About this season
Documentary following the engineers and aviators who battle to keep the UK's most historic warplanes in the air.
Episodes (6)
1. Hurricane
Aired 22 April 2021 • 60 min
Without any schematics to guide them, an elite team of expert engineers re-create a unique two-seater version of the legendary Hawker Hurricane fighter plane.
2. Waterbird
Aired 29 April 2021 • 60 min
The epic battle to rebuild The Waterbird, the Royal Navy's first seaplane. Filmed over 12 years, the labour intensive project tests veteran engineer Gerry Cooper.
3. Sea King
Aired 6 May 2021 • 60 min
A Sea King rescue helicopter requires a new engine installing, as well as giant rotor blades and a 1970s computer system reviving, before it can return to the skies.
4. Bi-Planes
Aired 13 May 2021 • 60 min
On a wartime bomber base in Lincolnshire, veteran engineer Gerry Cooper rebuilds two pre-war biplanes with glorious histories; the US Navy N3N and the Morane Saulnier 315.
5. Spitfire
Aired 4 April 2024 • 60 min
Eighty years after it crashed in flames during the Battle of Britain, a rare Spitfire is reconstructed from wreckage dug from the soil of the South Downs. The mission for modern engineers at the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar is to make P9372 fly again.
6. The Last Biplane
Aired 11 April 2024
Engineers from the charity Navy Wings are fighting to return a rare example of the Royal Navy's last biplane to the sky. At the same time, 250 miles away, another team are determined to make the US Navy's last biplane fly again.