ICONIC e flight stuff

on. He was credited with 80 kills, e than any other fighter pilot. ut within three weeks of the RAF ming, he was shot down in northern nce. Now Britain ruled the skies. urther proof came as the RAF royed the retreating Ottoman army Wadi Fara, Palestine, in September year. The new air force even played y role in the end of the war. n November 11, 1918, an observation raft landed at Auchy, in northern nce. Its crew reported they had seen nemy aircraft or anti-aircraft fire. was crucial proof the Germans had lly laid down their arms. Fifteen utes later the Armistice was in force. With the war over, the RAF helped to push the boundaries of air travel. In 1919 Major G. H. Scott led a crew of 30 RAF and US Navy personnel as they flew the airship R34 from Scotland to New York, the first airship crossing of the Atlantic.

In March 1925, the RAF was handed its first solo mission, bombing and strafing mountain strongholds to crush the rebellion by Mahsud tribesmen in the Waziristan region of India, now Pakistan. By May 1 the rebel leaders were ready to make “an honourable peace”.

During the 1930s the RAF pioneered two of its most famous planes. First was the de Havilland Tiger Moth, which took to the air for the first time in 1931.

Built to train pilots, many Moths are still active all over the world today. More iconic still was the Spitfire. Though the prototype flew for the first time in March 1936, the first was not delivered to RAF Duxford until August 1938.

Walthamstow-born Geoffrey can still remember the first time he flew one.

He says: “Once I was inside, the Spitfire, quite frankly, flew me. It was a wonderful feeling. I remember thinking this is what I wanted to do and where I wanted to be.”

It wasn’t long before the new planes were tested to the limits.

The Battle of Britain raged from July 10 until October

31, 1940. It claimed the lives of 449 fighter pilots, 718 aircrew from Bomber Command and 280 from Coastal Command. One of the worst days came on August 31 when the RAF lost 39 planes and more than 50 men. Another 30 were injured.

At that point, the life expectancy of a new pilot was just four weeks. That makes it all the more remarkable Squadron Leader Geoffrey has reached his ripe old age.

He survived dozens of dogfights across Europe before being awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal and given his own squadron of eight planes to help lift the siege of Malta, before