Look up in the sky on Saturday 9th July at 1:40pm
Radcliffe on Trent Carnival are delighted to welcome The Spitfire from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, which should flypast as the procession reaches The Grange, at around 1:40pm
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) is a Royal Air Force flight which provides an aerial display group comprising an Avro Lancaster, a Supermarine Spitfire and a Hawker Hurricane.
The flight is administratively part of No. 1 Group RAF, flying out of RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire.
This iconic British single-seat fighter aircraft was used by
the Royal Air Force and many other Allied countries before, during and after
the Second World War.
The Spitfire played a major part in achieving ultimate
victory in World War Two and truly deserves its place as probably the most
successful fighter design ever, and certainly as the most famous and
charismatic of all time.
The development potential of the original design allowed the
Spitfire to establish and then maintain the air superiority so vital to the
defence of Britain and to keep pace with the improvements in performance of
enemy fighters throughout World War Two.
Spitfires fought in every operational theatre of the War and
remained in RAF front-line service up to 1954.
At the end of its development
the Spitfire carried an engine producing more than twice the power of the
original, its maximum take-off weight and rate of climb had more than doubled,
its firepower had increased by a factor of five and its maximum speed had been
increased by a third; all this in essentially the same air-frame.