File:Supermarine Spitfire Ia ‘K9942 SD-D’ (46342319274).jpg

c/n 6S.30225 Built at Eastleigh in 1939, this Spitfire first flew on 21st April 1939 and is now the oldest surviving Spitfire. She served initially with 72sqn and was coded SD-D but at the outbreak of war this was changed to RN-D. A wheels up landing at Gravesend on 5th June 1940 ended her front-line service and once repaired she was sent to 57 Operational training Unit (OTU) at Hawarden and coded LV-C. In April 1943 she was transferred to 53 OTU and remained with them until damaged on 22nd October 1943. Repaired again, in August 1944 she was allocated for museum use and stored. As well as regular static appearances during annual ‘Battle of Britain Week’ celebrations, she also appeared in the background of the 1951 movie ‘Angels One Five’. In July 1967 she travelled to Henlow to assist with the making of ‘The Battle of Britain’ movie but did not appear in it. Instead, she was used in ‘The Devils Brigade’ which was filmed at Henlow during 1967 and also used P7350 and BM597. By September 1968 she had been repainted into pre-war 72sqn colours, although incorrectly coded as SD-V. In November 1971 she arrived at Hendon for display and remained there until October 1997 when she went to the Medway Aircraft Preservation Society for restoration. A very thorough restoration took place which included removing several later modifications to return the aeroplane to original 1939 condition as far as possible. Now correctly painted as SD-D, she returned to Hendon in December 2000 but moved on to Cosford in November 2002 where she is currently on display in the ‘War in the Air’ hangar. RAF Museum, Cosford, Shropshire, UK.