Overview
- The Supermarine Spitfire F Mk 22 fuselage PK519 sold for £18,000 at a Dominic Winter Auctioneers sale on 8 October.
- The airframe was described in the auction listing as largely made from replacement panels built on original wooden formers with a cockpit window assembly, a Perspex canopy, and five original Griffon propeller blades.
- Auction and press reports say PK519 was ordered in June 1943, delivered in September 1948 and later used as a ground target on Salisbury Plain Ranges, a provenance that helps explain its postwar condition.
- Peter Arnold, known among enthusiasts as ‘Mr Spitfire’, kept the fuselage in his Newport Pagnell garage for more than 20 years and was credited by colleagues with rescuing projects and identifying many Spitfire and Seafire airframes before his death in 2025.
- The result fell below a widely reported pre-sale estimate of £20,000–£30,000 and exposed variation in published details about Arnold’s catalogue of airframes, a discrepancy that could prompt closer scrutiny of provenance and pricing in future sales.