Flight, which recently celebrated its 100th year in publishing, has reported on this great aircraft since its beginning so here are a few gems from back issues:

Spitfire and Concorde vie with London tube map as Britain's finest designs

Carolyn Grace: Flying Spitfires in her husband's memory

Flight's 100 Greatest Military Aircraft - Supermarine Spitfire

Other stuff from the archive....

And some Spitfire mentions in the discussion forum in AirSpace -

Spitfire in AirSpace discussions

Images in AirSpace to celebrate RAF's 90th anniversary

Frank Versteegh, former Red Bull pilot says that the track in London is challenging because of the wind and turbulence blowing the air gates around.

"The pilots suffer a high tailwind when they enter the track and it's a very narrow approach. They have to perform a steep turn to be level on the entrance. It makes it extremely difficult to find the correct angle. They'll incur penalty points if they don't get it right."

Barry Nuttley provides commentary on the ground for the World Series, and explains that each pilot has found his own little tweaks that reduce the drag of their aircraft.

"Just like any motor sport really, they might fit smaller wheels. Last year, Nicholas Ivanoff introduced a symmetrical wing on the aircraft which allowed him to turn so much more quickly, some of the pilots followed suit."

Paul Bonhomme told Flight in the pit lane, after the first training session of the London leg of the race, that all of the courses have a difficult section which poses a challenge to the pilot.

His technician Wade Hammond has made modifications to the Edge 540 to make the aircraft go faster.

He explains that he has added wingtips that can change which is a good start for us and we're using the same engine as last year.

"We've sealed up all the gaps and learned a lot about the importance of cooling the engine and as a result redesigned the cowling in the wind tow. The engine runs as cool as we can make it, with the smallest intakes which lessens our drag.

"Weight is quite an important factor. If it's heavy we can't accelerate. Paint is heavy but we need to have a scheme. It's really a matter of whether the paint lines run parallel with the wind. 

"The aircraft has wing tanks and we can do about 600 miles on the fuel available. It can go quite a way if you're not racing it."

Hannes Arch (AUT) has a new canopy on his Edge 540 which is more aerodynamic, allowing him to slipstream quickly through the air. One mile an hour makes all the difference.

Arch says Abu Dhabi and London have challenging circuits, London especially because it can be windy.

Mike Goulian, (USA) an aerobatics pilot who has taken on the Red Bull Air Race as his full time occupation says that London is one of the most challenging circuits, even in his Edge 540."

"You have to turn into the start gate which is very difficult and there are other hard turns above the water."

Despite his team colours he concedes the air race is not the "greenest" sport "because it has engines, it's a motor sport."

Nigel Lamb, (GBR) in his carbon fibre built MXS says that the smoke system is environmentally friendly. It doesn't use a lot a of fuel.

His aircraft is very different from last year with some aerodynamic modifications to it. Smoothing the colling airflow within the engine. Cooling the engine definitely helps you when it comes to start up the thing. It's not a mature sport like Formula One but it is pretty tight racing.

Lamb's aircraft is different from last year's. He changed from the Edge to the MXS because it's lighter.

When you watch the pilots in action, they make the sport look easy by performing graceful turns, but it's not. The most challenging circuit of all is "unquestionably the one you're in at the time. There's always an area of the track that is a little bit difficult," he says.

Mike Mangold (USA) notes that all the European tracks are all on a river setting "so they're very straight and narrow."

"There's a not too many technical or long turns but the pilot has to use some skill to handle it. San Diego and Abu Dhabi had a few more wide turns. It's all about the machine, who's got the fastest aircraft, the most horsepower, the best technology." 

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Standings 2008

1. Bonhomme GBR (35 points),

2. Arch AUT (29 points),

3. Chambliss USA (27 points), 

4. Mangold USA (26 points), 

5. Besenyei HUN (17 points), 

6. Jones GBR (14 points),

7. Goulian USA (10points),

8. Lamb GBR (8 points), 

9. Maclean ESP (8 points),

10. Ivanoff FRA (5 points), 

11. Rakhmanin RUS (1 points), 

12. Dell RSA (0 points) 

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World Series 2008 Schedule

London 2/3 Aug,

Budapest 19/20 Aug,

Porto, 6/7 Sep,

Spain 27/28 Sep,

Perth 1/2 Nov,

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Seems AirAsia isn't prepared to let the new Emirates A380 model at London Heathrow steal all the glory. These pictures show a 12.5m-long replica of one of its A320s, 9M-AFF, being hoisted into position above the AirAsia Academy in Kuala Lumpur.

It's the same scale, one-third, as the Emirates model, although much lighter at 1.5 tonnes. AirAsia says it's being installed as part of an expansion for the academy which will have a new look in August.

One of these helicopters is owned by Newcastle's striker Michael Owen.

Multiflight sold Michael the twin-engine Dauphin helicopter and it now maintains and operates the helicopter for the footballer under its air operators certificate. 

According to the company: "When he is not playing football, Michael uses the helicopter, flown by Multiflight pilots, to follow his own passion for horses and horse racing."

Based at Leeds Bradford International Airport, is offering helicopter transfers in the AS365 Dauphin to the 2008 Ebor Festival at York Racecourse: 19 August to 22 August, and to The Open at Cheltenham Racecourse: 14 November 16 November 16th, as well as to any other race meeting, event, or private function.

Although we applaud the concept, the inevitable word association of rubbish = Bombardier is something i am not sure they were looking for.

By Harry Schneider

The model, built by California-based Penwal Industries, arrived in an Antonov An-124 freighter operated by Russia's Polet in early July. The missing 'm' and 't' from the 'Emirates' logo (these letters will be added later) mark the location where the nose section joins the fuselage barrel - a join which, to me, looks like it needs to be straightened.

Once completed - the engines still need attaching - the aircraft will occupy the prominent position north of runway 09L/27R which, for several years, was the site of a one-third scale British Airways Concorde model before the carrier chose to withdraw the advertising budget, and Emirates decided to move in.

Emirates will take delivery of its first A380 on 28 July, an event which Flight will be covering from Hamburg and Dubai. It will put the aircraft into service on 1 August. The model will be 'operational' once it is formally unveiled on 23 July.

That was quickly followed, but equally expected after a dark shadow appeared over us, by an absolute downpour that we are still experiencing now.

We are just hoping to get some kind of display before we have to brave the sodden ground and try and find the car.

The Sea King helicopter was on its way to help a man suffering from liver damage, which was received from a fall on Saturday, but had to land at Nant Peris near Llanberis because of technical problems. The standby aircraft was deployed and reached the man in time, and flew him to Ysbyty Gwynedd where he was treated for his injuries. 

Local resident Jenny Parry told the Daily Post about the event: "I was in my kitchen and I heard a loud noise from above. I went outside and couldn't believe what I saw.

"It really didn't look safe, the blades had been removed from the smaller helicopter and were being lifted by the black one - it looked like the cable could have snapped at any time." 

"The Sea King just seemed to be dangling there as it traveled sideways against the wind - it really was a scary sight." 

The RAF's Flight Lieutenant Giles Ratcliffe described it as "a fairly simple pickup... Rescue 122 was scrambled to assist an injured walker on Snowdonia...

During the rescue the crew had to make an unscheduled landing due to a technical problem. The second standby helicopter from Valley was then scrambled and, together with Llanberis MRT, completed the rescue."