Lancaster and four fighters set for King Charles’s London flypast

With four of its fighters and the Avro Lancaster due to participate in King Charles’s coronation flypast over central London on Saturday 6 May the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight at RAF Coningsby is looking towards beginning its pre-season work-up earlier than normal for 2023.

During January, Spitfire IX MK356 was fitted with a replacement Packard Merlin 266, recently overhauled by Retro Track and Air at Dursley, Gloucestershire, and should be flying again by Easter. Spitfire LFXVIe TE311 is undergoing a ‘major’ with the Spitfire Company at Biggin Hill, having arrived at the Kent airport back in May 2022. The carry-through spars, upper and lower spar booms and spar webs are being replaced. Maintenance on Spitfire IIa P7350 is now complete, but the MkVb, AB910, will be going to Biggin Hill for a ‘major’ in July. As of late February, both Hurricanes, LF363 and PZ865, were approaching the end of winter servicing.

A deeper level of work is under way to bring the unit’s two Spitfire PRXIXs back on line, but PS915 is expected to return to airshow duties at the tail end of the 2023 season. PS915, which has not flown for five years, is having work done to the rear of the fuselage frame 5 bulkhead by engineers from No 71 IR (Inspection & Repair) Squadron, which is based at RAF Wittering. They hope to have it completed by the end of June. Stablemate PM631 is undergoing the first ‘major’ to be undertaken at Coningsby on a BBMF Spitfire for some considerable time, such servicing having been contracted out over recent years. It is also having frame 5 repairs carried out. When completed it will be repainted in a PRU blue scheme.

Lancaster I PA474 has had a replacement port inner Rolls-Royce Merlin fitted, but Dakota III ZA947 will be out for the 2023 season, corrosion having recently been discovered during an overhaul with the Aircraft Restoration Company at Duxford. It is hoped ZA947 will be operational again in readiness for the D-Day 80th anniversary events in June 2024. In the meantime, the Aero Legends Dakota, KP220/G-ANAF, is temporarily based with the BBMF at Coningsby to permit heavy tailwheel training duties for the flight’s Lancaster crews in preparation for PA474’s busy season ahead. More on that subject in May’s 50th anniversary issue of Aeroplane.