The Army, Navy Airforce Veteran’s Club - Spitfire - Vernon, BC
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T0SHEA
N 50° 16.712 W 119° 15.909
11U E 338610 N 5572054
This is the second incarnation of this Spitfire replica.
Waymark Code: WMT2T1
Location: British Columbia, Canada
Date Posted: 09/15/2016
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The Army, Navy Airforce Veteran’s club tried to buy an actual Spitfire aircraft in the late 1980s but was discouraged by the $90,000 price tag. Glen Fletcher put his knowledge of designing and constructing boats to making a replica of the Spitfire.
The original Spitfire replica was put in place in October 1993 and was a local landmark until Sept. 2010 when it was discovered to be damaged by rock-throwing vandals. The damage was so extensive that repairs were impossible.
The Spitfire was completely rebuilt, even the pilot and propellers.
The process involved the dismantling of the original plane to duplicate the design, reconstruction and re-assembly of each section.
Fletcher, 74, contributed countless volunteer hours on the reconstruction during the past 11 months. He was one of the three co-ordinators of the original construction 19 years ago which involved 2,840 volunteer hours.
The replica is a full-size model of the Spitfire measuring 31 feet, 10 inches from nose to tail, with a wingspan of 37 feet.
The model pilot is named Jackson Glen to honour the contributions of Jack Brash and Glen Fletcher to the project. The mannequin pilot is so realistic that a utility worker spoke to him on the back porch of Fletcher’s home.
The letters and numbers on the plane were taken from the logbook of the Spitfire flown by the late Second World War pilot Phillip Bodnarchuk.
