Defence Minister George Fernandes with the Restored Spitfire VIII MV-459 and the senior officers of Ambala Air Force Station. Seen in the photograph are Air Commodore SK Sofat AOC Ambala, Air Marshal AR Ghandhi AOC-in-C WAC, the Defence Minister, Wg Cdr Shrivastava who carried out the restoration and Wg Cdr N Harish CO 3 Squadron. Pic Courtesy: Vipin Kumar of Hindustan Times

We knew that the Spitfire recovered from the riverbed at Mullana had become a candidate for an internal restoration of the Indian Air Force. Personally due to the lack of insider news, i was quite skeptical about the outcome. However it proved to be a lesson never to understimate the technical capabilities of the boys in blues!

When the Defence Minister, George Fernandes went to Ambala for an air familiarisaiton sortie in a MiG-21U of No.3 Squadron, one of the social events that happened there went largely ignored. Only two newspapers, Hindustan Times and the Indian Express thought it fit to report that the visit of the Defence minister was also an ocassion to unveil for the first time the restored Spitfire MV-459. A news report was also carried in the national TV news.

Unfortunately for us and the visitors of the website, we only have one photograph of the Spitfire and that too a Black and White one to go by. Examination of the photograph reveals a tremendous effort on part of the technical team. The aircraft looks quite good - though the shape of the cockpit Canopy and windsheild looked wrong, it should be noted that this part of the aircraft is extremely difficult to scratch build. The undercarraige of the aircraft looks complete and quite accurate as does most of the rest of the aircraft.

The restoration effort was done by Wg Cdr Shrivastava under the auspices of the Station Commander Air Commodore SK Sofat. The Mk VIII of the IAF Vintage flight at Palam was taken as the pattern aircraft and most of the measurements and curvatures were taken from that aircraft for reconstruction of the fuselage of MV459. It should be noted that only five feet of the original fuselage was recovered intact from the river bed apart from the almost intact tail section.

The good news is that there is a substantial portion of the original remains that could form the basis of a ground up restoration of the types carried out in the UK. Airworthy Spitfires have been built up from remains that were in worse conditions than this and of lesser percentage of completeness. So there is hope in the world of an intact MV-459 surfacing one of these days

While we await the arrival of more photographs, It should be noted that the restoration of the Spitfire is a landmark event. Compared to the apparent lethargy of authorities regarding the Messerchmitt incident last year, the apparent speed with which the IAF reacted on the recovery of this aircraft and its restoration bodes well for the warbird lovers of the Indian Subcontinent!