Norwegian Spitfire Foundation to restore a historical Norwegian Spitfire
30 JANUARY 2019
The Norwegian Spitfire Foundation (NSF) has for some time worked to bring an operative and flying Spitfire, with Norwegian wartime history, to Norway. Now, the restoration of Spitfire IX, PL258 will commence.
The aim of the project is to bring to the attention of present and future generations the story of the Norwegian pilots and groundcrews formidable involvement in the Allied fight against Nazi-Germany during the Second World War.
In February 2018, and in cooperation with the Norwegian Defence Museum, the Norwegian journalist and aviation Historian Cato Guhnfeldt and Lars Ness, Chairman of the NSF, travelled to the Netherlands to try and track down the remains of any Spitfires flown by Norwegian pilots. Both Cato and Lars knew that they were looking for the proverbial ‘needle in a haystack’, and this then 70 years too late. It was therefore quite surprising what they did find.
In Holland, the remains of Spitfire IX, PL258 FN-K, from 331 (Norwegian) Squadron – flown by Fenrik (ensign) Carl Jacob Stousland, and which crash landed on the 29th of December 1944, was discovered. The aircraft landed on its belly in a field near the village of Tubbergen. The story behind both aircraft and pilot are memorable.
The Norwegian Spitfire Foundation has now purchased the remains of PL258. These form the core of a restoration and restoration project, and the Civil Aviation Authority in the UK has allocated G-NSFS as a temporary registration. When the aircraft restoration is finally completed and test-flown, PL258 will be transferred to the Norwegian register.
NSF will own the project and promote it as it wishes. Already now during the restoration process, PL258 will be used to tell the story of the Norwegian fighter pilots and the ground staff in the UK and on the Continent during WW2.
The restoration will for the most part take place at and be managed by the Aircraft Restoration Company in England.
For further details about the story of PL258 and NSF, contact Lars Ness at lars@norwegianspitfire.com
