Spitfire pilot 'emotional' to be involved in Duxford air show
Alex Smee's involved in flying some of the Second World War aircraft
A pilot who's been taking part in a Cambridgeshire air show has said he expects to see events like these carrying on strong.
Second World War aircraft including Spitfires, Hurricanes and the F35 Roll Demo Lightning have been flying through the skies at Imperial War Museum Duxford to mark the Battle of Britain this weekend, with thousands more visitors expected to see them today.
Alex Smee has been a pilot for 30 years and helped fly one of the Spitfires on show:
"It is a very important thing to share with people," he said.
"It's a number of years till the 100th anniversary of the Battle of Britain, and there's no reason at all why we can't have any of these planes still flying at events like these 100 years after the event.
"It's like a lot of things, when it goes well it's very satisfying; there are little elements that maybe don't go so well because of how it evolves on the day, but overall it's still a satisfying thing to be involved with professionally and emotionally."
Mr Smee, who first stepped into a Spitfire almost 11 years ago, believes his experience in aviation has been key to being able to fly war aircraft comfortably.
"The skillset you learn flying the smaller planes, it's a transferable skillset to the bigger planes like these (Spitfires)," he said.
"They're still tail draggers, just bigger and that gives you a solid backing going into these big fighters.
"A lot of it is mitigated with good weather; you know the weather's good and all you need to concentrate on is flying the plane and doing what you do in the formation without worrying about the landing later."