 238 Spitfires worldwide, with the US having 12 airworthy, 10 as static display and eight restored, for a total of 30. More Spitfire Mk Vs were built than any other type, with 6,487 built, followed by the Mk IXs at 5,656.