Walter Mooney (86) has just fulfilled a long-cherished dream to fly a Spitfire

Walter’s first encounter with the icon plane was many years ago.

He said: “I remember being taken to my first air show and I saw this amazing plane. I asked my dad what it was, and he said it was one of the aircraft which helped us with the war.”

The Spitfire is long acknowledged as the plane which helped provide air cover for the Allies during the D Day landings.

A lifetime later, and Walter had never forgotten that conversation: "I always had this dream of flying a spitfire and about two years ago, I decided I was going to do it.

"I got in touch with the people in England who organise Spitfire flights for members of the public and arranged to go across. But unfortunately, things cropped up and I had to cancel it.

"I then had spinal surgery at the beginning of this year and as I began to recover, I became even more determined that this would be the year I would have my Spitfire flight.”

Walter is a man who does not let the advancing years or health concerns get in his way.

Although having had several battles with cancer in recent years, he has abseiled down the side of the City Hospital on several occasions to help raise funds for a cancer charity.

Having passed all his medical checks, Walter travelled to England and to Biggin Hill, where many Spitfires took off during the World War Two and from where Walter was to have his flight.

Throughout his career Walter has worked with planes of a more modern variety.

The plane he was to fly was a Spitfire made at the end of the War in 1945. While it never actually saw action during the conflict, it was used the production of the film “The Battle of Britian.”

The single seater Spitfire was later converted to two-cockpit training aircraft.

For most of Walter’s 45-minute flight the aircraft was to be under the control of Anna Walker, a Spitfire display pilot: "Anna was sitting up front and I was in the rear.

"At one stage she put her hands in the air and told me I had control of the plane. I had worked with planes all my life, but this was different. It was the moment I was waiting for.

"A little while later she told me to dip the left wing, which I did. At that moment we were flying sideways. She then told me to raise the right of the plane and a little while later she told me I had done a Victory Roll.

“The whole experience was fantastic. I enjoyed it immensely.

"But it made me think of the young chaps who few those planes during World War Two. We have an awful lot to be grateful for.”