Pilots Steve Brooks and Matt Jones are flying this Silver Spitfire around the world with a planned stop in Kelowna Thursday, Sept. 5, 2019.
Image Credit: Remy Steiner/Getty Images for IWC
September 04, 2019 - 2:00 PM
KELOWNA - An historic around the world flight by a restored 1943 Silver Spitfire is making a landing at Kelowna Airport tomorrow.
It took a special effort by Kelowna Flying Club president Dave McElroy to get them to divert to Kelowna.
“I saw they were in Madras, Oregon so I jumped in my plane, the day before yesterday, and I flew down there and met with them,” McElroy told iNFOnews.ca.
He only became aware of Silver Spitfire – The Longest Flight project a couple of weeks ago and started to follow their route, seeing that it took them to Seattle then to Williams Lake and Fort St. John, where they would have had to go through customs. There are not custom services in those towns.
“I was worried they would pick somewhere else, like Vancouver,” McElroy said.
The Silver Spitfire – The Longest Flight expedition took off from Goodwood, U.K. on Aug. 5 and will return to England in December after flying around the world.
Image Credit: Remy Steiner/Getty Images for IWC
He phoned and wrote letters to the people scheduling the route stops – who are accompanying the plane in a separate support craft – but was getting no response, thus prompting the flight.
Even after meeting with the crew, McElroy didn’t get confirmation that they were coming to Kelowna until about 3:30 p.m. yesterday.
If all goes according to schedule, the plane will fly a pass down runway 16-34 before landing, then be on display for about two hours while the crew clears customs and refuels.
The public is invited to see the plane up close when it arrives at YLW at 11:30 a.m. tomorrow, Sept. 5. It’s scheduled to leave about 2 p.m. in a formation departure with both planes and some Kelowna based aircraft. Pilots from around B.C. have been invited to fly in.
Viewing can be done at the Kelowna Flying Club, 6135 Airport Way. There is temporary free parking on Airport Way. Admission is $5 per person or $10 per family with proceeds split between the club and the Spitfire project.
The Spitfire is considered a marvel of aviation technology that was not only a great warplane but is a pilot’s delight, McElroy said.
Although he hasn’t flown one, he’s heard that flying it is “like you’re strapping it on your back and becoming one with it.”
Thousands were built and many say they changed the course of history during the Second World War. This one, MJ271, was built in 1943 and flew 51 combat missions before being retired in the Netherlands.
A couple of years ago, the Boultbee Flight Academy, took on its restoration.
It left England on Aug. 5 and will fly around the world, mostly to countries that supported its war efforts.
This is the first and, McElroy predicts, the last time a Spitfire will fly around the world.
It was built for short, intense flights of 30 to 45 minutes, with a life expectancy of about 50 hours, not as a long-distance traveller 76 years later. He thinks there might only be about 100 left that are still flying.
“It’s a celebration of the Spitfire itself and the British technology,” McElroy said.
More information on the Silver Spitfire – The Longest Flight project is available here: https://www.silverspitfire.com/
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