Battle of Britain Memorial Flight

There are many private operators of historic aircraft in the UK, however the Royal Air Force still has Spitfires, Hurricanes, and Lancaster on charge still retaining military serial numbers. The organisation responsible for keeping these machines in the air is of course the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight.

The BBMF is a flying memorial to the thousands of Royal Air Force personnel who died to secure Britain's future. Thankfully the BBMF has survived the many defence cuts throughout the RAF, although a good deal of the money comes from private backers. 

The BBMF was formed at Biggin Hill on 11th July 1957 as the Historic Aircraft Flight. The new flight was made up of three Spitfire PR XIXs (PM631, PS853, and PS915), one Hurricane Mk IIc (LF363), these arrived at Biggin Hill from Woodvale via the still operational RAF Duxford. 

There have been many changes in the line up of aircraft available to the BBMF over the years with both PS915 and PM631 leaving for gate guard duties and the addition of three Spitfire XVIs following moves to North Weald and Martlesham Heath. One of the XVIs is now on display at the Smithsonian Institute, the other two suffered landing accidents and were grounded, although both were subsequently restored to flying condition and found their way to the United States.

In the early years the BBMF were rather nomadic. After being based at Horsham St Faith (now known as Norwich Airport), the BBMF moved down the road to RAF Coltishall in Norfolk in 1963 and were resident there for 13 years although they were temporarily relocated to RAF Wattisham while maintenance was carried out on Coltishall's runway. Soon after their arrival at Coltishall, PS853 made its return to the flight. Another Spitfire, this time a Mk V (AB910), joined the flight in 1965 followed in 1968 by a Mk II donated by the makers of the film "The Battle of Britain" in which the aircraft played a starring role.

In 1972 another Hawker Hurricane Mk IIc (PZ865) joined the flight at Coltishall. PZ865 was the last Hurricane to be built, and spent much of its career as a chase plane at Hawkers. Lancaster PA474 came along a year later just as the Historic Aircraft Flight was re-named the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight. PA474 had been restored by personnel from 44 Squadron at RAF Waddington where it operated for a short time.

The final move to RAF Coningsby was made in 1976, where the BBMF have remained ever since.

The flagship of the BBMF is Avro Lancaster PA474. This aircraft is one of only two Lancaster's flying in the world today, the other being operated in Canada. Although PA474 was delivered too late to see service during WWII, she stands as a lasting memorial to more than 70,000 allied aircrew who lost their lives in Bomber Command during the Second World War.

Other aircraft are operated by the BBMF most notably the Douglas Dakota ZA947, which replaced the flight's De Havilland Devon (VP981) as the crew ferry aircraft which was sold in 1998. The Dakota also performs as a multi engine trainer for the Lancaster crew, and is a display aircraft in its own right.

To keep the fighter pilots current on "tail draggers", the flight also operates the De Havilland Chipmunk, the last two examples of this aircraft in RAF service. 

Spitifire XIX PS915, returned to the flight after refurbishment in 1987, but sadly four years later Hurricane Mk IIc LF363 was badly damaged in an accident. To fund the re-build of this valuable aircraft, one of the Spitfire PR XIXs (PS853) was sold to Rolls Royce, who still operate her. Another Spitfire this time an LF IXe (MK356) arrived after a re-build at RAF St Athan, and is currently wearing the markings of 443 Sqn RCAF, the unit in which this machine served during its operational career. This was  followed in 1998 by the return of Hurricane LF363 as good as new.

Over an average display season the BBMF is kept very busy, during 2006 they flew a total of 783 individual appearences in 410 separate events!

The majority of the maintenance  work is carried out by RAF personnel, however in the last two years some of the work has been contracted to the Aircraft Restoration Company at Duxford, who have a vast amount of experience in maintaining warbirds. 

Current BBMF Aircraft 

All photographs: Copyright © UK Warbirds except Lancaster: © Ronnie Olsthoorn.  Unauthorised use of any of the images found on this site prohibited.  Please note that UK Warbirds is in no way officially connected to any of the owners or operators mentioned on this site. The views expressed on this web site are those of the authors, and not necessarily those of companies or individuals mentioned.