Beddie Foundation makes significant cash donation to the Y2-K Spitfire project!

Now with summer over we expect our visitor count to drop off compared to the very busy months of June, July and August. Our visitations these past three months have been record setting and exceptionally good for our fund raising efforts, we have seen visitors from all across Canada, the Pacific Northwest, Europe, Australia and New Zealand drop into the hangar to see Canada’s most significant aviation project. Many of these visitors have made donations to our project and are proudly wearing Y2-K Spitfire hats and T-Shirts, look for one in your neighborhood. On a recent Saturday 130 people visited the hangar, in the past seven years 37,000 visitors have dropped in to the Y2-K Spitfire project; we are open Saturdays for visits from 10-3 pm.

The Comox Air Force Museum is celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year; we boast one of the finest aviation libraries in Canada and your welcome to drop in to do your aviation research in our facility, take a tour through the museum or visit our Heritage air Park to view some very unique aircraft that flew with the Canadian Air Force and while your visiting don’t forget to look at our growing collection of Heritage Stones.

Another funding milestone took place at the hangar this month and a very significant milestone at that; we received the largest cash donation to our project in our 7 year history. Keith and Betty Beedie of the Burnaby based, Beedie foundation donated $25,000 towards our Spitfire restoration. We are very grateful to the Beedie’s for their generosity and kindness; with this donation we can now formulate our fabrication plans well into 2008.

We have fitted the nearly completed rudder to the fuselage this past week, a few small details have yet to be completed on the rudder but finally it is almost complete, we obtained some new parts for the rudder from Airframe Assemblies in the UK such as the trailing edge bits and the bottom of the rudder, the rest of the bits and pieces were salvaged from the original rudder or fabricated in our shop, this includes the leading edge skins.

We received some great news this month from Czech Master Resin Models, they will soon be releasing a 1:72 scale model of the Y2-K Spitfire, the Canadian dealer West Coast Hobbies of Port Alberni will be donating 10% of all model sales if you mention the Y2-K Spitfire, the Czech Master Resin models are of the highest quality and have an excellent reputation for detail, more on this offer later. You can get in touch with the Canadian dealer Rob Stevens at wrstevens@shaw.ca

If you want to support our restoration project with a donation, click on the “Donations Needed” link on our home page and help get the Y2-K Spitfire back into the air where it can honour the memory of the nearly 18,000 Canadians that died while fighting for freedom, serving in the RCAF or RAF during the Second World War.

For our UK readers don’t forget to support the “Birkett Six Hour Relay Race” at Silverstone on October 27th, the proceeds raised at that event will go to the Y2-K Spitfire restoration, it should be great entertainment and we all know they are raising money for a very worthy cause.

Thanks for your continued time and interest

Pat Murphy
And the Y2-K Spitfire restoration team.

“The Y2-K Spitfire will Fly Again"