Bill Innes: 'I waited 83 years to finally fly a WW2 Spitfire'

Bill had a distinguished career as a pilot, and he flew everything from small planes to Boeing 767s. He never got the chance to fly a Spitfire but earlier this year he was able to realise his ambition – 83 years after that fleeting, unforgettable encounter in Glencoe.

The story is told in a new, 30-minute-long documentary, Bill and the Spitfire, which is being screened on BBC Alba tomorow, Christmas Day, and again on Hogmanay.

The Spitfire on the runway, with Bill behind pilot Jeremy Britcher (Image: Copyright Peter Innes)Cameras follow 90-year-old Bill as he steps into a wartime Spitfire at Biggin Hill airbase in London, and then takes the controls for a spell.

“It was wonderful to end my aviation career in this famous Second World War plane”, Bill said after the Spitfire had taxied to a halt. “It’s an honour just to sit in it”.

Bill, who is also an author – his books include Flight from the Croft, the story of his life and career – was born in Kinlochleven.

Bill Innes at the controls of a Trident 3b aircraft (Image: Bill Innes)After the evacuation from Dunkirk and the fall of France in 1940, Hitler set his sights on Britain, and he needed his Luftwaffe to defeat the RAF in order to gain air superiority of the skies over southern England. But the pilots of RAF Fighter Command, flying such planes as the Spitfire and the Hurricane, defeated the Luftwaffe, and Hitler was forced to abandon his invasion plans.

In the documentary Bill recalls: “I was six years old when the war began and was captivated by the drama that was constantly in the news. I was particularly obsessed with the planes – the Spitfires and the Hurricanes.

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“We all followed the progress of the war and in 1940 things weren’t going well”. Just two things stood in the way of Hitler’s invasion plans: the RAF, and the presence of the Royal Navy in the Channel.

“The pilots who went up and fought in the skies were heroes", says Bill. "One day, what should appear in the glen was a Spitfire! The distinctive Rolls Royce [Merlin] engine and the shape of the wings, and it flew so low as it followed the contours of the hills – to a young boy, that was wonderful.

“I think that’s where I got the idea that it would be great to be a pilot”.

But his elderly father died suddenly that same year. The strain on his mother of raising Bill and his brother in an isolated cottage led to having a nervous breakdown, and eventually the two young boys were fostered by a woman on South Uist, in the Outer Hebrides. The three-roomed thatched cottage, in which the woman had already raised 11 of her own children, had no electricity, toilet or running water, and was lit by paraffin lamp.

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Bill excelled, first, at local school, then at a secondary at Fort William, back on the mainland. He kept hold of his dream of becoming a pilot, and succeeded, aged 18, in finding a place at Glasgow University, where the RAF then had a reserve air squadron. It was quite an achievement for someone who describes himself at the time as a “barefoot ragamuffin in the time-capsule of Uist”. He had no technical knowledge of planes. He could not even drive a car.

The RAF trained him as a pilot, and he took to his new life with enthusiasm. He did his National Service then spent two years with the air force before opting to become a pilot with a commercial airline, British European Airways, which was based at the old Renfrew Airport.

In his book, Flight from the Croft, the planes he flew in his early years – the Caravelles, the Comets, the Viscounts, the Vanguards, the Tridents – had an evocative magic of their own. He remembers the deHavilland Comet 4b as being arguably the most beautiful commercial jet of all time. “Those of us flying it at the time,” he says, “just thought it was the best aircraft in the world.”

Bill Innes with a Boeing 757 while he was on base training duties at Stansted Airport (Image: Bill Innes)As a pilot, he saw it all, from Cold War-era Berlin to Beirut in the 1960s, a time when that cosmopolitan city could still be regarded as a Mediterranean pleasure-spot. In Delphi, Greece, in 1963, he and his colleagues glimpsed Jacqueline Kennedy, wife of the US president, and her sister, Princess Lee Radziwill, a few months before Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.

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Bill's illustrious, 45-year-long career ended with him being the highly experienced trainer on such charter airlines as Canada 3000 and Air 2000. His last post was flying long-range Boeing 767s for the Italian airline, Alitalia. When he retired in July 1996 his logbook recorded over 17,000 hours, plus, of course, hundreds of hours in simulators.

He has become an established author. One of his books, 'St Valery: The Impossible Odds' has generated several thousand pounds in royalties for Erskine Homes.

The BBC Alba documentary records Bill’s delight when at the age of 90 he finally gets to sit in a Second World War Spitfire at Biggin Hill, a famous Battle of Britain airfield. Among its exhibits are many aircraft that helped Britain to defy Hitler in 1940.

“I’ve waited 83 years for the chance to go up in a Spitfire”, he tells the camera before clambering into the aircraft behind pilot Jeremy Britcher.

After the flight, a happy Bill says: “This plane flew during the war and it has an incredible history. It took me back to my boyhood, but also to the many hours flying around the south of England”.

Bill said this week: "The thing about getting to my age is that, no matter what you did throughout your life, you're seen as an old man. I don't feel like an old man. I took part in the programme to show that many who are now dismissed as 'old fogeys' do have a captivating back-story".

Christine Morrison from Corcadal Productions, which made the documentary, said: “It was so enjoyable to make this documentary with Bill. He’s had a fascinating life and is a great raconteur. His open-hearted outlook is an inspiration and shows that we should never let go of our dreams, no matter what age we are. It was a pleasure to tell this story and thrilling to see Bill finally take to the skies in the iconic Spitfire".

* 'Bill agus an Spitfire' will be screened on BBC Alba at 8.30pm on Christmas Day, and will be repeated at 8.30pm on December 28 and 8pm on Hogmanay. It will also be available on BBC iPlayer from 8.30pm on Christmas Day, for 30 days.