The Darlington Spitfire
I am not a materialistic person so I want for very few possessions. However, if I had the money and it was for sale, I’d love to own a Supermarine Spitfire and, if it was a two-seater so that I could be flown around in it, then that would be absolutely fantastic. But, besides not having the money, Spitfires come on the market very infrequently (last time was two decades ago) and two-seaters are extremely rare (there are only six in the world).
So imagine my excitement when I saw the news this week that a two-seater Spitfire IX had been sold down the road from me at the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon. It went for a cool £1.7 million.
Now, as some of you will know, my surname is Darlington which is a town in the north-east of England and, during the Second World War, there was actually a Darlington Spitfire. Many years ago, I researched the record of this particular aircraft and wrote it up in a essay which is on my wen site here.