The Grace Spitfire History
The Grace Spitfire was originally built at Castle Bromwich in early 1944 as a single seat fighter,
and served in the front line of battle throughout the last twelve months of WWII, with six different
Squadrons of the RAF's 2nd Tactical Air Force, all in all flying 176 operational combat sorties.
It was delivered to 485 New Zealand Squadron on the 29th of April 1944 by Jackie Moggridge, one of
the top lady pilots of the ATA, where it became the 'mount' of Flying Officer Johnnie Houlton DFC
who was accredited, whilst flying ML407, with the first enemy aircraft shot down over the Normandy
beach head on D-Day.
In December of 1944, ML407 was transferred to 341 Free French Squadron, becoming the aircraft of
Sergeant Jean Dabos. It then moved on through 308 (Polish ) Squadron, 349 (Belgian) Squadron,
345 (Free French) Squadron, 332 (Norwegian) Squadron, and back to 485 (New Zealand) Squadron,
before being converted in 1950 to the 2 seat configuration by Supermarine at Southampton as an advanced trainer
for the Irish Air Corps where she flew until 1960.
She was used for the film 'Battle of Britain' and was then sold to the Strathallan Museum from where
she was acquired by engineer Nick Grace in 1979.
Nick spent five years meticulously restoring the Grace Spitfire to flying condition as a 2-seat
Spitfire, and completed this incredible project in 1985, when, on the 16th of April, the Grace Spitfire
flew again, with Nick's capable hands at the controls.
Nick went on to fly it at many air displays and for filming, including 'Perfect Lady' and 'Piece of Cake'.
A cruel twist of fate occurred when Nick Grace was tragically killed in a car accident in 1988, and
his widow Carolyn Grace took on the task of learning to fly the Spitfire, which you can find documented
in the film 'Going Solo'. Carolyn, as can be seen in the film, successfully completed her training by
'going solo' in the Spitfire in 1990, and hasn't looked back since, getting her Display Authorisation
in 1991, and adding Aerobatic and Formation qualifications to that since.
The Spitfire is based in Hangar Two at the Imperial War Museum in Duxford, Cambridgeshire, UK, and is
maintained by our own Team of engineers at our maintenance facility at Bentwaters in Suffolk.
Carolyn flies the Grace Spitfire at many airshows, both public and private, up and down the United
Kingdom. She has flown in numerous large celebratory Spitfire Formations including at Duxford the
Diamond 16, the 'Big Wing' Formation with 23 Spitfires and more recently this year the Diamond 9 to
celebrate 90 years of flying at Duxford.
However, without the generous sponsorship of the entire insurance programme by HSBC Insurance Brokers
for The Grace Spitfire it would not be able to afford to fly at all. We are truly indebted to them
for enabling us, by being part of our team, to keep ML407 operational.
