By Juan Jose Martin
Versión en Español

The Argentine Air Force was interested in the purchase of Spitfires T-IX trainers and ordered ten of these machines in 1950. The order finally was cancelled and was bought Fiat G55b two-seater trainers instead of these.

In 1947 a Spitfire PR.XI was bought by a civilian, to which was added another unit of the model HF Mk.IXe that was donated for educational intentions, for the School of Aeronautical Specialties of the AAF, in Cordoba -along with a Hurricane- after an aeronautical exhibition made in 9 de Julio avenue; and other (a Mk.VIII) that was sold symbolically for the aeronautical engineering career in the University of La Plata. The only that flew was the PR.XI, using like source of spare parts the Mk.IX donated to the AAF. In spite of this, the Argentina Air Force never had Spitfires operative in any unit, but they were painted with the national flags during a time, and used later like proving stands.

The Spitfires possibly was taken apart and only pieces remain in Argentina. Some enthusiastic of aviation offered to maintain them and to recover the airplanes before their taking apart, but the government denied the permission.

The Storey's Spitfire

With the outbreak of World War II, many Argentinians descending of English offered volunteers in all arms to fight against Germany. Among them was the captain James Storey, born in Rosario, who finalized the war brought from England a Spitfire in order to use it to make aerial mapping tasks. This was of the PR.Mk.XI variant, the last one of the Spitfires with Merlin engine, the most important allied reconnaissance airplane in the European front, being used by the RAF and the USAF in alone and disarmed missions until distant objectives as Berlin. Most of the airplanes of this version had the pointed rudder and all the replegable tail wheel, but the distinguishing characteristic of this disarmed variant was the crop under the engine, result of the enormous oil tank necessary for so long missions. During World War II Storey had flown most of the times in Spitfire. In merit of this, he acquired the machine directly to the Air Ministry, that authorized him to make the passage of the Atlantic, becoming the first machine of this type that arrived to Argentina. The Vickers-Armstrong company did a general maintenance service, installed additional fuel tanks and equipped the airplane with three Williamson F.24 f.8 (2 verticals and 1 oblique) cameras. It dequeued to Buenos Aires the 29 of April of 1947 at 10,50 hours from Hurn, England, in the airplane that had been constructed in 1944 (matriculation PL-972) and only counted on 20 flight hours. The stages of the flight were Gibraltar, Dakar, Natal, Rio de Janeiro, Montevideo and Buenos Aires. It is possible to emphasize that he had to make a forced scale in Africa due to an intense weather that lasted several days and forced the pilot to an emergency landing in the heat of desert, being this one the only disadvantage that he had throughout his raid. The airplane was equipped for this long trip only with a VHF radio. To the lack of other air-navigation instruments, the passage of the ocean made accompanying an Avro York of British South American Airways (BSAA), whereas the oil company Shell resupplied it and it offered aid to him throughout the extensive route. This airplane had a fuel capacity of 315 gallons, adding to it two additional tanks of 20 gallons in the wings and one of 170 gallons in the fuselage, which was equivalent to more than 10 hours of autonomy at an economic cruise speed of 400 km/h, that is about 4,000 km of reach without reserves. The crossing of the Atlantic demanded 8 hours 30 minutes.

James Storey (in work clothes) next to the Spitfire PR Mk.XI soon after his arrival to the country.	The LV-NMZ in flight, still with the additional fuel tank whereupon it made the Atlantic crossing.

Arrived at Buenos Aires it received the civil matriculation LV-NMZ. During just a short time which operated in our country, Storey collaborated in the search of a lost English civil airplane (the Lancastrian "Star Dust" matriculation G-AGWH) that became lost the 3 of August of 1947, of whose pilot, commander Reginald Cook, had been companion in the RAF. This machine was found just in 1998 in the slope of the Tupungato hill, with its rests halfed-bury in a glacier. Had mainly to bureaucratic problems, Storey used the airplane really little, but it deserves to be mentioned a flight made at the end of 1947 uniting Buenos Aires with Santiago de Chile in record time, fixing a mark that just improved by Aerolineas Argentinas Caravelle in the '60 years. The Storey's machine was confiscated by the end of 1948, being destined to the Military Aviation School in Cordoba and soon to the Technician Aviation Institute, being used among other things to a comparative benchmark with the only Fiat G-59 that had the Argentina Air Force. In the middle of 1949 were done modifications to it and was equipped with a cinematographic camera to film the tests of a flying scale model of a rocket engine bomb that was developing the Institute. Like the windshield of the PR.XI was curved, to avoid deformations of the film was adapted the flat windshield of the Mk.IX. In November of 1949, during a flight of the test pilot Luis Valloni, the Spitfire had an engine failure, making a forced landing with the undercarriage up in a field near Alta Gracia. The airplane only suffered small damage, but never was repaired, kept a time in a hangar of the factory, until it was terminated definitively. Later it was disarmed, their rests taken apart and envoys to the smelting.

The Spitfire PR Mk.XI confiscated to Storey,  already repainted with the national insignia.	Side view of the same airplane. Is appraised the absence of any numeration or matriculation.

The “Escuespe" airplanes

As the English government were in treatments of sale of an important amount of airplanes and the Spitfire were one of the models offered to Argentina, taking advantage of that in September of 1947 would be made an aeronautical exhibition in Buenos Aires, concretely in 9 de Julio avenue, was decided to donate to the national government a Spitfire and a Hurricane to be exposed in that exhibition, along with the Avro Lincoln B-001, the first of the acquired by Argentina. Finalized the exhibition the airplanes were given to the School of Aeronautical Specialties or "Escuespe", in Cordoba, donated by the Great Britain government with educative intentions, which arrived incomplete and mixed. The Spitfire, of the first equipped with cameras in the tail and of type HF (height flight), was recovered by a group of four students of the third cycle, together with the Hurricane, which appeared seated on the engine cowling in a photography publicated in the "Aerodeportes" magazine, and was armed with two 20 mm cannons and four machine guns of 7.62 mm, that did not come. The Hawker Hurricane did not receive Argentine matriculation, and it assumes that was of the Mk.IV version, identical to the Mk.II but with a RR Merlin 24 or 27 of 1,280 HP engine and an universal wing able to mount anti-tank guns, rockets or other external loads. In the School of Specialties it received the Argentine colors in the fuselage, not thus underneath the wings, where was left the English national insignia. During 1950, after suffering an accident on the ground, the Hurricane was dismantled and disarmed, not registering another antecedent known of this airplane in our country. The following text is the transcribed story of Mr. Jorge Rial, of Caseros, Buenos Aires, that worked in these airplanes in the School of Aeronautical Specialties of Cordoba: "The Spitfire and the Hurricane were destroyed in their disarmament in the exhibition of avenue 9 de Julio, together with the Lincoln B-001, and their pieces misled and mixed. Many of them had to be redesigned and made for its assembly in the 'Escuespe', where was counted on adverse situations for the reconstruction and only with the support of a Theory of Engines proffesor was able to display them in the withdrawn celebration of July 1948 , but never they could be started up. In the school, until December of 1948, they were well cares, mainly the Spitfire, that by its reduced trail and very advanced gravity center respect to the undercarriage underwent much the wind drifts, that shook it dangerously. Soon was added to them the Spitifire civil matriculation LV-NMZ (the confiscated to Storey), to which was changed the spark plugs, exhausts and wires, and of which two photographies exist, published in the magazine 'Aviacion Argentina'. This last one could not stay long time in good condition for two fundamental reasons: First, it had not spare parts and were difficult to obtain far from his origin country, and few of them was possible to obtain by canibalization of which already was in the 'Escuespe', since the British industry were not very standardized in that time, and in addition the two machines were of different model (view the difference of the rudder). The second reason, and the most important, it than it was an airplane done for few life hours and the possibilities of repair or maintenance had not been considered in their design. The engine was extremely compacted and there was no place for `put hands'. An engine failure implied the change of the same and its repair in an appropriate factory. The Hurricane, however, accepted better the tasks of repair and maintenance. The empennage group, for example, formed a single piece that was united to the rest of the fuselage by 46 little nuts and bolts of 1/4", which necessarily had to be placed from the interior of the fuselage and soon was due to leave by a lateral inspection hatch of 30x40 cm. That is by where were placed the cameras to the LV-NMZ. For it was needed the collaboration of a small size cadet in comparison with his force and agility. Thanks to him the group to the airplane could be assembled, having to make a true feat soon to remove him from the fuselage. Remember that during the war was selected workers outside the common thing to arm the airplanes. The students recovered them against all odds and if it were not possible to be completed the painting of the national insignia of the wings of the Hurricane in its inferior part had to that they had to conduct the operation at night, 'stolen energy' from three-phase cables for the compressor, because they had to left the factory closed and was surprised with the arrival of official visits trying to cover the English red with the light blue one (Argentinian blue, that calls to it)". Finally, the Spitfire Mk.IX donated by the British was given for the fused and taking apart at the beginning of 1950, and the LV-NMZ was flown several times by the lieutenant Luis Valoni, one of the tests pilots of the FMA, and after being used like didactic material by the lack of spare parts, suffered equal luck in 1963.

The Spitfire HF Mk.IX with the national insignias painted instead of the English ones.	The Hawker Hurricane that suffered equal luck than the Spitfire Mk.IX.

The La Plata National University machine

In 1938 is created the Aeronautics Center in La Plata, and in 1942 the Aeronautics Department and the aeronautical engineering career of the National University of La Plata, with the collaboration of military and civilian organizations (private and national); and thanks to the care of the authorities and educationals of the department an important number of airships with didactic aims were obtained. Organizations like YPF, the Military and Naval aviation always collaborate in the organization and equipment of the Institute. These airships allowed educational and the future withdrawn to obtain an agreed preparation at the levels of other countries of the world, being the technologies and used methodologies of outpost for the time. As a result of the English facilities to sell their airplanes to Argentina, several national commercial companies obtained the representation of British companies, one of them was Hennequin and Co., well-known by to have sold to the Argentine State more than 150 airplanes Miles Magister, used like trainers by the civil aviation. Indeed with that first lot of Magister, Hennequin import to Argentina the Spitfire Mk.VIII matriculation JF-275, with the intention to use it like demonstration machine to the Argentina Air Force, arriving at Buenos Aires in August of 1947, time at which already the purchase of Fiat G-55 had taken form, so it was never put in flight. At the beginning of 1948 it was sold by 1 sterling pound in symbolic form to the National University of La Plata, that kept it during a pair of years in a deposit before using it for educational aims. This airplane had 12 flight hours and came without warlike armament, by their destiny like didactic material. This airplane survived remaining in the Aeronautics Department, after being disarmed and armed hundreds of times by the students, and by negligence of some people, was object of vandalism and undressed of almost everything like source of "souvenirs", in 1966 was terminated by the University, being transferred the rests to a shed of the National Road company in the city of Magdalena, until finally was sold like scrap iron in 1979. Of this machine the memory and some of its parts only have left. It had been managed to conserve, for example, the Rolls Royce Merlin engine, that finally was destroyed in a devastating fire initiated in the Faculty of Engineering, concretely in the Aeronautics Factory, the 22 of August of 1998. Of this airplane today survives solely the left leg of the undercarriage.

A group of students working on the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine of the La Plata University Spitfire.	Another view of the same airplane. This machine was armed and disarmed hundreds of times by the students.

Colours

Why it is appraised in the photos, the Spitfire Mk.XI that was taken in 1947 by Storey was painted completely in PRU Blue (Humbrol 144 - Tamiya XF-18), the standardized colour of the reconnaisance English airplanes from 1942, to which was placed, to its arrival to the country, the civil matriculation LV-NMZ in black letters and the national flag colours in the tail rudder. After its confiscation by the military, it was painted presumably with the same colour scheme taken by the Curtiss-Hawk 75/0, that is green (Olive Drab Humbrol 30 - Tamiya XF-61) in the upper surfaces and light blue (Light Blue Humbrol 65 - Tamiya XF-23) in the lower ones, with national insignias in wings and fuselage and the national flag in the tail rudder; without other marks or numeration. The unit model Mk.IX donated together with the Hurricane would be painted in the standardized colours of the RAF, Ocean Grey (Humbrol 106 - Tamiya XF-54) and Dark Green (Humbrol 30 - Tamiya XF-61) for the camouflage of the upper surfaces, and Medium Sea Grey (Humbrol 165 - Tamiya XF-53) for the lower surfaces; with Argentine national insignias covering the British ones and the national flag in the rudder. Whereas the Hawker Hurricane would carry presumably such colours, with the reservation that say in the text of which conserved the English national insignia in lower side of the wings. In this point there is a discrepancy since other versions give account of which the Spitfire also would have conserved the English colors in the lower side of the wing, lamentably the black and white photos of that time do not give certainty on this point, only counted on the testimony of a direct witness of that happened with the Hurricane. Marks or numeration are not appraised neither the airplanes. Whereas the photos of the machine of the University of La Plata do not allow to visualize marks or colors, supposedly it come with the standardized English colours, but if it conserved numerals or nationality marks is an incognito.

Bibliography:

“Aerodeportes” magazine – Jorge Rial article.

“Aeroespacio” magazine – Atilio Marino article.

“Pista 18” magazine – Francisco Halbritter article.

“Defensa” magazine website.

National University of La Plata website (www.ing.unlp.edu.ar)

www.aeroarqueologia.com.ar website.

www.supermarine-spitfire.co.uk website.

Final note:

Will be welcomes all the collaborations that contribute to clarify the data exposed in this article, about this so little well-known stage of our aeronautical history.