Winston Bridge Spitfire

Did you know there is a bridge in Winston near Barnard Castle where a Spitfire was daringly flown underneath? Now you do and it was Winston Bridge where it happened.

During the early days of WW2, the pilots would show of their silky skills by flying their Hurricanes under low bridges in France.

Fast foward to the 1980s and there was a TV show called A Piece Of Cake which showed the life of a Royal Air Force fighter squadron from the day of the British entry into World War II through to the Battle of Britain in 1940.

As part of this series they wanted to capture the daring feats of the pilots including recreating a flight under a low bridge. They found the perfect candidate in veteran display pilot Ray Hanna, who not only served in the RAF, but also became Red 1 in the legendary Red Arrows.

It was also a bonus that Ray also owned and regularly flew his own MK IX Spitfire MH 434 as part of display shows.

So on the 7th July 1988, Ray successfully flew his Spitfire under the Winston Bridge. The bridge had a maximum clearance of 34m bridge at the very bottom and with the wingspan of the Spitfire being 11m, travelling at a speed of 250mph, there was little room for error.

Have a watch of this short video about this amazing achievement.

Here is as screenshot from the video showing the Spitfire passing under Winston Bridge.

The bridge was originally designed by a chap called Sir Thomas Robinson of Rokeby Park and opened in 1763, it was claimed to be the longest single span arch of any bridge in Europe.

There is parking either end of the bridge and then tracks down to the river to get a better view.

Although we had our Red 5 drone with us, we weren't as brave as Ray to fly it under the bridge. Fortunately we found a video on YouTube from someone a bit more daring.

It's a smashing story depicting the skill and bravery of our RAF pilots mixed in with some another historical achievement of the longest span bridge.