Plane Resurrection

- Season 1

(2016)

The history of the P-51 Mustang is recounted alongside Maurice Hammond's meticulous refurbishment of a an actual aircraft.

In a chance discovery, Peter Vacher discovers a far flung, disassembled, heavily weathered airplane in India which he mistakenly identifies as a Spitfire. It turns out to be the sole surviving Hurricane from the Battle of Britain. After six years of wrangling with Indian authorities Peter returns the aircraft to England where he recruits Morris Hammond's organization to perform a meticulous restoration including the engine. The result is a piece of history that delights the pilots who would once again have a chance to fly it.

World War Two pilot, now an orthopedic surgeon, Peter Bruggemann pursues a repressed lifelong dream to build and fly a Fokker Dr.1 Triplane. More challenging yet, he scratch builds it.

Paul Bennett is restoring a Stearman, an open cockpit trainer for pilots in World War II. Like WWI planes, the US built Stearman has a fabric covered fusilage and wire supported wings. Literally thousands of pilots trained on these planes for service in WWII. But then what happened to the planes?

Maurice Hammond and his daughter, Leah, undertake the restoration of an AT-6 Harvard aircraft. At the same time, Leah works on establishing a memorial to the US airmen and RAF pilots who flew from airfields near her home village. See how rebuilding the plane brings World War II history to life.

An enthusiast restores a Q6, an ahead-of-its-time airliner that may have had a pivotal role in the Charles deGaulle escape.