The engineering team at the Biggin HIll Heritage Hangar begin the rebuild of RAF Spitfire MJ772, a war veteran fighter that saw action in the skies over the D Day beaches and the battle to liberate Europe. The ambitious restoration begins with the left wing, torn off in a crash landing in a field in Kent after an engine failure. Chief engineer Franca Tambascia and his young team must replace the main spars and repair damaged metalwork twisted and buckled in the accident.
A US Army Air Force C47 that dropped paratroopers on D Day is at the centre of one of the UK’s most ambitious warbird rebuilds…but will it be ready to carry the engineering team and its pilot owner to the 75th anniversary celebrations?
A team of engineers fight to return a veteran Westland Wessex helicopter to the skies – 30 years after its last flight – in time for a star appearance at one of the UK’s biggest air shows.
Aircraft restoration expert Mark Masters and his son James rebuild a 1943 US Army Aeronca Defender liaison plane for its German owner. What starts out as a simple repair turns into a major rebuild as work exposes the toll time has taken on its wooden wins.
A group of amateur pilots find their light plane has a glorious war record – and launch an ambitious project to rebuild the Piper Cub and restore its military markings in time for an epic flight to France to take part in the 75th anniversary of D Day.
Following businessman and racing driver Steve Hartley’s quest for speed on board his own warplane. His L39 Cold War era jet was rescued from a hangar in the Baltic States but a team of ex-RAF and Navy engineers must now work out how it works…
With no plans to guide them, an elite team of expert engineers re-create a unique two-seater version of the legendary Hawker Hurricane fighter.
The epic battle to rebuild The Waterbird, the Royal Navy's first seaplane. In 1911 Waterbird made history by taking off from Lake Windermere using a revolutionary float that inspired the design of every successful seaplane built over the following century. The Waterbird was championed by Winston Churchill who saw it as a war-winning weapon against the Kaiser's Germany. Filmed over 12 years and beset by financial problems, the labour intensive project tests veteran engineer Gerry Cooper as each component has to be cut from wood by hand before, eventually, the Waterbird is ready to fly.
A Sea King rescue helicopter had a long RAF career safeguarding the UK's coasts. But before it can return to the skies a new engine must be installed, then the giant rotor blades and a 1970s computer system also needs reviving. The team of military veterans working on the project in Chard, Somerset are determined to put the Sea King back in the air – and with a woman in the pilot's seat. Businessman Andrew Whitehead believes the six-ton chopper should be used to encourage more women to fly and his passion project's aim is to put his partner Jane at the controls. After a test flight and an emotional reunion with former crew members, Jane gets to try the captain's seat for size on a hair-raising flight in the restored historic helicopter.
On a wartime bomber base in Lincolnshire, veteran engineer Gerry Cooper rebuilds two pre-war biplanes with glorious histories; the US Navy N3N biplane was rescued in ruins after a career as a crop sprayer in Arizona, and the Morane Saulnier 315 flew with the French Air Force but crashed on a beach in Devon.
