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Climb into the cockpits of historic planes, and meet the craftsmen who dedicate their time to bring these aviation icons back to life.
2016
Maurice Hammond takes on the restoration of a P-51 Mustang, a US made fighter plane that gave the Allies air superiority over the Luftwaffe in World War II. He finds that the plane has a connection to a famous US airman who flew successful missions from nearby English airfields in World War II.
Paul Vacher finds a Hawker Hurricane in India. How he gets it back to the UK and up in the air over the fields it helped protect in World War II is as dramatic a story as the role the plane played in the Battle of Britain, protecting England against the Nazis.
Painstakingly restoring the Fokker, the type of airplane favored by the Red Baron, the most famous pilot of WWI, takes surgeon Peter Bruggemann on a journey of exploration into the lives of the young men who flew in the dogfights of World War I.
Rex Ford is restoring a rare Percival Q6. As he traces its story from the 1930's, he learns of the colorful Aussie aircraft designer-builder, Edgar Percival, and finds that this particular plane may have played a role in a significant moment in World War II history!
Maurice Hammond and his daughter, Leah, undertake the restoration of an AT-6 Harvard aircraft. At the same time, Leah works on establishing a memorial to the US airmen and RAF pilots who flew from airfields near her home village. See how rebuilding the plane brings World War II history to life.
Paul Bennett is restoring a Stearman, an open cockpit trainer for pilots in World War II. Like WWI planes, the US built Stearman has a fabric covered fusilage and wire supported wings. Literally thousands of pilots trained on these planes for service in WWII. But then what happened to the planes?
2018
2020
2021
The team flies a P-40 Warhawk, a fighter that was obsolete before the Second World War commenced in Europe, but served right to the conclusion in every theatre of the conflict
Enthusiasts restore a De Havilland Canada DHC-4 Caribou, which was the only aircraft that served on both sides in the Vietnam War.
Enthusiasts restore a Grumman TBF Avenger torpedo bomber, the plane flown by future US president George HW Bush during the Second World War.
Enthusiasts restore a Hispano Aviacion HA-1112, which was a variant of the German Messerschmitt Bf 109 built in Spain under licence.
The programme looks at a restored Yakovlev Yak-3, a Soviet fighter plane used to great effect during the Second World War.
The programme looks at the only running example of a Mosquito, a mostly wooden multirole combat aircraft, and takes to the skies over Florida with one.
