Special ‘Thank you NHS’ Spitfire to flyover region to mark service’s 72nd birthday

The ‘Thank You NHS’ Spitfire will fly all over Cambridgeshire and parts of Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire to mark the 72nd birthday of the National Health Service. Picture: Aircraft Restoration Company (Image: Archant)

The aircraft will be seen in the sky above several East of England hospitals after setting off from Duxford Airfield at around 4pm on Sunday, July 5.

The plane was restored by family-owned ‘Aircraft Restoration Company’ who restore vintage aircrafts at the Imperial War Museum at Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire.

It will fly over Royal Papworth Hospital at 17:02, just moments after the one-off ‘clap for carers’ event arranged for 17:00 on July 5 to mark the founding of the NHS in 1948.

The plane will also fly over Witchford near Ely to thank the community for sewing scrubs for the NHS during the coronavirus pandemic.

The full Spitfire route is as followed:

- 16:20 - Duxford Airfield

- 16:28 – The New QEII Hospital, Welwyn Garden City (East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust)

- 16:33 - Luton and Dunstable University Hospital, Luton (Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)

- 16:36 – Lister Hospital, Stevenage (East and North Hertfordshire NHS Trust)

- 16:41 – Bedford Hospital, Bedford (Bedfordshire Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)

- 16:47 – Hinchingbrooke Hospital, Huntingdon (North West Anglia NHS Foundation Trust)

- 16:53 – Witchford, village near Ely

- 16:58 – Fulbourn Hospital, Cambridge (Cambridgeshire & Peterborough NHS Foundation Trust)

- 17:00 – Addenbrooke’s Hospital, Cambridge (Cambridge University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust)

- 17:02 – Royal Papworth Hospital, Cambridge (Royal Papworth Hospital NHS Foundation Trust)

- 17:10 – Duxford Airfield

You can follow the event on social media using the #NHSSpitfire and anyone heading out to see it is asked to observe social distancing at all times.