[Copied from the Sunday Telegraph -
THE]www.telegraph.co.uk]THE Spitfire, the fighter aircraft which helped to win the Battle of Britain, is back in production for the first time for 60 years. But would-be owners will need more than £1 million to buy one.
During the Second World War, 26,000 were mass-produced in factories at low cost. Large numbers were lost in flames - along with their young pilots. Now, a new generation - exact in every detail - are being made and offered for sale as "the ultimate toy".
Two Spitfires have been built this year by a 12-strong team of engineers at Historic Flying, a company based near Saffron Walden, Essex. One has already flown.
Each has taken about 20,000 man-hours to build. Original salvaged parts are used where possible, although about half the components have had to be hand-made from scratch. In all, about 25,000 new components had to be manufactured for the first of the new batch of Spitfires to take to the air, a Mk XVIII, which has a Rolls-Royce Griffon engine, producing 2,000 horse power from 37 litres.
It is currently undergoing its final tuning and air tests at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford, Cambridgeshire, before it receives its Civil Aviation Authority permit to fly as a vintage aircraft. The second new Spitfire, which should be ready to fly in time for September's 60th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Britain, is a Mk IX, with a Rolls-Royce 27-litre Merlin engine. The two planes are expected to fetch about £1,250,000 each.
Historic Flying is the first company to go into commercial restoration of Spitfires, and its production facility is in full swing, but no one is prepared to to say who is likely to buy the planes.
Patrick Peal, a company spokesman, said: "When someone buys a Rembrandt, it is usually done through discreet agents around the world, and so it is with these aircraft.
"Spitfires have been restored or renovated before, but usually for collectors and enthusiasts in barns and small hangars - simply keeping old machines going by regular maintenance. This is the first time anyone has gone into production with 'new' Spitfires, purely to sell them on the open market."
The company said that between 10 and 15 people from various countries had expressed interest, some of whom regarded the aircraft as an investment. Martin Henocq, the factory's chief inspector, said: "Today the Spitfire has become the ultimate toy in a macho world. You only have to start the engine to reduce some enthusiasts to tears of pride. At the end of the war you could buy one for £5. Now it might cost us tens of thousands of pounds just to bring pieces of a wreckage from somewhere in Europe or even the Pacific."
About 40 old Spitfires are currently thought to be capable of flight. But the "as new" ones will have a fresh flying life of at least 50 years.
The company will try to recover a derelict Spitfire whenever possible, because of the provenance, even though most of the parts will be rebuilt. The remains of the Mk XVIII were recovered from the edge of an Indian air force base at Kalaikunda, north of Calcutta.
"We prefer to have a derelict aircraft, no matter how poor the condition," said Mr Peal. "Each component can be straightened out and remade to precisely the same tolerances wherever possible, using original design drawings obtained from the RAF Museum at Hendon."
The components are no longer totally British. Only one company in the world is capable of rebuilding the piston-driven Merlin and Griffon engines to top condition. It is based in Chicago and is run by a Czech immigrant. The multi-laminated wooden propeller blades have to be made by Hoffman's in southern Germany.
The owner of Historic Flying is a Dutch industrialist, Karel Bos, who made his fortune designing exhaust systems. He has used an old Spitfire to commute from his home to Essex but says that, because of the lack of space in the plane for his luggage, he usually travels to the factory in his private jet.
The first of the new breed of commercially built Spitfires will soon leave RAF Duxford after final testing. The pilot who flew it there, John Romaine, says it will be sadly missed when it is taken away by a future owner.
"At least we are ensuring that these planes never become obsolete," he said.
Historic Flying estimates that there are no more than 60 crashed Spitfires which could ultimately be brought back to "new".
On the walls of its factory are the words spoken by Churchill in 1940 about the role of pilots during the Battle of Britain: "Never in the field of human conflict was so much owed by so many to so few."
