Bahrain Airshow: Second World War Spitfires on display

The Bahrain International Airshow is playing host to not one, but two, examples of the iconic Second World War fighter, both of them painted to commemorate the Spitfire Mk I paid for by public subscription in Bahrain and gifted to the Royal Air Force in 1941.
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The original aircraft, W3632, was a rare cannon-armed Spitfire Mk Vb, and first flew from Eastleigh (now Southampton Airport) on July 15 1941, subsequently joining No54 Squadron and becoming the mount of Squadron Leader (later Air Vice-Marshal) Francis David Stephen Scott-Malden, a veteran of the Battle of Britain.

The aircraft later flew with United States Air Force and Belgian squadrons, before being scrapped in November 1945. 

Two Spitfires are saluting the original Bahrain aircraft here at the show. The first is the Aircraft Restoration Company’s rare two-seater, a 1943-vintage LF.Mk IX, PV202/G-CCCA (converted to two-seat trainer standards in 1950 for the Irish Air Corps), which is flying at the show. The second is a much later Griffon-engined PR.Mk XIX, PM651.

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