PK683

PK683 is a late-mark Spitfire F.24 with a Griffon 61 engine. Test pilot L.R. Colquhoun flew it for 15 minutes on 19 February 1946. It arrived at 33 Maintenance Unit for storage on 13 August 1946 and stayed in Britain for four years.

In August 1950 it was allotted to the Far East Air Force and shipped from Birkenhead aboard the Pyrrhus. It joined the Singapore Auxiliary Air Force, the Singapore squadron of the Malayan Auxiliary Air Force, on 12 September 1950. On 24 July 1951 it struck Spitfire PK681 while taxiing at Tengah. It went to 390 MU in September 1952 and was struck off charge on 10 February 1953. It is the only known survivor of the squadron's Spitfires.

As instructional airframe 7150M it was recorded with the ATC in Malaya in April 1954. It was displayed at Kallang Airport until 1960, then stood as gate guard at RAF Changi from 1962 to 1970. When Britain withdrew from Singapore, an RAF Short Belfast flew it home, reaching Bicester on 16 April 1970. It passed through Kemble, the RAF Museum store at Colerne and Shawbury. Issued to No. 424 (Southampton) ATC Squadron, it went on show at the R.J. Mitchell Museum in Southampton on 7 February 1976. It moved to the new Hall of Aviation, now Solent Sky, in May 1984.

On display at Solent Sky, showing the five-blade propeller and Griffon nose of the last Spitfire marks.