K9942

Supermarine built K9942 at Woolston as the 155th production Spitfire. George Pickering first flew it at Eastleigh on 21 April 1939. Three days later it was allotted to No. 72 Squadron at Church Fenton, as D of A Flight.

From July 1939 it was flown regularly by James Nicolson, later Fighter Command's only Victoria Cross holder. Through the first winter of the war it flew patrols and convoy escorts off Scotland and north-east England. Nicolson's last flight in it was on 6 May 1940.

In early June 1940 the squadron flew patrols over Dunkirk from Gravesend. On 5 June K9942 landed wheels up there, which ended its front-line career after about 40 hours of operational flying. After repair it served with Nos 57 and 53 Operational Training Units until 1944.

In August 1944 it was set aside for museum use. It was a regular exhibit on Horse Guards Parade in Battle of Britain week, and was filmed in 1951 for Angels One Five. It joined the RAF Museum at Hendon in November 1971. The Medway Aircraft Preservation Society restored it to Mk I standard between 1997 and 2000, reversing some 35 later modifications. It moved to Cosford in November 2002.

In Hangar 2, the Test Flight exhibition, beside a Hurricane, a Defiant and a Bf 109E. It wears No. 72 Squadron markings.