The Welsh Spitfire Museum
Our objective is to restore vintage aircraft and currently we are involved in the restoration of a MK VIII Spitfire. While we are fundraising we have built a museum around the Spitfire so that you can see the flying machine that so many brave men and women paid the ultimate price for in our country’s hour of need.
The Spitfire will be on display Monday to Saturday inclusive and the opening times are 9.30 to 4.30. Admission is free
JG 668 was part of a batch of 800 Mk VIII aircraft ordered from "Vickers supermarine" on the 23rd January 1942. The aircraft powered by a Rolls Royce Merlin MK 66, made it’s first flight in early 1944. JG 668 was among many Spitfire MK VIIIs allocated for use in Australia.
JG 668 is recorded as leaving the UK on the 4th April 1944, and arriving in Sydney on the 19th June 1944. The Spitfire was with No 1 Air Depot at Laverton in Victoria on the 6th July 1944, but moved several times to Gorrie, Sattler, and finally to Oakey in Queensland on the 1st October 1945 where The aircraft later down-graded to Category-E for disposal.
40 years later the hulk of this Spitfire was located by Ross Campbell on a farm near Oakey and thus started it’s long road to conservation. The remains of A58-441/JG 668 exchanged owners a number of times in Australia, being with Barry Coran of Melbourne, and then Ian Mastin of Hoppers Crossing between 1994 and 2004, when in March 2004 it was sold to a new owner in Oxford.
The new owner of JG 668 kept the aircraft until September 2007 during which he made significant progress in repairing the Fuselage and collecting additional parts: including a Rolls Royce Merlin MK III engine. In September 2007 it’s new owners, The Pembrokeshire Spitfire Aeroplane Co., moved JG 668 to Haverfordwest in Pembrokeshire. Where under the control of the Aviation Heritage Foundation it will be repaired to airworthy status. In January 2009 it was registered with the Civil Aviation Authority as G-CFGA; the first step on the long road to recovery.