Silver spitfire – the longest flight

Around the world in a Spitfire

Ambitious plans are underway to circumnavigate the globe in a Mk IX Spitfire owned by Boultbee Flight Academy at Goodwood.

The heavily-anticipated refurbishment of Spitfire MJ271, which was built in 1943 at Castle Bromwich, and which flew 51 combat missions, was completed in May 2019. The restored Spitfire is still 90 per cent original, having been completely stripped down to its component parts, refurbished and reassembled. The guns have been removed and the iconic aircraft now has a distinctive polished aluminium finish. This has been done to make the Spitfire look less war-like, and to show off the beauty of the original design. It has been equipped with extra fuel tanks to extend the range beyond the standard 350 miles.

Spitfires that flew from aircraft carriers to defend Malta routinely covered distances of over 600 miles, some landing on fumes, but it demonstrates that a fighter conceived for a short-range defensive role can be modified to suit a different purpose.

The round-the-world flight is scheduled to begin on the 5th August 2019 at Goodwood and is expected to return to the UK by December 7, 2019.

The intended route will see Boultbee bosses Matt Jones and Steve Brooks fly the Silver Spitfire, first in the direction of Iceland, then over Greenland, into Canada and the USA, before crossing the Bering Strait, over Japan, China, and Burma, into the Middle East, North Africa and finally Europe, from where it will head home having made 150 stops in over 30 countries and having flown 43,000 kilometres.

The detailed flight route and dates of arrivals are listed below:

The Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar and Fly A Spitfire applaud this bold undertaking and hope that the Silver Spitfire mission is a roaring success. We’ll be keeping a keen eye on their progress.

Start your own Spitfire adventure with one of our Weald of Kent, Beachy Head or Dover Spitfire flights by clicking HERE

Images credit: John Dibbs/Simon Smith