A legend returns to her homeland at Florennes Air Base, Belgium

Last Thursday, 11 May, a small event was organised by Corps Commander Colonel Cedric Kamensky and his staff at Florennes air base, Belgium. A “spotters day” brought together a few hundred plane spotters and some audience. The very grey morning weather quickly gave way to sunshine interspersed with clouds in the sky of the Province of Namur.

The big surprise in the middle of the public area was the presence of a superb Spitfire FR.XIVe ex Belgian Air Force. This aircraft with registration number SG-25 was assigned to the First Squadron in 1947. It was therefore with great emotion for the personnel of the First Squadron to see this legend return to its base for a few hours almost 70 years later.

This Spitfire, coded at the time RM927, is a veteran of the Second World War and was sold to Belgium, which was reconstituting its air force. On 11 May, the son of Yves Bodart, the Belgian pilot who flew the aircraft from England on 14 November 1947, was present. He was able to sit in the cockpit of the legend of the day for long minutes filled with emotion. He is himself a pilot and a great fan of his father’s exploits.

Under the colours of the First Sqn, the plane carried – among others – the codes 3R-D and 3R-A. In 1954, she left her squadron to join the Koksijde base and the Fighter School and was sold three years later to a scrap dealer in Ostend. Her wings were cut off! At that time, we did not care about the value that such a symbol could take over the years…

The old glory was not destroyed and in 1967 passed into the hands of the J.D.Kay company and left Belgium by boat to the country where it was born 24 years ago. It then passed through various hands before being stored at the Victory Air Museum in Illinois, USA.

It was not until 1995, after having passed through various owners, that it was decided to restore it at High Wycombe in Great Britain. The ex-RM927 then passed through the Isle of Wight into the hands of Airframe Assemblies and was registered G-JNMA in 2009. It was sold again before landing at Richard Grace in Sywell (Air Leasing Ltd) for a final restoration. It was delivered to its current French owner at La Ferté-Alais in 2022.

This day was also a good opportunity to show some F-16s in action as well as an Agusta A109. Some machines from abroad were also present for a static show. The French Air Force sent two French Mirage 2000-5s and two Rafales and the Danish Air Force sent their F-16s for demonstration.

The Belgian Dream Viper Team and its pilot Steven de Vries presented their 2023 demo twice with numerous flares in the Florentine sky.

But what the public was waiting for was the flight of the Spitfire. He was not disappointed with many passages in close formation with the current Commander of the First Squadron evolving him at the controls of the F-16 FA-57 wearing the 105 years of the squadron celebrated in 2022.

I would like to thank Jacques Bodart, Eric Dessouroux, Colonel Cedric Kamensky (Base Commander of the Florennes base) and his staff for their help with this article.