Price of a working Spitfire heads for the sky

The industry in Battle of Britain aircraft is booming, with more Second World War fighters such as the Spitfire and Hurricane flying than at any time since the conflict ended, according to experts.

The industry in Battle of Britain aircraft is booming, with more Second World War fighters such as the Spitfire and Hurricane flying than at any time since the conflict ended, according to experts.

Robert Rodhall, an editor at Flypast magazine, says: "It is amazing - as every year goes past you think they can't possible find any more airframes to restore. But they do."

A flying-condition Spitfire is worth up to £1-2m compared with £20-50,000 two decades ago.

In two weeks, 22 Spitfires will take to the sky over Cambridgeshire in what the Imperial War Museum believes is probably the largest flypast of the legendary wartime fighter aircraft since the victory parades at the end of the Second World War.

As Battle of Britain 60th Anniversary fever reaches its peak, the throb of the Spitfire's Merlin engine is filling the sky at airshows all over the country. Aviation enthusiasts are able to watch pilots looping-the-loop and doing victory rolls inthe same type of aircraft used in 1940, when only the Royal Air Force stood between Britain and the German invasion.

The war museum's Battle of Britain Spectacular will also include many more Second World War vintage aircraft, including four more non-flying Spitfires, four Hurricanes, a Bristol Blenheim, two Lysanders, a Boeing Flying Fortress, and a host of biplanes dating from the First World War. Many have been painstakingly restored by specialist companies such as Historic Flying, Hawker Restoration and Aero Vintage.

There are said to be 40-50 Spitfires in flying condition around the world, of which 27 are based in Britain, and about 15-20 restored Hurricanes, of which about seven are in flying condition. "The Hurricane is infinitely more difficult to restore because of its complex metal, wood and fabric construction compared with the more modern Spitfire's metal monocoque airframe," Mr Rodhall said.

Tony Ditheridge, of the Suffolk-based Hawker Restoration company, said: "It takes about 35,000-40,000 hours to restore a Hurricane compared to 15,000 hours for a Spitfire."

Hawker Restoration has just flown its latest rebuilt Hurricane, painted in the squadron colours of the double amputee fighter ace, Douglas Bader. Mr Ditheridge said the Hurricane was worth around £1.5m. "Their rarity tends to make them more valuable than the Spitfire," he said. Hawker Restoration has contracts to restore four more Hurricanes over the next two years.

The Imperial War Museum's aviation site at the former RAF base at Duxford has become the epicentre of the restoration industry. According to Frank Crosby of the museum, this industry started in earnest with the making of the United Artists Battle of Britain film in 1968. "It was the first time a large number of Hurricanes, Spitfires and Messerschmidt 109s were brought together to fly again," Mr Crosby said. "Then a number of people realised that money could be made supplying old aircraft for the film and television industry."

In return for space at Duxford, companies and collectors put their lovingly restored aircraft on show. "We have aircraft flying here not only at displays but at weekends for most of the summer," he said.