27
03/11
Spitfire flight marks 75th anniversary in Southampton
Australian-born Mrs Grace learned to fly after her husband was killed
- Spitfire woman ready for flypast
The second flight, which took place at about 1530 GMT, involved a 15-minute display by Mrs Grace over the airport.
Mrs Grace began learning to fly her husband’s plane after he was killed in a car accident in 1988, aged 52.
His treasured fighter plane, which he had recovered from a museum in 1979 and painstakingly rebuilt over five years, was left untouched in the hangar.
Australian-born Mrs Grace, of Halstead, Essex, decided to learn to fly it in his memory. Her first solo flight was in 1990.
She now flies at air shows throughout the UK in Grace Spitfire, which was built in 1944 as a then single-seat fighter.
Her plane is thought to be just one of two two-seater Spitfires that are airworthy in the UK.
There are also only thought to be 18 airworthy single-seat Spitfires left in the UK out of more than 22,500 built for the war.