Spitfire fuselage that was kept in man’s garage for 20 years fetches £18,000 at auction

A Spitfire fuselage that had been kept inside a man’s garage for more than two decades has been sold at auction.

The main body of the Supermarine Spitfire F Mk 22 PK519, listed by Dominic Winter Auctioneers in Cirencester , fetched a staggering £18,000 on 8 October.

The fuselage consisted mostly of replacement panels from other original Spitfires built on the wooden formers, a cockpit window assemblage and Perspex canopy, with five original Griffon propeller blades, each finished in black with a yellow tip.

It was the final project of Peter Arnold, an aviation enthusiast known as “Mr Spitfire” – who kept the spitfire in his garage at his home in Newport Pagnell.

“I just like it being here,” Arnold said back in 2003.

He would often bring the Spitfire out onto his drive for members of the public to marvel at.

Arnold, who died aged 83 in 2025, grew up near the RAF Northolt station and quickly became fascinated with Spitfires.

He was educated at Harrow County Grammar School, where he used to admire their famous stained-glass window depiction of the Supermarine S6B racer flown by the 1931 Schneider Trophy winner and former pupil of the school, John Boothman.

Arnold used to cycle to crash sites where he would scramble over old aircrafts. On one of these scrapyard visits, Arnold found Spitfire XVI RW386.

Throughout his life, he travelled around the world to see more than 260 examples of the planes.

A ‘privilege’ to auction the Spitfire

“On finishing his education, Peter went on to have a highly successful career in automotive engineering, working for Aston Martin,” the auction house said.

“This enabled Peter to widen his search radius for aircraft, and in March 1973 he rescued the fuselages of Seafire XVIIs SX336 and SX300 from a scrapyard in Warrington, followed by several other aircraft including Spitfire FII EN224, a Mk VII favoured by the test pilot Geoffrey Quill.”

Dominic Winter Auctioneers said it was a “privilege” to list the item, adding: “Peter was the doyen of Spitfire historians, and we hope that his collection will be appreciated for many more years to come.”