Spitfire AA810
@SpitfireAA810
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Spitfire PR.IV AA810 will be restored to airworthy condition, a project dedicated to the memory of all the men of the Photographic Reconnaissance Unit.
United Kingdom
Joined October 2018
Major Announcement! Today the UK CAA have issued AA810 with its new civilian registration: G-PRID. This was chosen by the project as it pays homage to the pedigree of the PR.IV; the production version of the PR.1D, & officially places AA810 on the UK Aircraft Register. #Spitfire
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Spitfires, we will all miss Peter greatly. RIP old bean.
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contributed so much to our documentary work, and gave hours and hours of his time to helping us expand Sandy’s story. Always keeping in touch with progress, the project owes so much to Peter for us being where we are today. A dab-hand at full-size masking tape outlines of…
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on the recovery expedition and was a core part of the team from then. It is thanks to Peter that we have access to so many PR Spitfire photographs and indeed he had three photos of AA810 pilots in his own personal collection. Peter was a huge part of our Sandy’s Spitfire book,
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PETER ARNOLD - A DEAR FRIEND All at the project were sad to receive the news that our friend Peter passed away on Thursday this last week. Peter had been involved with AA810 from the earliest days of our quest to locate the wreck in Norway. He was so enthused that he joined us…
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all of them it was a demanding & skilled task, with long hours and tight schedules.
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BUILDING AA810 Another Reading site for fuselage work was the Caversham works in the Star Road. Here engines would be installed into completed fuselages that would arrive from Vincent’s. Altogether 1,600 people were engaged on Spitfire production in Reading during the war, for…
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BUILDING AA810 Just the other side of the railway tracks in Reading, Great Western Motors were busy building wing assemblies. Situated in Vastern Road, AA810’s wings came together here during 1941. Today the original factory is gone, the site being under redevelopment.
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@RAFBenson Mosquitos, a type which she enjoyed 2 flights in before the end of the war. Demobbed in October 1945 Joan left England to start a family with her husband in his native Canada. She passed away in January 2015 aged 91.
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Airframe Mechanic & was duly posted to 542 Sqn at @RAFBenson maintaining PR Spitfires via daily checks & servicing. In this role she met Edward Woodruff, a Canadian serving as a fellow mechanic & the pair later married. In April 1945 Joan transferred to 544 Sqn servicing PR…
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WAAF WEDNESDAY Joan Heraghty was born on 4th November 1923 in Goldthorpe, near Doncaster. Joining the WAAF at 18 she was 1st taught to operate & repair barrage balloons before becoming a winch operator. Rising through the ranks to LACW, Joan switched careers to become an…
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with many varied lines of trade occurring under the shadow of the aviation activities going on there. Sadly now demolished, the only real reference to its location is the statue on the roundabout that still exists outside.
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Transported away under cover of darkness, most of the photo reconnaissance PR.IVs including AA810 were built here during 1941 and 1942. AA810 started to go together here in the summer of 1941, before final assembly in Henley. Vincent’s garage was certainly a secretive place,
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BUILDING AA810 The secret Spitfire factory: Vincents Garage, Reading. Vincent’s seen here on the left, in close proximity to Reading train station, held many secrets during WW2. One of the biggest secrets being that it was one of 3 shadow factories in Reading building Spitfires.
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MOSQUITO MONDAY Today’s aircraft is Mosquito PR Mk XVI NS645 “P” of No 684 Sqn taken at Alipore, India in early 1945. This aircraft would be lost on the 14th November 1945 in a belly landing in Saigon following engine failure due to a glycol system fault.
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F/O MERVYN WHEATLEY - FIRST PDU LOSS Mervyn was born today in Lewes, E Sussex in 1913. He would be the first RAF Reconnaissance loss of the Second World War, and indeed was the first Spitfire combat loss of the war. He is commemorated by our friends at the Spitfire N3069 project.
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BERGEN U-BOAT PENS - 81 years on Today is the anniversary of the bombing of the U-Boat pens in Bergen, an area heavily visited by PR Units which gave the intelligence for the raid. It wasn’t the precision bombing op it was hoped to be with 193 civilians killed inc 61 children.
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Crewe. In total some 150,000 Merlin engines were built across several sites including Derby, Crewe, Glasgow, and with Ford in Manchester. With Merlin 45’s difficult to come by and with a few flaws, AA810 will fly with a Merlin 35.
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BUILDING AA810 As we gear up for the continued restoration, this year we are going to focus a little on the elements of wartime production that produced AA810 in period. A major part was AA810’s Merlin 45 engine which was one of 25,000 Merlin engines built at Rolls-Royce in…
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dinghy. Had a big celebration at night in the Shillingford Bridge Hotel for David Salway’s DFC, which he got for his Danzig trip. About 30 people there, but all very well behaved!” The Shillingford Bridge Hotel still stands by the side of the Thames.
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got pretty annoyed owing to bad visibility. Photographed 1 or 2 aerodromes, flew back to coast, took St Valery & Dieppe & came home, fed up. Landed at 16:35; did not enjoy trip as nothing went smoothly as far as photography was concerned. Seat was very uncomfortable too, owing to
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