Battle of Britain Memorial Flight

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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 aircraft are regularly seen at events commemorating World War II, upon British State occasions, notably the Trooping the Colour celebrating Queen Elizabeth II's 80th birthday in 2006, and at air displays throughout the United Kingdom and Europe.

The Flight is administratively part of No. 1 Group RAF, flying out of RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire.

1 Aircraft
2 History
3 Other large collections of flying historic aircraft
4 See also
5 External links

[edit] Aircraft

Typical formation: Hawker Hurricane, Avro Lancaster and Supermarine Spitfire

Although usually seen flying in a formation of three, the Lancaster flanked by a fighter on each wing, the Flight actually comprises 11 aircraft, including five Spitfires, two Hurricanes, a Douglas Dakota, and two De Havilland Chipmunks.

The two Chipmunks are the last in RAF service, but are not intended for display use; rather, they serve to give pilots experience in flying aircraft with a conventional landing gear, a design that has now vanished from the modern RAF fleet. One of the two Chipmunks regularly flew reconnaissance missions over East Germany, as part of the RAF Gatow Station Flight, in co-operation with The British Commander-in-Chief's Mission to the Soviet Forces of Occupation in Germany, commonly known as BRIXMIS.

The Dakota fills a dual role, serving both as a support aircraft for the Flight (and as a multi-engine tail-wheel trainer for the Lancaster) and, more recently, as a display aircraft in her own right.

The Flight also regularly takes part in combined flypasts with other recognisable British aircraft, such as The Red Arrows. It appeared on occasion with Concorde before that aircraft's withdrawal from service in October 2003.

2 Hawker Hurricanes and 5 Supermarine Spitfires at Duxford airshow, May 2007

[edit] History

In the years immediately following World War Two it became traditional for a Spitfire and Hurricane to lead the Victory Day flypast over London. From that event there grew the idea to form an historic collection of flyable aircraft, initially to commemorate the RAF’s major battle honour, The Battle of Britain, and latterly with broadened scope, to commemorate the RAF’s involvement in all the campaigns of WWII. Thus in 1957 the Historic Aircraft Flight was formed at RAF Biggin Hill with one Hurricane (LF363) and 3 x Mk XIX Spitfires (PM631, PS853 and PS915), in what, even then, had become a predominantly jet-powered Air Force.

Originally the RAF Historic Aircraft Flight, with a small group of Spitfires and Hurricanes operating from RAF Coltishall from 1963, the group became the "Battle of Britain Memorial Flight" in 1973, with the acquisition of a Lancaster. The first Chipmunk was acquired in 1983, and the Dakota in 1995. The Spitfires and Hurricanes in the Flight have varied over the years, as new aircraft are acquired and older ones given to museums or used for parts.

Individual aircraft have historic heritages, as well; the oldest of the Spitfires, P7350, is a Mk.IIa, which originally flew in the Battle of Britain in 1940, with 266 and 603 Squadrons. She is both the oldest Spitfire still in flying condition, and the last surviving aircraft from the Battle of Britain still able to fly. In 2007 she was repainted in the 603 Squadron letters XT-L, those of Gerald 'Stapme' Stapleton's personal aircraft.

Spitfire AB910, flying at a 2004 airshow

Another, AB910, escorted convoys in the Battle of the Atlantic, flew escort patrols during bombing raids on Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, then (as part of No. 133 squadron) fought in the Dieppe Raid. Capping this long career, as part of No. 402 Squadron RCAF, she flew cover patrols over the Normandy beachheads on D-Day and in the subsequent weeks - as did another of the Flight's Spitfires, with No. 443 Squadron RCAF.

The two Hurricanes have their own claims; one is the last Hurricane to have entered service with the RAF; the other, built six months later, is the last Hurricane ever to have been built.

Aircraft currently in the Flight have served with the RAF, the United States Army Air Forces, and the Royal Canadian Air Force, as well as having been privately owned; whilst in the RAF, they were flown by Czechoslovakian, Polish, South African, American and Canadian pilots. Some were sold for scrapping and later saved, whilst at least one has been in operational service with the RAF for almost fifty years.