The Fighter Collection   Official Web Site   

The TFC is one of the premier collections of warbirds in Europe. Based in Duxford's Hanger 2 (and parts of hanger 3), The Fighter Collection is owned by Stephen Grey, whose intention it was to own an example of every allied fighter type flown in WWII.

A large part of the work carried out by TFC is restoring vintage aircraft back into an airworthy condition, with a number of types in the pipeline and at various stages of completion. Among the projects currently being undertaken, are a Gloster Gladiator, Hawker Sea Fury,

TFC like many other warbird operators has TV and film credits including the  "Memphis Belle" which saw many of Duxford's resident operators involved. In 2000, TFC's Spitfire LFVb starred in the major feature film Pearl Harbour. This same aircraft is featured in the film "Dark Blue World" which was released in 2002.

The Fighter Collection has the largest selection of Grumman "cats" to be found in Europe, from the early F4F Wildcat, to the the sporty F8F Bearcat.  Sadly another long term resident, the big twin engined F7F Tigercat left our shores in 2007.

For many years aircraft of The Fighter Collection were major players in North Weald's "Fighter Meet", and the Great Warbird's Displays at West Malling. Sadly both of these shows are now part of UK airshow history, however it would be The Fighter Collection who would put things right by the creation of the now world famous annual "Flying Legends" air show. Flying Legends has now become an institution in it's own right, and attracts warbirds from all over Europe, and in co-operation with US warbird owners the past three years have seen warbirds shipped in from the USA. 

A recent addition to the collection is a genuine wartime P-51D Mustang that served with the 78th Fighter Group at Duxford. The aircraft formerly 44-63864, HL-W 'Twilight Tear' operated with the 83rd Fighter Squadron between 1st April to 11th October 1945. During its wartime career it shot down three enemy aircraft, two of which were Me262 jet fighters. The aircraft was returned to it's former 78th FG colour scheme for the 2003 Flying Legends airshow.

In 2006 there was a major shake up in the collection and a number of aircraft were sold on, namely the much loved P-47D "No Guts No Glory", recently restored P-51C "Princess Elizabeth", and the F-7F Tigercat all of which have gone to new owners in the USA.

In the other direction, there has been some new additions to the collection. Spitfire XVIII is currently under restoration and will hopefully take her first flight soon, and Flying Legends 2007 saw the arrival of TFC's TF-51D "Miss Velma", a dedicated two seat two stich training variant of the Mustang.

In 2007, another very rare aeroplane joined The Fighter Collections stable in the shape of a P-40B Warhawk. This machine is a genuine Pearl Harbor survivor based at the USAAC base at Wheeler Field, and owes it's survival to having a wheels up landing two months prior to the Japanese attacks. On December 7th 1941 the aircraft was in the hangar rather than out on the airfield, and was saved the fate that met many P-40B's that day. P-40B-CU-41-13297 was built at Buffalo New York as one of 131 B model P-40's, and was delivered to the USAAC in March 1941.

After the raids she was hurriedly repaired, however the luck that was with her on December 7th, ran out in February 1942 when she failed to recover from a spin whilst being flown by Lt Ken Sprankle. There she remained until she was recovered from Hawaii in 1987 by Project Tomahawk. A number of organisations were responsible for her restoration, however resplendant in her former 18th Pursuit Group markings she took to the skies in the hands of Steve Hinton in January 2007 and was subsequently shipped to the UK for her new owner Stephen Grey.

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