Spitfire heads to Shrewsbury on its tour of the Midlands
An RAF Cosford Spitfire has added five new dates to its tour of the midlands this summer including a visit to the Quarry in Shrewsbury.
The plane from the Royal Air Force Museum Midlands will head to Shrewsbury, Birmingham, Coventry and Leicester in Julyi n celebration of the museum’s 50th anniversary.
It received a warm welcome from the people of Telford on the first tour date in May, and following an appearance at the Cosford Air Show this weekend, the aircraft will be back on the road once again. As part of the RAF heritage tours members of the public will be able to try on RAF uniforms, flying jackets and hats.
There will also be a replica cockpit section to climb inside for an authentic Spitfire experience, perfect for a Spitfire selfie.
The Spitfire will visit Coventry on June 18/19 and then Shrewsbury's Food Festival in The Quarry on June 25-26 before spending five in Birmingham, ‘home of the Spitfire’, between July 6-10.
It will finish the tour in Leicester on 16-17 July.
Birmingham produced more Spitfires than anywhere else in the UK and during the Second World War the people of Birmingham also contributed to the war efforts through Fighter Funds. These funds were set up to encourage the public to donate money to buy aircraft and brought communities and Allied countries together. The aircraft bought were named after that individual town, country or business. £5,000, approximately £175,000 today, bought one aircraft.
The Vickers-Armstrong aircraft factory at Castle Bromwich was one of the largest producers of aircraft during the Second World War. It produced 11,939 Spitfires and 305 Avro Lancasters.
