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Spitfire: The People’s Plane

by BBC World Service
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Latest episodes

  • Scramble

    July 10, 2020 · 18 min

    15th September 1940 was the moment the Germans chose to drive the Spitfire from the battlefield. The people on the ground, guiding the Spitfires - spotters, plotters and fitters- will play a vital role in a day that changed the course of…

  • Teenage pilots

    July 3, 2020 · 19 min

    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…

  • Faster and higher

    June 26, 2020 · 19 min

    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…

  • New planes, new rules

    June 19, 2020 · 19 min

    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.

  • The Shilling factor

    June 12, 2020 · 18 min

    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…

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  • Women take control

    June 5, 2020 · 18 min

    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…

  • Makeshift wedding

    May 29, 2020 · 18 min

    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…

  • Makeshift factories

    May 22, 2020 · 17 min

    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…

  • Crowdfunding

    May 15, 2020 · 19 min

    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…

  • Phoenix

    May 8, 2020 · 18 min

    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…

  • Introducing Spitfire: The People’s Plane

    May 5, 2020 · 4 min

    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.

Full episode archive on Apple Podcasts →

About the show

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.