In September 1950,
the Irish Department of Defense ordered six Spitfire Tr.IX’s to fulfil
specification 499/502 for an advanced flying training aircraft. The Irish Air
Corps took delivery of these
aircraft in 1951 and they were numbered 158-163. Only twenty Tr.IX’s were ever
built and all were modified from existing standard Spitfire IX’s.
Irish Air Corps 162
started life as ML407, built in 1944 at Castle Bromwich as a
single-seat fighter. In all, ML407 served with six different squadrons of the
RAF’s 2nd Tactical Air Force, flying
a total of 176 operational sorties.She was delivered to 485 ( New Zeland )
Squadron in April 1944 were she was flown by P.O. Johnnie Houlton. On June 6th,
1944 while flying over the Normandy
beach-head on D-Day in ML407, P.O. Houlton is credited with the first enemy
aircraft shoot down, a JU88.
In December 1944,
ML407 was tranferred to 341 ( Free French ) Squadron, were she was flown by
Sergeant Jean Dabos. She then went on to serve with 308 ( Polish ) Squadron,
349 ( Belgian ) Squadron, 345 ( Free French ) Squadron, 332 ( Norwegian )
Squadron and finally back to 485 ( New Zeland ) Squadron.
After her service
with the Air Corps was completed, ML407/ I.A.C. 162 was acquired by Samuelson
Films of Elstree, Herts and was used in the “Battle of Britian” movie. She
was bought by
Nick Grace in 1979 and restored to flying condition in 1985. Tragically,
Nick was killed in a car accident in 1988, but his widow, Carolyn Grace learned
to fly the Spitfire, going solo in 1990. Carolyn displays I.A.C. 162 in the livery of ML407 and can be seen at airshows
throughout England and Europe each year.
In 2004, ML407/
I.A.C. 162 was featured in the Channel 4 television show, “Spitfire Ace”.
Liam
(this print - and
others are available to buy from www.irishairpics.com)
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