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For the Fallen, the Survivor
Taking to the air for the first time in October 1944, the Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XI PL983 is special indeed, being one of only two Mark 11 Spitfires in airworthy condition. She was designed to fly high-altitude photographic missions to take pictures of enemy positions on the ground, which she did as part of No.4 Squadron RAF. With her unpressurised cockpit and armaments removed to make way for camera equipment, she wasn't the most comfortable of aircraft to fly - any pilot will tell you that high altitude + no pressure = nuh uh. However, her height and speed would often get her out of tricky situations, be it from enemy aircraft or fire from the ground. These advantages would see her survive right up to the end of the war in Europe, and after the introduction of jets to the RAF in the late 1940s and early 1950s, she would escape the scrapheap upon which most Spitfires ended up and remain on static display or in storage until 1999, when restoration work began. After a full rebuild, she returned to the skies in 2018, two years before another crisis would engulf the world.
We all remember where we were when those dark days began, and the things we each had to endure from behind our own front doors. But in the UK, for at least one day a week, we could open those doors, step outside with bare hands, air horns, or pots and wooden spoons primed, and give health and care workers a national round of applause for the work they were doing, and the hardships through which they were going. This was the 'Clap for Carers' initiative, and on one of those days, PL983 took to the skies on a test flight and flew over the villages around Duxford, bringing light to the dark moods below. The next week, she appeared, with the words 'THANK U NHS' - National Health Service - emblazoned across her underside. Soon the NHS became involved in the campaign, her fuselage adorned with the names of thousands of loved ones lost to the virus, in return for public donations to keep her in the air. When restrictions eased, the campaign culminated with flights over 255 hospitals across the whole of the UK. PL983 still wears her slogan, as a mark of gratitude to those who sacrificed so much to keep us well, as a mark of honour to those we lost, and a mark of resilience that whatever the odds, we will not only survive, but we will thrive.
Thank you, NHS.
Taking to the air for the first time in October 1944, the Supermarine Spitfire Mk.XI PL983 is special indeed, being one of only two Mark 11 Spitfires in airworthy condition. She was designed to fly high-altitude photographic missions to take pictures of enemy positions on the ground, which she did as part of No.4 Squadron RAF. With her unpressurised cockpit and armaments removed to make way for camera equipment, she wasn't the most comfortable of aircraft to fly - any pilot will tell you that high altitude + no pressure = nuh uh. However, her height and speed would often get her out of tricky situations, be it from enemy aircraft or fire from the ground. These advantages would see her survive right up to the end of the war in Europe, and after the introduction of jets to the RAF in the late 1940s and early 1950s, she would escape the scrapheap upon which most Spitfires ended up and remain on static display or in storage until 1999, when restoration work began. After a full rebuild, she returned to the skies in 2018, two years before another crisis would engulf the world.
We all remember where we were when those dark days began, and the things we each had to endure from behind our own front doors. But in the UK, for at least one day a week, we could open those doors, step outside with bare hands, air horns, or pots and wooden spoons primed, and give health and care workers a national round of applause for the work they were doing, and the hardships through which they were going. This was the 'Clap for Carers' initiative, and on one of those days, PL983 took to the skies on a test flight and flew over the villages around Duxford, bringing light to the dark moods below. The next week, she appeared, with the words 'THANK U NHS' - National Health Service - emblazoned across her underside. Soon the NHS became involved in the campaign, her fuselage adorned with the names of thousands of loved ones lost to the virus, in return for public donations to keep her in the air. When restrictions eased, the campaign culminated with flights over 255 hospitals across the whole of the UK. PL983 still wears her slogan, as a mark of gratitude to those who sacrificed so much to keep us well, as a mark of honour to those we lost, and a mark of resilience that whatever the odds, we will not only survive, but we will thrive.
Thank you, NHS.
Category Photography / Still Life
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 2217 x 1662px
File Size 362.6 kB
Listed in Folders
Here, here! Heroes in the best of senses.
And not just them; the cooks who fed them, the cleaners who came before and followed after them, the hotel staff who accommodated to them in self-isolation, the counsellors and friends and family who supported them after staring Death in the face hundreds of times a day.
And not just them; the cooks who fed them, the cleaners who came before and followed after them, the hotel staff who accommodated to them in self-isolation, the counsellors and friends and family who supported them after staring Death in the face hundreds of times a day.
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