AB910, built in 1941, painted in the colours of Spitfire BM327
No. 64 Squadron; this aircraft was flown by Flight Lieutenant Tony Cooper during
Operation Overlord on 6 June 1944, hence the
D-Day stripes. Although usually seen flying in a formation of three, the Lancaster flanked by a fighter on each wing, the BBMF comprises a total of 12 aircraft: • 1
Avro Lancaster • 6
Supermarine Spitfires • 2
Hawker Hurricanes • 1
Douglas Dakota • 2
de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunks 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
Czechoslovak, Polish, South African, American and Canadian pilots. Some were sold for scrapping and later saved, whilst at least one has been on operational service with the RAF for almost fifty years.
Spitfires Individual aircraft have historic heritages; the oldest of the Spitfires, P7350 (G-AWIJ), is a Mk.IIa, which originally flew in the
Battle of Britain in 1940, with
No. 266 (Rhodesia) Squadron RAF and
603 (City of Edinburgh) Squadron AAF. It was also used by
No. 64 Squadron RAF and
No. 616 Squadron RAF. In 2019 she was repainted in the
No. 54 Squadron code 'KL-B', which represents the aircraft flown by
Al Deere from 10 July 1940 until 31 August 1940. The Mk Vb Spitfire, AB910, built in 1941 escorted convoys in the
Battle of the Atlantic. She then flew escort patrols during bombing raids on the German battleships
Scharnhorst and
Gneisenau, then (as part of
No. 133 (Eagle) Squadron), she fought in the
Dieppe Raid. Capping this long career, as part of
No. 402 Squadron RCAF, she flew cover patrols over the
Normandy beaches on
D-Day and in the subsequent weeks – as did another of the flight's Spitfires, with
No. 443 Squadron RCAF. As of August 2018, AB910 was adorned with the D-Day colour scheme of Flight Lieutenant Tony Cooper's 64 Squadron Mk Vb 'SH-F' (BM327) "PeterJohn1" (named after his new-born son). The Mk LFIXe Spitfire, MK356, was built in March 1944 and fitted with a Merlin 66 engine with a two-speed, two-stage supercharger optimised for low altitudes. Allocated to the
Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) No. 144 Wing, based in various locations around southern England, she took part in the Rodeo fighter sweep over occupied France in the weeks leading up to D-Day. After the war she served as a
gate guardian at
Hawkinge and
Locking, and was recovered and refurbished in 1992 for the BBMF. From 2017 she was displayed in a desert paint scheme used by
No. 92 (East India) Squadron in Tunisia in 1943. The aircraft crashed in 2024, killing the pilot. Spitfire Mark XVI TE311, built as a low-back with clipped wings and powered with a Packard Merlin engine, was acquired in 2002 and initially allocated for spares, but officially added to the BBMF collection in 2007. TE311 was made airworthy in the later stages of the 2012 display season. Since January 2024, TE311 has worn the livery of
No. 322 (Dutch) Squadron and its Squadron code
"3W-M", along with the Squadron's mascot,
"Polly Grey", a
red-tailed African Grey parrot, on its nose. In July 2024 the aircraft's
starboard (right) side was repainted to display the fictitious squadron code
"L-NG" in memory of Squadron Leader Mark Long, along with his name and rank pennant under the cockpit. and a TV series
The War in the Air.
PZ865, is a Mk IIc, rolling off the production line on 27 July 1944. It was built six months after LF363; originally owned by
Hawker Aircraft, it was handed over to the BBMF during 1972. She is the last Hurricane ever to have been built. She once wore the inscription "The Last of the Many" on her port and starboard sides – the original fabric with this inscription is now located in the BBMF Headquarters at RAF Coningsby.
Lancaster PA474 'AR-L' at RIAT 2023. The Lancaster bomber –
PA474, acquired by the BBMF in 1973, is one of only two
surviving airworthy examples of the type; the other is in Canada. She was completed on 31 May 1945 and assigned to reconnaissance duties at
No. 82 Squadron RAF after appearing too late to take part in the
bombing of Japan. After various duties, she was adopted by the
Air Historical Branch for display work. She appeared in two films:
Operation Crossbow and
The Guns of Navarone. Having been flown for much of her service with the BBMF as the "City of
Lincoln", PA474 previously wore the markings of the "Phantom of the Ruhr", a Lancaster that flew 121 sorties (a so-called "ton-up" Lancaster). Originally assigned to
100 Squadron in June 1943, the original "Phantom" was transferred to
101 Squadron in November that year and finished the war as part of
550 Squadron at
RAF Ludford Magna. The Lancaster currently carries the markings of AR-L 'Leader', which served with
No. 460 Squadron RAAF. PA474 displays the markings of bombs for operations over Germany, ice-cream cones for operations over Italy and poppies when she releases poppies during exhibition flights. During the 2008 RAF Waddington Air Day, PA474 was flown in formation with the recently restored
Avro Vulcan XH558 in an historic display of two Avro "heavy metal" classics.
Dakota South East Asia Command (SEAC). The
Douglas Dakota, ZA947, built at Long Beach, California in March 1942, was issued to the
United States Army Air Forces and later transferred to the Royal Canadian Air Force where she served until 1971. The aircraft was purchased by the
Royal Aircraft Establishment before being issued to the BBMF in March 1993. She is equipped with authentic period 'para seats' and is used in commemorative parachute drops. The Dakota did serve solely as a support aircraft for the flight and as a multi-engine tail-wheel trainer for the Lancaster, but is now also used as a display aircraft.
Chipmunks The two
de Havilland Canada DHC-1 Chipmunks (WG486 and WK518), 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
tailwheel landing gear, a design that has now vanished from the modern RAF fleet. Chipmunk WG486 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
Group of Soviet Forces in Germany, commonly known as
BRIXMIS.
Flypasts s, three
Supermarine Spitfires, one
Douglas Dakota and one
Avro Lancaster in Trenchard Plus formation at RIAT 2018. 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. For much of the 2014 display season the flight was joined by Canadian-built
Lancaster Mark X FM213. This aircraft is owned and operated by the
Canadian Warplane Heritage Museum and made the 3,000-mile trip to the UK, via
Goose Bay in Canada and
Keflavík in Iceland, arriving at RAF Coningsby on 9 August. FM213 (C-GVRA) is dedicated to the memory of P/O Andrew Mynarski
Victoria Cross and is referred to as the "Mynarski Memorial Lancaster". It is painted in the colours of his aircraft KB726 – VR-A, which flew with RCAF No. 419 (Moose) Squadron, and is affectionately known as Vera. She displayed with PA474 in the first Lancaster two-aircraft formation for 50 years, with both Lancasters visiting a large number of air shows and events before Vera's departure back to Canada in mid-September. == Aircraft ==