Supermarine Spitfire MkIa – X4650

X4650 was lost during a training exercise in 1940. During flight training between young pilot Howard Squire and Flight Commander Alan Deere on the practise of sticking close to an enemy fighter, Squire got himself to close to Deere’s tail and hit it with his propeller causing both to ditch. X4650 was written off in the incident and left on the banks of the River Leven until the wreckage was revealed after a hot summer in 1976.

Recovered and restored by the Spitfire Company at Biggin Hill she flew again in 2012 before being sold to Comanche Fighters. She would go on to appear in Christopher Nolan’s film, Dunkirk.