Silver Spitfire 'The Longest Flight' - The First Around The World

Описание: A short video and stills film covering 'The Silver Spitfire', with it's departure from Goodwood for 'The Longest Flight' and it's return to Goodwood 4 months later, successfully becoming The First Around The World Spitfire.

The Silver Spitfire is Mk.IX Spitfire MJ271, G-IRTY. It's finished in polished aluminium with the guns removed. By ‘de-militarising’ the aircraft the operators aim is to highlight the beauty of the Spitfire’s timeless design, drawing attention to the unique and famous shape of the airframe.
With a plane that is less provocative than one adorned with camouflage paint, it was hoped to broaden the appeal and reach of the project and to gain easier access to nations en route.

The Spitfire was designed as a short-range, high-performance interceptor aircraft by R. J. Mitchell.
Mitchell pushed the Spitfire’s distinctive elliptical wing (designed by B. Shenstone) to have the thinnest possible cross-section, helping give the aircraft a higher top speed than several contemporary fighters, including the Hawker Hurricane. Mitchell continued to refine the design until his death in 1937, whereupon his colleague Joseph Smith took over as chief designer, overseeing the development of the Spitfire through its multitude of variants.

The Silver Spitfire is one of the most original airworthy Spitfires in the world.

On October 24th 1943 MJ271 was delivered from Castle Bromwich to 33 Maintenance Unit at RAF Lyneham.
From there she was sent to 411, a Polish Repair and Salvage unit tasked with harmonising the guns and performing test flights before passing the aircraft on to an operational unit.

Delivered to 118 Squadron in February 1944. 118 was a fighter Squadron that spent much of its time flying fighter sweeps and escorting bombers over occupied Europe. MJ271 aircraft saw action in 16 operational sorties from RAF Detling near Maidstone in Kent, which inluded withdrawal cover and escort for B-24, B-17 and B-26 bombers attacking V1 launch sites as well as fighter sweeps over France.

MJ271 moved to 132 Bombay Squadron and followed the Squadron to RAF Ford in Sussex in April/May 1944. Formed in 1941 as a day fighter unit equipped with Spitfires, 132 Squadron moved between defensive duties in Scotland and offensive duties in France from bases in the south of England.
MJ271 saw action in 28 operational sorties which included close escort for B-25 and B-26 bombers as well as dive bombing of targets on the French coast, before having a ‘wheels-up’ landing at RAF Ford during the night of May 9th 1944.

On May 15th she was moved to Hamble for repairs and readied for collection on July 24th. MJ271 was then transferred to 39 Maintenance Unit at RAF Colerne on August 19th, 83 GSU at RAF Bognor on September 19th and finally to RAF Westhampnett (home today to the Boultbee Flight Academy and now known as Goodwood Aerodrome) with 83 GSU on November 4th.

MJ271 then moved with the Canadian pilots of 401 RCAF (City of Westmount) Squadron to the Netherlands on November 23rd at Volkel. 401 Squadron were heavily involved in D-Day and the European offensive in 1944 operating in fighter-bomber, ground attack and armed reconnaissance operations.
After performing ten dive-bombing missions she is ‘over-stressed’ on December 24th and sent to RCAF 410 – a repair and salvage unit.

On June 21st 1945 MJ271 was delivered to 29 Maintenance Unit at High Ercall before passing on to the Royal Netherlands Air Force (RNAF) on November 25th 1946 with the designation H-8, later becoming 3W-8, the designation she would wear for some 70+ years before rolling into a hangar at Duxford to begin the restoration which transformed her into airworthy condition once again, ready to begin her next adventure as the Silver Spitfire.

https://www.silverspitfire.com

Music - 'Kiss the Sky' by Aakash Gandhi from the YouTube audio library (copyright free).
'Voice-over' narrative from 'The First of the Few' 1942 - British Aviation Movies Ltd also released in USA as 'Spitfire' - voices of actors Leslie Howard & David Niven.

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