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Spitfire: The People’s Plane

Factual: History

Before a plane could save a country, the people had to build it

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.

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Spitfire: The People’s Plane: Spitfire: The People’s Plane: Faster and higher

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27/06/2020 GMT

BBC World Service - Spitfire: The People’s Plane, Spitfire: The People’s Plane, Faster and higher

The plane's designers try to respond to Germany's latest fighter developments

The Spitfire's designers struggle to find a safe place to improve their plane to deal with Germany’s latest fighter developments.

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

Spitfire: The People’s Plane: Spitfire: The People’s Plane

The story of the people who built the plane that won a war.

Before a plane could save a country the people had to build it. This is the story of how the beautiful and deadly icon of resistance was built against extraordinary odds.
 
The legend of the Spitfire rests on the reputation of the pilots who fought dogfights over England in the summer of 1940, but their success was based on the sacrifice of thousands of ordinary women and men. When a community comes together in a shared endeavour it can win a battle and save countless lives- a theme that resonates as powerfully today as it did 80 years ago.
 
When German bombs hit the Spitfire factory building the plane production ground to a sudden halt.  There would be no new Spitfires to replace those shot from the skies. As British resistance against the Nazis hung in the balance an extraordinary plan was hatched. The factory wouldn’t be rebuilt.  Instead, ordinary people in bus depots, car workshops and even a laundry would build the Spitfire piece by piece.
 
Across ten episodes we celebrate the heroes who put their towns and villages on the frontline of war and looked to the sky as their Spitfires fought for the future of civilisation.

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