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

using the 36” F52 cameras for the first time, was flown by P/o Sinclair and P/o #Nelson! Tragically Wilfred Nelson would be killed when his Mosquito PR1 W4054 crashed in Norway in March 1943. He is buried in Trondheim.

TRAFALGAR DAY Today, on #trafalgarday, we feature Mosquito PR1 W4060 which would on the 2nd June 1942 successfully obtain photographs of two revered enemy naval vessels, the aircraft carrier Graf Zeppelin, and battleship Scharnhorst in port at Gdynia. The operation, carried out

recorded in EJ’s logbook which was once thought lost. He is seen here pictured in an RAF Tomahawk which he flew with 241Sqn before service with 1PRU.

SPITFIRE AA810 DELIVERY TO BENSON Today in 1941, EJ Lee collected AA810 from the Henley factory and delivered it to RAF Benson. The 15 minute flight was carried out without a problem and AA810 would now be fitted out for operational service. We recently discovered this flight

SPITFIRE SUNDAY Spitfire PR.IV, BP888, at RAF Benson. First flew Feb 1942 & saw ops with 543 Sqn, it spent 5 months with the Aeroplane & Armament Experimental Establishment at Boscombe Down in 1943 before passing to 8(c) OTU at Dyce. It was written off in an accident in Oct 1944

Benson in the coming days. Five years ago to mark the anniversary of the first flight, the project produced a small number of prints to mark commemorate this. We have just 3 signed prints remaining and a small number of unsigned prints in our store at: spitfireaa810.co.uk/shop

TODAY IN 1941 - 85 YEARS OF AA810 AA810 takes to the skies for the first time from RAF Henley-on-Thames with Supermarine Chief Test Pilot Jeffrey Quill at the controls. The 20 minute test flight was completely satisfactory and the aircraft was signed off to be delivered to RAF

Up at local in evening with rest of Flight” Sandy returned to find his leave approved for a return to his home in Auchterarder, he would miss AA810 arriving at RAF Benson by just a few days!

West to try Cherbourg but no better. Flew East and photographed the coast from St Valery to Dieppe, Dieppe itself, Abbeville and its aerodrome. Came home then, and did a good beat right along the south coast past Brighton, Eastbourne etc. at about 50ft. and 200 yards off shore.

TODAY IN 1941… Sandy finally got back on a mission after a long spell of bad weather: Mission 20 - Spitfire R7056 “Did a trip at last after 13 days! Went off after lunch to do aerodromes south of Le Havre but found when I got there that it was covered by 10/10 cloud. Flew

MOSQUITO MONDAY Today’s aircraft is a PR.XVI of 544 Squadron taken later in 1944. NS502 is a well photographed machine, it would survive the war eventually being scrapped in November 1947.

the aircraft down at Reims. The RAF were unable to recover the aircraft and requested the French destroy it, however it was captured intact by the Germans who took today’s photograph. This image colourised by Colour by RJM

SPITFIRE SUNDAY Today we have Spitfire PR.1C P9331 of 212 Sqn. First flown in February 1940, the aircraft would operate from Meaux near Paris. On the 7th June 1940 it suffered a glycol leak during a sortie to photograph the Maastricht-Liege railway and its pilot F/Lt Wilson put

the loss of Johnny Wakefield testing a PR.IV at the site, assembly was relocated to Aldermaston.

BUILDING AA810 The final stage for AA810 was located in a small hangar on the side of RAF Henley Aerodrome. Here under the watchful eye of Foreman Mr Northeast, Spitfires from Reading were completed and test flown. The site continued in use for assembly until 1942 when following

war, for all of them it was a demanding and skilled task, with long hours and tight schedules.

BUILDING AA810 Another Reading site for fuselage work was the Caversham works in the Star Road, Caversham. 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

during the summer of 1941. Today the original factory is gone, the site being under redevelopment.

BUILDING AA810 With much work undertaken at Vincent’s Garage, just the other side of the railway tracks Great Western Motors were busy building wing components and assemblies. Situated in Vastern Road and under the Foremanship of Mr Colvin, AA810’s wings came together here