Raising bar for Spitfire
Two British aviation enthusiasts are hatching a plan to take their iconic WW2 plane on a trip around the world
Over the course of its long and storied military service, there isn’t a lot the Supermarine Spitfire hasn’t achieved. Designed by R J Mitchell in the Thirties, it became perhaps the most famous combat aircraft in history, and was produced in greater numbers than any other during the World War 2, with more than 20,000 churned out in less than a decade.
During the Battle of Britain (which took place 78 years ago this month) the Spitfire, aided by the bulkier Hurricane, helped down 1,887 German planes in little more than three months. It became the envy of the enemy and the pride of the nation, and was flown all over the world, both by British and Allied forces, before, during and after the war. Today, a diaspora of airworthy Spitfires exists, faithfully maintained by enthusiasts around the world.
Yet there remains one challenge the aircraft has never quite managed: a complete circumnavigation of the globe. But that may be about to change. Next summer, two British aviation enthusiasts, Matt Jones and Steve Brooks, intend to take off in a polished silver Spitfire Mark IX from southern England, head northeast over the Atlantic... and be back home by Christmas, having pushed the aircraft around the world, and to new limits.
When they touch back down, they will have made more than 150 stops in more than 30 countries, soaring over many airspaces the Spitfire has never before entered, and flying over territories such as the Far East and North Africa, where it hasn’t been seen since the war ended.
“It’s an ambitious adventure, but we’re on track and we’ll be ready,” says Brooks, 57. “The Spitfire is a real icon. The shape of its wings, the sound of its engine. It means so many things to so many people around the world, and we want to take it to as many of them as possible.”
The challenge, called Silver Spitfire – The Longest Flight, is the brainchild of not only Jones and Brooks but also a small and dedicated team of enthusiasts, among them Lachlan Monro, the project director, and Gerry Jones, the group’s chief engineer – both of whom will be following the aircraft around the world in a small PC-12 support plane.
“I suppose it came about nine years ago, when Matt and I bought an old two-seater Spitfire at auction and decided we ought to do something special,” Brooks says. The pair bought the aeroplane to set up Boultbee Flying Academy, the world’s only training school for Spitfire pilots, in 2010 and began offering flights and courses for enthusiasts. The pair will share the flying on the circumnavigation. “There is no feeling like it,” Jones says. “Spitfire pilots in the war used to talk about the aeroplane’s wings becoming their own, and that’s what it’s like. You feel so exposed and, unlike a modern fighter, you know exactly how fast you’re going. It feels that quick.”
The Mark IX that will fly around the world is one of only a few hundred Spitfires left in the world, and an even smaller number – fewer than 30 – are still airworthy.
To make sure it is up to scratch, then, this aircraft is being taken apart entirely and put back together again in a painstaking refit at Duxford. A new engine and slight modifications such as extra fuel tanks, improved avionics and some modern safety gear will make it more suited to fly longer distances.
And, of course, there’ll be no weaponry. “A Spitfire isn’t meant for this, I can tell you that,” says Gerry Jones, 39 (no relation), an aeronautical engineer of more than 20 years.
The intended route will see Jones and Brooks fly the Silver Spitfire first in the direction of Iceland, then over Greenland, into Canada and the United States, before crossing the Bering Straits, over Japan, China and Burma, into the Middle East, North Africa and finally Europe. –