TV & Radio
All the must-see/hear programmes
Thursday 5 March, 9pm Yesterday
It says much about the pivotal role of the Spitfire in national history that, even today, so many of us can identify the outline in the sky if we’re lucky enough to see one of the surviving fighters at an air display or commemorative event. But what does it take to keep a Battle of Britain Spitfire, or indeed any vintage military aircraft, aloft?
This new six-part series offers clues as it follows the work of the engineers and enthusiasts dotted around the UK who keep these planes flying, not least by fighting a war of attrition against metal fatigue and corrosion. When spares are needed, there’s no online catalogue available from which to order parts for next-day delivery. Rather, it’s very likely that components will need to be created from unpromising-looking lumps of metal using exhaustive research, ingenuity and machining expertise.
The pay-off for this painstaking work lies in seeing a plane such as Spitfire MJ772, the subject of the first episode, restored to her former glory. The fighter dates back to 1943 and, during the Second World War, flew sorties over the Normandy beachhead area. Later, MJ772 saw time as a training plane with the Irish Air Corps and appeared in the 1969 film Battle of Britain, competing for screen time with the likes of Michael Caine.
The cameras follow MJ772 as she’s returned to flying fitness by a team at the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar, a facility dedicated to restoring Spitfires, led by chief engineer Franco Tambascia. They have their work cut out for them, not least because the plane’s left wing was torn off in a crash landing in Kent, a prang that twisted and buckled her metalwork. But they rise to the challenge, and you can even book a flight in MJ772 yourself (if you can afford it).
Other episodes in the series are devoted to a US Douglas C-47 paratroop plane that was damaged on D-Day; a biplane that flew in the Spanish Civil War as part of the Condor Legion, a Nazi unit that fought for Franco’s Nationalists; and an Aero L-39 Albatros jet dating from the Cold War.