THE ‘THANK U NHS’ Spitfire will be flying over Trowbridge, Swindon and Chippenham on Tuesday (August 18).

It will take off from Cotswold Airport at 2pm and should be over Swindon's Great Western Hospital at five minutes past, followed by a fly past of Chippenham Community Hospital at 12 past, and Trowbridge Community Hospital at 16 past.

The public are now being offered the unique opportunity to nominate the name of a loved one that will be hand written onto the family-owned Aircraft Restoration Company’s blue photo-reconnaissance Spitfire to raise money for NHS Charities Together. The names will be nominated by the public as a way of recognising small acts of kindness throughout the Covid-19 pandemic.

The JustGiving.com/nhsspitfire fundraising page is open. To submit a name, the public will simply need to donate £10 minimum via the campaign’s JustGiving page, fundraising for the NHS Charities.

They will then need to state their loved one’s name and reason for nomination in their donation comment. The aim is to lift the spirits of those across the UK, many of whom are still living in some form of isolation, whilst also thanking the hospitals, communities and individuals who have been at the forefront of getting the country through the pandemic.

The public will be able to view progress updates and carefully planned flight routes via the Aircraft Restoration Company Instagram, Facebook and website. As well as the Spitfire’s usual local operations around it’s home base of IWM Duxford Airfield in Cambridgeshire, specifically planned routes will fly past communities and hospitals around mainland UK. Flight routes are being updated throughout the duration of the donation window, which will close on Sunday 20th September 2020 to align with the Spitfire closing the show at the IWM Duxford’s Battle of Britain Air Show.