The RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) Avro Lancaster PA474, Supermarine Spitfire.. and Hawker Hurricane - Mk.IIc, PZ865 and Mk.II LF363, displaying at RAF Fairford on Sunday of The Royal International Air Tattoo 2025.
Avro Lancaster :- The prototype Lancaster first flew from Woodford, Manchester, on 9th January 1941. The first production Lancaster flew on 31st October 1941.
On 24 December 1941, 44 Squadron at RAF Waddington, became the first squadron to equip with the Lancaster, quickly followed by 97 Squadron at Woodhall Spa.
The aircraft could carry a maximum bomb load of 22,000 lbs. Its maximum level speed with a full load at 15,000 feet was 275 mph. It could cruise above 20,000ft at a speed of 200 mph. With a full bomb load it had a range of more than 1,500 miles.
7,377 Lancasters were built between 1941 and early 1946. 3,500 were lost on operations and another 200 were destroyed or written off in crashes. The vast majority of Lancasters that survived the war were scrapped.
PA474 is one of only two Lancaster aircraft remaining in airworthy condition. The other is in Canada with the Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum at Hamilton, Ontario.
Supermarine Spitfire Mk. IIa P7350:-
The is the only Spitfire still flying today which flew and fought in the Battle of Britain. It was part of the first batch of Spitfires built at the Castle Bromwich and went to the RAF on 13/8/1940. It served with 266 Squadron at Wittering and Hornchurch, and then 603 Squadron at Hornchurch.
On 25/10/1940, whilst being flown by Polish pilot Ludwik Martel, it was hit by cannon fire from a German Bf109 and force-landed, wheels-up, in a field near Hastings. After repair it continued to fly operations until April 1942. It was then used for training, until stored in 1944. In 1948 it was sold for scrap for £25 to J.Dale & Sons, who gifted it to the RAF Museum Collection at RAF Colerne. The making of the movie ‘Battle of Britain’ saw it emerge from 20 years dormancy and made airworthy. When filming finished in November 1968, it joined the RAF Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.
It now wears the 54 Squadron colours of Spitfire Mk.1 R6895, ‘KL-B’, “KIWI III”, the personal aircraft of New Zealander, Al Deere, from 10th July 1940 until 31st August 1940. On 31/8/1940 Hornchurch was bombed at 1.15pm as the Squadron was taking off. Al Deere in 'Kiwi III' crashed upside down on the runway after being overturned by an explosion. He was dragged out, slightly injured, by P/O Eric Edsall, who though badly injured when his own Spitfire had been destroyed, crawled to Deere’s aircraft and freed him. Deere then carried his rescuer to Hornchurch sick quarters for treatment. Although listed as 'written off', P7350 was repaired, survived and was disposed of in March 1945. As all three of his Spitfires named “KIWI” had come to grief, Deere decided not to paint the Kiwi emblem on his later Spitfires. By the end of the war he had flown almost 700 hours on fighter operations and was credited with 22 kills, 10 ‘probables’ and 18 enemy aircraft damaged. He had survived six forced landings or crashes and three bale-outs.
Air Commodore Al Deere DSO OBE DFC and Bar, one of the RAF’s greatest fighter pilots and fighter leaders, died in September 1995, aged 77.
Hawker Hurricane Mk.II, LF363:-
As part of its last ‘Major’ service at Biggin Hill, which was completed in Spring 2022, LF363 was repainted into new colours as ‘RF-J’ of 303 Kościuszko (Polish) Squadron during the Battle of Britain.
The original Hurricane ‘RF-J’, which LF363 now represents, was Hurricane Mk. I, V6665, which was delivered as a replacement aircraft, to 303 Squadron at Northolt on 7th September 1940. It lasted for only 20 days before it was lost in combat, crashing at Cowden, Kent on 27 September 1940.
In common with all the 303 Squadron Hurricanes, V6665 was painted with the colourful circular unit badge on each side of the upper fuselage under the wireless aerial mast. In addition, shortly after receiving instructions from Headquarters 11 Group on 16th September, V6665 was painted with an unusual red diagonal band around the rear fuselage ahead of the fin and tail. This was an experimental identification marking that was applied to three of 303 Squadron’s Hurricanes as a trial, which was later not pursued. It was not, as some think, an indication that this was a flight commander’s aircraft.
Hurricane V6665 was flown on its first operational sortie on 9th September 1940 by Flight Lieutenant Johnny Kent, a Canadian RAF pilot and one of the Squadron's flight commanders. During this sortie, he damaged a Junkers Ju 88 bomber and shot down a
Messerschmitt Bf110.
Hurricane V6665 flew 19 operational sorties during its short life with 303 Squadron, 11 of these with Johnny Kent as the pilot. In total, V6665’s pilots claimed four enemy aircraft destroyed while flying her.
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