SPITFIRE LANDS BACK IN THE CITY!
Iconic plane back at museum
THE city’s iconic Spitfire is finally back home – after more than 9,000 man hours of painstaking restoration work.
The RW388 Spitfire, which has spent the last three years at Medway Aircraft Preservation Society’s workshop in Kent, arrived back at the Potteries Museum and Art Gallery yesterday in two lorries – one carrying the fuselage and the other carrying the wings.
Now experts from RAF Museum Cosford will have the job of reassembling the aircraft in its new home, a £6.5 million glass-fronted gallery at the museum.
The multi-million pound extension is set to open in September. It will also feature images and information about the plane and its designer – Butt Lane-born Reginald Mitchell – as well as a simulator that will allow visitors to experience what it would have been like to pilot the aircraft.
The Spitfire became the iconic aircraft of the Battle of Britain in the Second World War and the symbol of British defiance in the air.
The gallery will also enable visitors to view the plane outside of museum opening hours when it will be lit up at night.
City council cabinet member Lorraine Beardmore said the plane’s return was ‘a bit like Christmas’.
She added: “It was a really poignant day when the Spitfire left Hanley – there was a lot of excitement when it went away to be restored.
“It’s been three long years so this is highly anticipated and it’s really exciting to see it back in the city.
“It’s had more than 9,000 man hours of work go into it, which shows just how important the Spitfire is not just to the city, but to the country as a whole.
“It’s really exciting because a lot has gone into this project and this is the next step in our journey of getting the gallery open. It’s a bit like Christmas for a lot of people!
“It’s time to celebrate our heritage – the Spitfire means a great deal to a lot of people. You go back generations and people have memories of the Spitfire in the glass greenhouse building – where it was housed for many years.
“Now we’re going to have a new wave of visitors who will remember it in its purpose built home where it will be on display all day and all night.”
The plane was first presented to Stoke-on-trent in 1972 by Air
Chief Marshal Sir Neil Wheeler.