The fuselage of the Mk 22 Spitfire, PK624, is now ready to be dry blasted by an external company, the same people who have cleaned up the Sea Fury as it happens, as we have taken all the paint off the outside of the thing as we can.

At the end of this process we can then make a proper assessment on the state of the airframe itself, and determine exactly the work which will be needed to put her back into the air. An additional skin near the tail section was removed to show that, because of the riveting involved in placing that skin initially, four others will have to be removed from the machine and replaced completely.

This will add to the cost and time involved in the restoration of the fuselage but must be completed before the internals can be refitted after their own restoration.

The wings of the machine are still in storage, and will be pulled out for their own paint stripping in the near future.