Historically significant and of remarkable originality, this unique Spitfire is most famously remembered for being the personal plane of S/Ldr Otmar Kučera DFC (Officer Commanding 313 SQN) at the end of WWII. At the controls of TE517, S/Ldr Kučera led 313 SQN as the unit departed England for Czechoslovakia in August 1945. For those brave Czech's who left England that day in 1945, this came after of 6 hard years of fighting for freedom.

 

 

TE517 was built under contract AM B.981687/39 with Castle Bromwich factory. The parts of the airplane were manufactured in different places and the airplane was most likely assembled in No. 23 Factory in Cosford equipped with Merlin 66 engine.

 

The aircraft was test flown and ferried to 33. MU in Lyneham in May 1945. Upon completion of the test flights TE517 was ferried to RAF Manston by F/Sgt Karel Stryk (313 Sqn) on 21 July 1945.

 

 

The plane was accepted by 313 SQN on July 25, 1945. The standard RAF markings were overpainted by Czechoslovak Air force markings, still leaving an original RAF codes during the first days of August 1945. The RY – A codes were reserved for S/Ldr. Otmar Kučera DFC – signifying this as his personal plane. All 313 SQN planes had spinners painted in red. The S/Ldr's plane was further distinguished by white at the tip of the spinner.

 

As the war drew to a close, S/Ldr Otmar Kučera DFC retained charge of the Squadron. By this stage there was huge admiration of the Czech Squadrons as a potent fighting unit. A large parade was assembled at Manston to pay tribute to the service given by the Czech pilots. Then, in a mass formation, three Czech Spitfire Squadrons departed from England to Prague. S/Ldr Otmar Kučera DFC was formation leader of the 15 Spitfires of 313 SQN on their final journey home between August 7 and August 13, 1945. The whole squadron flew together on the route Manston – Hildesheim – Praha.

 

 

TE 517 was initially stationed in Praha Kbely military base together with former 310 SQN airplanes. This was purely for logistic reasons. The new base – Brno Slatina was not ready to accommodate a new Spitfires.

 

The airplane was finally moved to Brno Slatina in the middle of August 1946 with former 313 SQN “B“ flight as a part of newly formed LP 8 (Letecký pluk) under command of Kpt. Jiří Hartman DFC. Planes of the LP 8 were wearing a LS codes. 

 

The commander's flight had number liaison airplanes which included Spitfire TE517 with “KO-1” codes. The airplane was regularly flown by high ranked LP 8 officers and also ordinary flight personnel.

 

TE517 was a last of two surviving Spitfires in Czechoslovak air force. The aircraft was finally flown from Brno to Avia Kunovice for an overhaul.  Eventually she was crated into a container and on February 25 1949 finally headed to Haifa in Israel.

 

 

The aircraft was assembled by MU in Ma'abarot during March 1949. TE517 – with a new IDF/AF identity “2046” and the fuselage number 46 started a service with 101 Sqdn at Ramat David. In October 1951 it was transferred to 105 SQN – the Spitfire Training Unit. Tajeset, finally withdrawn from service during February 1956.

 

 

TE517 was identified as one of the Israeli aircraft to be sold to Burma. Subsequent training of Burmese pilots took place on TE517. The aircraft was prepared and stored in Loda ready for shipment to Burma. At this point TE517 took on a civil registration with a civil registration "4X FOD”. This final posting never happened and TE517 ended up in Kibutz in Gaaton.

 

 

The TE517 was found by British collector Robert Lamplough during his trip to Israel in March 1976. The fuselage was overpainted by blue colour and there were no signs of identity.

The plane was shipped to Duxford in 1977.

 

The identity of the Spitfire was confirmed by well-known historian Peter Arnold. Project was registered as G-BPIX and acquired by another collector Charles Church together with PT 462. The restoration started with Trent Aero in 1982. TE517's wing was installed on PT462 to speed up a conversion to two seater.

 

TE 517 change owner again in 1992 – the project was acquired by US based collector Kermit Weeks, but never left UK.

 

One of the last ownership changes happened in 2005, finally registered as G-JGCA in 2009 TE517 changed its home and was stored in Bigging Hill Heritage Hangar.