Battle of Britain Memorial Flight

Built too late for combat

PA474 left the Vickers-Armstrong factory at Broughton on 31 May 1945. It had been intended for the planned “Tiger Force” campaign against Japan, but the war ended before deployment. That makes the aircraft's own life very different from the wartime bomber identities it represents in BBMF service.

Photographic survey over Africa

Converted for photo reconnaissance, PA474 deployed to RAF Eastleigh in Kenya with 82 Squadron from 1949. Its cameras supported a vast mapping programme across Africa, producing survey material important to cartography and development.

A flying aerodynamics laboratory

After returning to Britain, PA474 was considered for pilotless air-to-air-refuelling trials and then used by the College of Aeronautics at Cranfield for laminar-flow and boundary-layer research. Experimental swept surfaces were mounted around the rear fuselage, making the Lancaster part of the development story of later aircraft.

Returned to bomber configuration

Personnel at RAF Waddington restored PA474 to flight from 1965, and it flew again in November 1967. It transferred to the Memorial Flight on 20 November 1973 and has since become its centrepiece. The aircraft is preserved through tightly controlled flying and periodic Major maintenance rather than being treated as a replica of one particular wartime Lancaster.

Four marks show how the design evolved

P7350 and AB910 represent the early and middle Merlin-powered fighter story. TE311 shows the late-war low-back, clipped-wing form optimised for low-altitude work, while PM631 and PS915 are unarmed PR Mk XIX reconnaissance aircraft powered by the larger Rolls-Royce Griffon.

P7350 and AB910 carry genuine combat histories

P7350 fought during the Battle of Britain and survived being shot down and force-landed. AB910 served with several British, American and Canadian-crewed squadrons, survived the Dieppe air battle, flew during the D-Day period and completed 143 operational sorties before moving to training duties.

The post-war aircraft are no less significant

TE311's importance lies partly in the ten-year engineering project that returned a long-static aircraft to flight. PM631 and PS915 connect today's Flight directly with its 1957 foundation and preserve the very different sound, speed and handling of the Griffon-powered reconnaissance Spitfire.

MK356 belongs in the history, not the current fleet

Spitfire LF Mk IXe MK356 had joined the BBMF in 1997 and was a genuine wartime aircraft. It was lost in the fatal accident of 25 May 2024. The current total is therefore five Spitfires, while MK356 remains an important part of the Flight's story and remembrance.

Two different “last” Hurricanes

LF363 is believed to have been the last Hurricane accepted into active RAF service. PZ865 was the final Hurricane manufactured anywhere. Both are Mk IIc aircraft, but their individual histories explain why the pair is far more than two interchangeable display fighters.

LF363 is a founding survivor

After wartime home-defence and coastal duties, LF363 became the last airworthy Hurricane retained by the RAF and joined the Historic Aircraft Flight in 1957. An engine failure near RAF Wittering in September 1991 caused a severe crash and fire, but the aircraft was rebuilt and returned to flight in 1998.

PZ865 was preserved by its manufacturer

Hawker kept “The Last of the Many” for 28 years, using it for company transport, racing, displays and filming. When the company collection faced grounding, chief test pilot Duncan Simpson ensured PZ865 was delivered to the Flight in March 1972 so it could remain airborne.

The real aircraft did not take part in D-Day

ZA947 was built as a C-47A in California in 1942 and served with the Royal Canadian Air Force in Canada during the Second World War. It later joined Britain's Royal Aircraft Establishment and Defence Research Agency. Its earlier D-Day schemes commemorated 233 Squadron and other transport crews rather than reproducing ZA947's own wartime service.

Why a Dakota is essential to BBMF

The aircraft entered the Flight in March 1993. It provides a safer and more economical step for crews learning large multi-engine tailwheel operations before flying the Lancaster. It is also used for navigator, flight engineer and air loadmaster training and can operate through the winter when the Lancaster is normally grounded.

A display aircraft in its own right

The Dakota's broad wing, radial-engine sound and slow handling make it very different from the fighters. It can fly a solo display, join large BBMF formations and undertake historically appropriate parachute drops, as demonstrated during the D-Day 75 commemorations in 2019.

Tailwheel training before the fighters

Modern RAF pilots normally arrive with extensive experience on nosewheel aircraft. The Chipmunks introduce the ground-handling, crosswind and landing characteristics of a tailwheel aeroplane before progression to the far more powerful and valuable Hurricanes and Spitfires.

Airborne simulation and forced-landing practice

The Chipmunk can reproduce key handling exercises at lower risk and cost. BBMF instructors use it for tailwheel conversion, continuation training and practice forced landings configured to imitate the limited time and rapid descent that would follow engine failure in a Spitfire.

WG486's unusual operational career

The pair is not simply made up of generic trainers. WG486 flew low-level reconnaissance and convoy escort in Cyprus during the EOKA emergency and later secret photographic missions from RAF Gatow around divided Berlin. WK518, by contrast, spent its career in the training system and has served with BBMF since 1983.