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Billionaire donates thousands to
restore bog plane
23.08.11
by Linda McGrory
CANADIAN billionaire Galen Weston has donated
thousands of pounds towards the restoration of an
RAF Spitfire dug from an Inishowen bog earlier this
summer.
The WWII aircraft that crashed on the Inishowen
peninsula in 1941, was the first one commissioned
from a £100,000 donation made by Mr Weston's father,
Garfield, during the Battle of Britain.
Its excavation from Glenshinney bog, Moneydarragh,
Gleneely, on June 28, last, is said to have
surprised and delighted the wealthy businessman.
It also highlighted the story of American pilot,
Roland 'Bud' Wolfe who bailed out of the plane with
a parachute, before it crashed into the peat valley
on November 30, 1941.
Mr Weston made contact, via a third party, with
aviation historian and dig organiser, Jonny McNee,
just days after the excavation. |
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Mr McNee, his wife and
two children, have now been invited for an all
expenses paid trip to meet the Mr Weston at a
special event in Toronto next month.
Mr McNee declined to divulge how money had been
donated to Derry City Council's Museum Services by
the billionaire to fund the Spitfire restoration
project, but admitted it was "thousands".
"I will be delighted to meet the man in person and
thank him for all he has done for the project," said
Mr McNee. "We didn't go out cap in hand asking for a
donation...he was straight in there. It obviously
means so much to him and it was reflective of what
his father had done during the war.
"This is a nice donation which will enable us to put
on a first-rate display befitting the fantastic
story behind this aircraft."
The Weston money will be used for specialist
conservation work on delicate artefacts including
Wolfe's leather helmet, goggles, oxygen mask, log
book and First Aid kit. |
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Aviation historian, Jonny McNee,
pictured with his daughter, Grace (7), who was with
him in Gleneely the day he discovered the location
of the crashed RAF Spitfire plane. Jonny recently
donated the rear tail wheel of the plane to City of
Derry Airport.. |
It will also fund the
building of a scaled model of the Spitfire as well
as glass display cases to house the recovered items.
A commemorative plaque for Wolfe's RAF 133 (Eagle)
Squadron will also be paid for and unveiled at City
of Derry Airport later this year along with the
plane's tail wheel.
The airport, at Eglinton, operated as a war-time RAF
runway where Wolfe and his colleagues in Eagle
Squadron were based.
Meanwhile, the pilot's daughters, Barbara Kucharczyk
and Betty Wolfe, hope to travel to Derry to see the
exhibition of their late father's Spitfire when it
goes on display in the city later this year.
In a moving letter to Mr McNee, they said their
father spoke little about his experiences of the war
but "loved flying".
"We feel certain that he would be stoically ecstatic
to heft the tail wheel, lay hands on the propeller,
tinker with the Rolls Royce engine, and maybe slip
on the flying gear when no one was watching," they
said. |
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