Air date: 2004-07-05

Hearing the testimony of the surviving pilots is compelling, but in Spitfire Ace, we also find out what it was really like to fly a Spitfire. Four young volunteers are put through their paces in a Tiger Moth, the plane used for preliminary training by the Battle of Britain pilots. The two strongest pilots then get the chance to fulfil every young boy's dream, to fly a Spitfire for themselves. Our twenty-first century Spitfire class is then narrowed down to just one pilot who goes on a nine-hour advanced operational training course.