Spitfire: The People’s Plane

How does it feel to fly the plane that won the war? Two Spitfire pilots - one 18 year old from the Battle of Britain, one from today’s RAF - compare their experiences of unparalleled ecstasy and paralysing fear.

Presenter: Tuppence Middleton Producers: Alasdair Cross and Emily Knight Editors: Chris Ledgard and Kirsten Lass

It wasn’t just Spitfire production that needed to escape the bombs; the designers of the plane also need to find a safe place to improve the Spitfire to deal with Germany’s latest fighter developments.

Presenter: Tuppence Middleton Producers: Alasdair Cross and Emily Knight Editors: Chris Ledgard and Kirsten Lass

Ramping up Spitfire production requires another new factory. Bigger, better, full of cutting-edge machinery and the best workers in the business. But it’s a catastrophe – one that nearly costs Britain dearly.

As brilliant as the Spitfire is, it has one major flaw. Take her into a steep dive and fuel can’t reach the engine. A solution is urgently needed. That’s a job for the fastest woman in Britain: champion motorcycle racer and pioneering engineer, Beatrice Shilling.

Presenter: Tuppence Middleton Producers: Alasdair Cross and Emily Knight Editors: Chris Ledgard and Kirsten Lass

The audio for this programme was updated on 16 June 2020.

The new Spitfires need to be flown to RAF bases desperate for reinforcements. That’s the job of the ATA Girls - the female flyers of World War Two, some of the first women in Britain to receive the same wages as their male counterparts.

Presenter: Tuppence Middleton Producers: Alasdair Cross and Emily Knight Editors: Chris Ledgard and Kirsten Lass

Spitfire production is getting back on track, but the search for locations continues. Out into the surrounding countryside, from brickworks to country manors to empty fields, the dispersal continues.

Presenter: Tuppence Middleton Producers: Alasdair Cross and Emily Knight Editors: Chris Ledgard and Kirsten Lass

Amid the smouldering ruins of the Spitfire factory, a new strategy emerges: instead of building the plane in one factory, it will be built piece by piece in garages, workshops and laundries.

Presenter: Tuppence Middleton Producers: Alasdair Cross and Emily Knight Editors: Chris Ledgard and Kirsten Lass

The struggle against the Nazis has to be fought by ordinary people as much as by the army and air force. Communities across Britain are enlisted to raise funds for Spitfires. Villages, sports clubs, trades unions and churches devise money-making stunts and give their names to individual planes and whole squadrons.

Presenter: Tuppence Middleton Producers: Alasdair Cross and Emily Knight Editors: Chris Ledgard and Kirsten Lass

The Spitfire factory was a priority target for German bombers. The workers endured raid after raid. If vital Spitfires are going to continue to be built, then a plan is desperately needed.

Presenter: Tuppence Middleton Producers: Alasdair Cross and Emily Knight Editors: Chris Ledgard and Kirsten Lass

Before a plane could save a country, the people had to build it. This is the story of a beautiful and deadly icon of resistance, built and flown against extraordinary odds.