Warplane Workshop

A rare Spitfire that escorted American daylight bombers in WWII prepares for a new mission. Its home, the Shuttleworth Collection in Bedfordshire, faces financial difficulties, and engineers believe their iconic fighter can spearhead a recovery.

Engineer and pilot Richard fights to complete a 40-year project to return the RAF's fastest WWII fighter, the Hawker Tempest, to the sky. But it weighs six tonnes and it's so complex that missing parts have to be recreated by hand.

A Spitfire TE517 was discovered as an unlikely plaything in a playground. Engineers at Biggin Hill are determined to return her to the air and restore her to her original markings as a member of one of the RAF's legendary Free Czech squadrons.

Engineers fight to prepare a squadron of 10 Spitfires for Britain's biggest warbird air display in years. Technical boss Martin Espin and his team must fault-find and repair against the clock.

Eighty years after it crashed in flames during the Battle of Britain, a rare Spitfire is reconstructed from wreckage dug from the soil of the South Downs. The mission for modern engineers at the Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar is to make P9372 fly again.

Engineers from the charity Navy Wings are fighting to return a rare example of the Royal Navy's last biplane to the sky. At the same time, 250 miles away, another team are determined to make the US Navy's last biplane fly again.