The 75th anniversary of the iconic Supermarine Spitfire will be celebrated at the Goodwood Revival this September, when at least a dozen Spitfires are due to fly over Goodwood.
The Spitfire fly-pasts and displays will be the largest collection of the legendary aircraft in the skies above Goodwood since the Second World War, when the aerodrome was known as RAF Westhampnett and was a fighter base for Hurricanes and Spitfires.
The Supermarine Spitfire took its maiden flight in March 1936, and was a key front line fighter during the war. Mostly assembled less than 30 miles away from Goodwood in Southampton, the Spitfire was produced in greater numbers than any other British aircraft, with over 20,000 examples being built.
There's even more of a Goodwood connection to the Spit, too, it seems: during the war, carpenters working for the Goodwood Estate helped to make the Spitfire's wooden propellers, using trees felled in the Goodwood forests. The grandfather of the Goodwood Revival's founder Lord March - Freddie March, the 9th Duke of Richmond - was a keen aviator and aircraft engineer, and established a partnership with test pilot friend Edmund Hordern to manufacture high-density wood laminate propellers using a pioneering new process known as 'Hydulignum'.
Sniff, etc. Makes you proud to be British... (cue the patriotic orchestral music...)
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