What sounds like a dream flight will undoubtedly be a technical and logistical nightmare as a British group attempts the first circumnavigation in a Spitfire. Although the aircraft climbs like a scalded cat and can go more than 400 MPH, Spitfires were designed for 20-minute bouts of dogfighting, not 27,000-mile cross countries. With a combat range of just 425 miles, there will be a lot of takeoffs and landings as the Silver Spitfire-The Longest Flight hopscotches VFR through 30 countries. A lot of those stops will be in areas where avgas isn’t readily available (not to mention spare parts) so a lot of advance work will be required for the flight, which is set for launch in the summer of 2019. It’s not clear if the aircraft will carry external or ferry tanks. It’s an ambitious effort, considering the aircraft restoration hasn’t been finished yet. British pilots Matt Jones and Steve Brooks will be in the cockpit for the flight, which is expected to take four months.
The aircraft, Mark IX built in 1944, will be airworthy in the spring of 2019 and will be wrung out in a tour of the U.K. Although it’s partly a tribute to the 100th anniversary of the Royal Air Force, the aircraft will be finished unpainted without military markings. The pilots will head west from the U.K. via Arctic airports before going through Canada and the U.S. Then it will head north to Alaska and cross the Bering Strait to enter Russia. From there it’s south through Asia, the Middle East and Europe for a homecoming in December. Many of the stops will be in countries where the Spitfire operated. The main sponsor is Swiss watchmakerIWC Schaffhausen.
