GKN spends £500,000 to return Spitfire to the skies

Economy
By Liam

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Spitfire flown in WW2 by Alastair ‘Sandy’ Gunn, whose story was immortalised in The Great Escape, set to return to the skies

By Daily Mail City & Finance Reporter

Published: 21:50 BST, 7 August 2022 | Updated: 21:50 BST, 7 August 2022

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A Spitfire flown in WW2 by Alastair ‘Sandy’ Gunn, whose story was immortalised in The Great Escape, is set to return to the skies. 

The AA810 is being restored with a £500,000 donation from engineering giant GKN, and help from its apprentices in Bristol and the Isle of Wight. 

Returning to the skies: The AA810 (similar to the aircraft pictured) is being restored with a £500,000 donation from engineering giant GKN

Returning to the skies: The AA810 (similar to the aircraft pictured) is being restored with a £500,000 donation from engineering giant GKN

GKN Aerospace – owned by FTSE100 industrials investor Melrose – originally supplied components for Spitfires including the AA810. 

In the 1930s and 40s, a thousand Spitfires rolled off its Hadley Castle production line near Telford. 

But the AA810 – which was unarmed – was shot down over Norway in 1942. 

Gunn escaped but was made a prisoner of war. 

The project is being headed by former engineer Tony Hoskins and businessman Michael Smith. 

John Pritchard, of GKN Aerospace, said the firm’s ‘history is entwined with this remarkable story’.

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