Kenley's Gate Guardian - Spitfire LF Mk.XVIe RR263
Spitfire RR263 at RAF Kenley, 1963
Dave Welch
Spitfire RR263, 30/10/1966
Colin Lee
Spitfire Mk.XVIe, RR263. 1966.
Bill Fisher
Spitfire Mk.XVIe, RR263, March 1963
Dick Gilbert
Spitfire Mk.XVIe, RR263. 20/04/1963
Ken Elliott
Kenley's gate guardian, Spitfire LF Mk.XVIe, RR263.
Bill Fisher
Spitfire LF Mk.XVIe, RR263.
Warbird Registry, source unknown.
Spitfire LF Mk.XVIe, RR263.
Keith Chandler
Spitfire LF Mk.XVIe, RR263.
Bill Fisher
Spitfire LF Mk.XVIe, RR263.
Bill Fisher
Spitfire LF Mk.XVIe, RR263.
Bill Fisher
Spitfire LF Mk.XVIe, RR263.
Bill Fisher
Spitfire LF Mk.XVIe, RR263.
Bill Fisher
Spitfire LF Mk.XVIe, RR263.
Bill Fisher
Cpl. Honey's Mother in front of RR263, Kenley's Spitfire gate guardian.
Patrick Honey
Spitfire Mk.XVIe, RR263.
Peter Skinner via Alistair White
Aerial photo of RAF Kenley looking from the airfield towards the main gate, showing the gate guardian Spitfire.
Alistair White
From 1955 until 1967, Spitfire LF Mk.XVIe, RR263, registration 7216M, served as RAF Kenley’s gate guardian. These photos have come from a variety of sources – see captions.
- RR263 was built at Castle Bromwich in 1944.
- It was assigned to 2 Tactical Air Force from 1944-1945.
- From November 1940 to January 1950, it was loaned to Vickers-Armstrong for experimental purposes.
- Delivered to No.6 Maintenance Unit, Brize Norton. Date unknown.
- Put into storage.
- Transferred to No 4CAACU, Llandow, Wales, 1951-1954.
- Returned to storage, 1954.
- 9 MU permanent transfer to RAF Kenley as an Instructional airframe on 20 September 1955. Thought to have arrived at Kenley on 30 September 1955.
- Kenley’s Gate Guardian, 1955-1967.
- Transferred to No.5 Maintenance Unit, 1967.
Overhauled and painted in 340 Ille de France Squadron markings. Marked as Spitfire TB597, GW-B.
Presented to French Air Force, May 1967-1977. - Flown to Tours AB in RAF Beverly, May 20, 1977.
- On display at Musee de l’Air et l’Espace, Paris-Le Bourget, 1978 onwards, as TB597/B-GW.
The plaque which was displayed in front of this aircraft said it had been used as a static backdrop aircraft during the filming of ‘Reach For The Sky’ at RAF Kenley. However, Trevor Popple researched the aircraft used in the film for an article in ‘After The Battle’ magazine (No.35, published 1982):
Two other Spitfires have been credited with appearing in the film. The first was TB863 (restored at Duxford in 1978), and the second is RR263, one-time Kenley gate guardian, but now at Tours air base in France. It was given to the French Air Force in 1967 and painted as TB597 of No.340 (Ile de France) Squadron. Both of these aircraft have the original fuselage profile contrary to those seen in the film.
Many thanks to all who contributed photos and Peter Arnold for his expertise.
Contributor
See photo caption Reference number
KRP0164 Copyright
As individual photo caption. License
Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs (CC-BY-NC-ND)
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