BBMF Spitfire TE311 is 80
Header image: BBMF Spitfire Mk XVI TE311 in its current 322 (Dutch) Sqn colour scheme. (Photo: Darren Harbar)
BBMF Spitfire Mk XVI TE311 was taken on charge by the Air Ministry on 8th June 1945, exactly one month after VE Day. So this special Spitfire is now 80 years old.
TE311 was built at the Castle Bromwich ‘shadow’ factory as a ‘low-back’, ‘clipped-wing’, Rolls-Royce Merlin 266 powered Mk L.F.XVIe. It was delivered to No 39 Maintenance Unit at Colerne on 16th June 1945 and placed in storage. On 5th October that year it was allocated to the Empire Central Flying School Handling Squadron. In all, with spells on the ground and long periods in storage in between bouts of flying, TE311 flew for a total of only about 12 months. When it was transferred to non-effective stock in December 1954 it had only some 30 hours ‘on the clock’.
For the next several decades Spitfire TE311 was kept on the ground, including spending over 12 years as a gate guardian at Tangmere and Benson, and 27 years as a static display aircraft with the RAF Exhibition Flight.
TE311 was allocated to the BBMF in 2000, intended to be used only for spare parts, but in 2002 a 10-year re-build to flying condition commenced, led by Chief Technician Paul Blackah MBE. Fitted with a Packard Merlin 266, which is correct for the mark, TE311 took to the air for the first time in 58 years in October 2012 and then joined the BBMF’s other airworthy Spitfires, becoming a stalwart of the fleet.
TE311 is currently painted to represent clipped-wing Spitfire Mk XVI TD322, which flew ground attack fighter-bomber missions with 322 (Dutch) Squadron during the closing stages of the Second World War in Europe. On its port side it carries the 322 Squadron code letters ‘3W-M’ and nose art of the unit’s mascot, an African grey, red-tailed parrot named “Polly Grey”.
On its starboard side TE311 now wears the code letters ‘L-NG’. With the roundel in between the ‘L’ and the ‘N’ this appears as ‘LONG‘; a tribute to Squadron Leader Mark Long who lost his life flying BBMF Spitfire MK356 on 25th May 2024. These markings are not totally fictitious as 604 Squadron RAuxAF flew clipped-wing Spitfire Mk XVIs carrying the code letters ‘NG’ during 1949 and 1950. If there was a Spitfire with the individual letter ‘L’ it would have appeared as ‘L-NG’ on its starboard side.
With Spitfire TE311 having reached this milestone, all of the BBMF warbirds are now octogenarians. Look out for Spitfire TE311 with its unusual ‘clipped-wing’ planform on the airshow circuit in its 80th year.
