Capturing a Hawker Typhoon Veteran's Historic Dream Flight

The gabrielCAM® system was used to capture the Hawker Typhoon rebuild project, first at Airframe Assemblies and now at Duxford. This article is a backstory to that. Such important projects need the best equipment to do justice to the job.

Commemorating VJ Day with Historic Aviation Heritage Capture

VJ Day, 15th August 2026, marks 81 years since the end of WWII, and I recently read a lovely article by Times photographer Richard Pohle, describing how he photographed three Spitfires in flight, each carrying a 100-year-old WWII veteran.

It reminded me of a very special project I captured back in 2020.

Over nearly 20 years, we’ve captured thousands of projects: construction, demolition, heritage, energy, manufacturing, events and many more. But occasionally, a project stays with you for reasons that go well beyond the filming itself.

WWII Veteran Bernard Gardiner Flies a Supermarine Spitfire at Duxford

In 2020, I was privileged to be asked by the Hawker Typhoon Preservation Group to capture an extraordinary day for WWII veteran pilot Bernard Gardiner.

Bernard, now 104, was a mere 98 at the time. During the war he had flown Hawker Hurricanes and Hawker Typhoons, but there was one famous aircraft he had never flown in: the Supermarine Spitfire.

Nearly 80 years later, the HTPG changed that.

As a thank you for Bernard’s support for their work rebuilding RB396 – the sole surviving combat-veteran Hawker Typhoon – they arranged a surprise Spitfire flight from Duxford.

I had the extraordinary privilege of flying alongside Bernard’s Spitfire in a Harvard T6 at 10,000 feet, canopy open, filming from the air. The Harvard was flown by HTPG Founding Trustee Sam Worthington-Leese, while Bernard’s Spitfire was piloted by three-times Red Bull Air Race World Champion Paul Bonhomme.

And during the flight, Paul handed Bernard the controls.

It was an extraordinary moment to witness and document. I can still feel the hairs on the back of my neck stand up as I saw the Spitfire appear alongside us over my left shoulder.

Capturing the Hawker Typhoon RB396 Rebuild at Airframe Assemblies and Duxford

Our involvement went further. We installed one of our first-generation gabrielCAM time-lapse camera systems to document the painstaking restoration of RB396. Six years later, we are still capturing that project, with the restoration and our camera now at Duxford.

RB396 is ultimately intended to become a working memorial to the Hawker Typhoon pilots and ground crews who served during WWII, including the 666 Typhoon pilots who lost their lives.

Preserving a Living Memorial with Professional Time-Lapse Systems

Looking back, I remain extremely proud to have played a small part in documenting Bernard’s remarkable day and the continuing story of this historically important aircraft.

Sometimes we capture projects to document change. Others are about making sure something is never forgotten. This was very definitely one of the latter.