During the Second World War, Jackie Moggridge had an unusual job.

She was one of a few women given her wings to fly planes from factories to their squadrons, and she transported more than 1,500 aircraft.

Known as the “ATA girls”, they flew more than 60 different types of planes solo, with just a gyro compass for navigation and no radio.

On April 29, 1944, Mrs Moggridge (nee Sorour) delivered a brand new ML407 Spitfire, which was later named the Grace Spitfire, from a factory in Castle Bromwich to RAF 485 New Zealand Squadron in Selsey, West Sussex.

Fifty years later, she was airborne again in that very same plane, with Halstead’s Carolyn Grace, now the only female Spitfire pilot in the world.

Together, they commemorated the maiden flight of the plane, each taking the controls to put the Spitfire through its paces.

Now, 14 years on, the same plane is still flying, with Mrs Grace at the controls. Since being built at Castle Bromwich, the Grace Spitfire has had an extraordinary history, having been one of the few frontline aircraft of its type to survive intact. On its delivery, in 1944, the Spitfire was the mount (or plane) of Flying Officer Johnnie Houlton DFC (Distinguished Flying Cross).

It was his first new plane, and he took it straight into active service, going on to shoot the first enemy aircraft down over Normandy beach-head on D-Day.

By December 1944, the plane had been transferred to 341 Free French Squadron, and during its 300 combat hours, it undertook 176 operational sorties shared by Free French, Polish, Belgian, Norwegian and New Zealand squadrons.

Mrs Grace said it was remarkable for a Spitfire to have flown on the frontline for an entire year and remain operational, which saved it from being scrapped at the end of the war.

In the post-war period, the plane was converted to a two-seat configuration, and it was used as an advanced trainer for the Irish Air Corps for ten years, until 1960, and was also used in the film the Battle of Britain.

Mrs Grace said her husband, Nick, bought the ML407 Spitfire in 1979, after seeing it languishing in Strathallan Museum.

Mr Grace, a design engineer with a keen interest in aviation, chose the Spitfire because of its originality, and for five years he painstakingly restored the machine to its former glory.

Mrs Grace said: “It was a remarkable task for anyone to take on, because he had to take it all apart, and clean it all to bare metal, treat it with modern anti-corrosives and reassemble it. It was a massive task.”

Born in 1936, Mr Grace held a real affinity for the Spitfire and had always wanted one.

Mr Grace took his first flight in the refurbished ML407, the Grace Spitfire, with his wife as a passenger, and enjoyed three years of flying at air displays and for filming in Perfect Lady and Piece of Cake.

Mr Grace was killed in a car accident in 1988. His widow, who was already qualified as a pilot, decided to learn to fly the Spitfire, and she documented her training in the film, Going Solo.

She said: “It is like being a bird. It’s the nearest to it we will ever get, because the Spitfire is so responsive and so powerful. It’s an amazing piece of British engineering.

“It’s not just a piece of metal. It is carrying a whole history and story, which is important for me, personally, and important to the nation.

“Keeping the Grace Spitfire in the public eye is important for the story it tells, and the memory of the veterans who have enabled us to live like we do today.”

Twenty five years after Mrs Grace’s first flight in the Spitfire with her husband, she and their son, Richard, celebrated the anniversary with their own flight.

And it is Richard who will fly the family Spitfire in the Battle of Britain celebrations at the Imperial War Museum, Duxford, this weekend.

The film Going Solo, and more information on the Grace Spitfire, is available at www.

ml407.co.uk