The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) displaying over home base RAF Coningsby, Lincolnshire in July 2023. The Avro Lancaster (PA474), Supermarine Spitfire (MK356) and Hawker Hurricane (PZ865).
BBMF
The Battle of Britain Memorial Flight (BBMF) based at RAF Coningsby, were inaugurated on 11th July 1957 at RAF Biggin Hill. It was initially called the RAF Historic Aircraft Flight and consisted of three PR Mk XIX Spitfires and the RAF’s last airworthy Hurricane, LF363. It was then renamed to be the Battle of Britain Flight before a final renaming in 1969 as we know today, BBMF.
Between 1959 and 1965 the flight had one Spitfire (PM631) and one Hurricane (LF363) on its strength. Now, as a ‘museum without walls’, it maintains twelve historic and irreplaceable aircraft: an Avro Lancaster, a C-47 Dakota, six Spitfires, two Hurricanes and two de Havilland Chipmunk training aircraft.
PA474
The Avro Lancaster is the most famous and successful RAF heavy bomber of World War Two.Today, there are only two airworthy Lancasters left in the world of the 7,377 that were built.
Lancaster PA474 was built at the Vickers Armstrong Broughton factory at Hawarden Airfield, Chester on 31 May 1945, just after VE day. The war in the Far East ended before she was deployed and she did not take part in any hostilities.
MK356
Spitfire MK356 was part of a batch of Mk IX Spitfires built at the Castle Bromwich factory in early 1944. It was fitted with full-span wingtips and a Rolls-Royce Merlin 66 engine with a two-speed, two-stage supercharger optimised for low altitudes, making it a L.F. (Low Flying) Mk IXe. On 4th February 1944 MK356 was delivered to the RAF, being flown from Castle Bromwich to No 9 Maintenance Unit at Cosford, where it was fitted with operational equipment.
There are currently only eight Spitfires worldwide that flew operationally with the Royal Air Force or its affiliated air forces on D-Day, that are still airworthy. MK356 is one of these, a genuine D-Day veteran, and it will have a part to play this year in the 75th anniversary commemorations of D-Day.
After ‘belly landing’ with its undercarriage retracted on returning from its 60th wartime operation on 14th June 1944, MK356 spent over 53 years on the ground, whilst remaining in RAF hands. Having been returned to airworthy condition at St Athan, MK356 joined the BBMF collection in November 1997
MK356 is now painted in desert camouflage, representing a Spitfire Mk IX of 92 Squadron (code letters ‘QJ-3’) in Tunisia in 1943.
PZ865
Hurricane PZ865 (Mk IIC) is known to be the last Hurricane built 'the last of many' (of 14,533). She has been painted as No.247 Squadron night fighter intruder aircraft, coded ‘ZY-V. The original ‘ZY-V’ was Hurricane IIC BE634 of 247 Sqn, which was based at Predannack and Exeter in 1942, with her pilots involved in defensive night fighter patrols and night intruder operations over enemy territory. Unusually, the 247 Sqn Hurricanes wore half-sized roundels and code letters over their all-black night fighter camouflage. The all-black night fighter Hurricanes of 247 Sqn were used for night air defence of the Plymouth and Exeter area and for night intruder operations against targets in north-western France.
BBMF PAINT SCHEMES
Every few years the BBMF will choose different paint schemes to represent a particular squadrons from the Second World War. The aircraft are original historic flying memorials to those that made the ultimate sacrifice... LEST WE FORGET
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www.raf.mod.uk/display-teams/...
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31 янв 2024
