Current 'plane' body before wings are attached and the planned upgades...

The 'Midford Bomber' without wings, delivering the 'juice'.

We need need more old bikes!

Another squadron's 'plane' they must have been shot down, damned bad show...

'Frome Spits' the wings returning to the 'Frome Spits Workshop' somewhere in Baddox for urgent upgrades July 2015

'Practising peeling off-somewhere over the A36'

'Practising the Victory V is damned tricky with only 6 '

'Never Was So Much Owed By So Many To So Few:' Winston Churchill

Biggin Hill Airfield and the BBC celebrate 'The Battle of Britain' in September 2015

"It will be an honour for me to broadcast this special show from Biggin Hill, and it will be an incredible privilege to fly in what is surely the most iconic plane in British flying history." Chris Evans 

(Above) Spitfires Taxiing at Biggin Hill. Courtesy Biggin Hill Air Fair

In his Breakfast show this morning Chris Evans announced that Radio 2 will be commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain on Friday 18 September with a day featuring live outside broadcasts culminating in a special 'Friday Night Is Music Night' concert in front of an audience which will also be screened live to cinemas around the UK. See more here.

Actual RAF Squadron in training on bicycles with Spitfire wings!

Where the original idea came from?

Were the Polish Fighters the best pilots in the Battle of Britain?

'..and no Polish chit chat!'

The average age of an RAF pilot in 1940 was about 20 years. Some were as young as 18 and there were others over 30. In those days, with the age of majority set at 21, many of the RAF’s Battle of Britain pilots were not old enough to vote but not too young to lay down their lives in the face of a life and death struggle to save Britain from coming under the tyranny of the Nazis.

Not all were British – in fact Fighter Command was a cosmopolitan mix. There were Poles (141), Czechs (87), Belgians (24) and Free French (13) who swelled the ranks along with those from the British Commonwealth and other nations who answered the call for pilots wanting to defend freedom.

Roughly two-thirds of the 3,000 or so RAF pilots who flew in the Battle of Britain were officers, the other third being sergeant and flight sergeant pilots.

In 1940 a pilot officer could expect to earn £264 per annum, roughly equivalent to just over £30,000 in today’s money, and non-commissioned officers quite a bit less, despite facing the same dangers: both received an allowance (flying pay) recognising their aircrew status. In addition their numbers were beefed up with pilots from the Auxiliary Air Force (AAF) – made up those from the largely middle and upper classes who trained at weekend (hence they earned the nickname “weekend warriors”), who provided a civilian pool of extra capability during emergencies.

Frome Spits ready for take off at lastyears Frome Carnival 2014...

Frome Carnival, Frome Spits are ready for take off at 1.10 timeframe on the video above, blink and you'll miss us...

This year we shall have more pilots and engineers with more modifed 'planes'...