Climbing up into the cockpit of a Spitfire, an RAF veteran was transported from the tarmac of Carlisle Airport to the sands of Egypt in 1944.

World War Two pilot Tom Carter, 92, was taken completely by surprise when he was offered the chance to sit once again in the beating heart of his favourite plane.

He had trained in Spitfires in 1944 and described them as the most beautiful planes to fly.

He said: “You didn’t have to fly it so much as just wish to turn, say, and it turned.

“It felt as if it was part of you. It’s a lovely aeroplane.”

The Spitfire Tom climbed into actually flew in the Battle of Britain, the offensive which inspired Tom to sign up in the first place, in 1942.

“I was 16 when the Battle of Britain was going on and at that age you’re daft aren’t you?” he said, adding that everyone his age at the time wanted to be a fighter pilot.

Tom and his son Terry Carter, of Brampton, an aircraft enthusiast who used to work at RAF Spadeadam near Haltwhistle and spends a lot of time at Carlisle Airport, heard the Spitfire and Hurricane were planning on refuelling at the city airport on the way back from the Scottish Airshow at Prestwick.

A Lancaster Bomber was also spotted flying over Cumbria on its way back from the show but it didn’t have to refuel.

Tom’s wife, Nora Carter, who died 14 years ago, was originally from Hutton in the Forest, where her dad Thomas Mathewson worked as head gamekeeper.

Tom now lives in Sheffield but often visits his son in Brampton and nephew David Wright and his family who farm near Wigton.

Tom and Terry went to Carlisle Airport hoping for a sighting of the aircraft.

But when the Spitfire and Hurricane landed, Wing Commander Stu Smiley asked if there were any veterans around who might like to sit in the Spitfire.

It is 52 years since Tom sat in a cockpit – he said any other flying does not really count as flying.

After his stint in the Spitfire’s cockpit, instructor Dave Parker offered him another surprise – a flight with him in a small Ikarus aircraft for 20 minutes.

Tom said of the flight: “It was an experience – an interesting one let’s say because of the type of aircraft.

“It’s one designed for ease of flight and, of course, the service aircraft were designed for doing a job and obviously for that reason had to be much more unstable.

“This little one, it’s built for stability so it’s totally different. But as I say, it was an experience.”

After volunteering in 1942, Tom did his fighter training in South Africa on Harvard planes and then moved to Egypt where he flew Spitfires as part of his operations training.

He was then meant to be moved to Italy but was moved back to the UK before he was allocated.

His next mission was flying Typhoons over France and up through Germany, supporting Canadian regiments moving up the front and attacking German strong points.

Tom stayed in the RAF after World War Two and was promoted from a Sergeant Pilot to a Master Pilot.

He also became an instructor. He flew all sorts of aircraft all over the world including across Northern Ireland, Africa, the Middle East and Australia until his retirement in about 1966.