UK man's 20-year Spitfire garage project sold for £18,000 after his death
An unfinished Spitfire aircraft fuselage, painstakingly reconstructed by enthusiast Peter Arnold over 20 years, sold for £18,000 following his death. The project was a lifelong passion for Arnold, who was known as 'Mr Spitfire' in his local community.
Why it matters
The story illustrates the intersection of personal hobbyism, aviation history, and the eventual dispersal of private collections.
For more than 20 years, a garage in the British town of Newport Pagnell housed the partly rebuilt body of a historic Spitfire aircraft. Its owner, Peter Arnold, had spent decades collecting aircraft remains and putting together pieces of aviation history. But he never got to see his final project sold. Arnold died in 2025, aged 83, and on October 8, this year, the unfinished aircraft fuselage fetched £18,000 at an auction in England.According to a report by The Independent, Arnold was widely known among aviation enthusiasts as “Mr Spitfire”. His garage contained the reconstructed fuselage of a Supermarine Spitfire F Mk 22, identified as PK519. But the fuselage was only the main body, assembled using surviving wreckage and parts recovered from other Spitfires.The aircraft was not always hidden away inside the garage.
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