Spitfire over Sherwood Forest: Exact date and time the RAF aircraft will fly over Edwinstowe during Forest Festival

The BBMF is a Royal Air Force unit, based in Lincolnshire, which provides aerial displays throughout the year at major events, including festivals, fairs and fetes.

Sunday’s flypast is part of an event at Sherwood Forest being hosted by the new High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire, Prof Veronica Pickering, to celebrate the achievements of young people around the county.

The High Sheriff’s Forest Festival will also celebrate youth groups, Black, Asian and ethnic minority communities and conservation efforts that have been made across Nottinghamshire.

The mission of the BBMF is to maintain aircraft that played such an influential role during the Second World War, commemorate those who died and inspire future generations.

From its base at RAF Coningsby, it operates six Supermarine Spitfires, two Hawker Hurricanes, an Avro Lancaster bomber, a Douglas C47 Dakota and two de Havilland Chipmunks.

It is not known which aircraft will form Sunday’s flypast over the Mansfield area, but they are normally seen flying in a formation of three including a Spitfire.

A schedule of estimated timings, released by the BBMF, shows that the display should fly over the RSPB Sherwood Forest Visitor Centre at Edwinstowe between 12.48pm and 1.18pm, weather permitting.

Prof Pickering, who was born in Kenya and moved to England in the late 1960s, is the first Black person to be appointed High Sheriff of Nottinghamshire.

She has worked as a social worker and a children’s guardian, and also as an international child protection consultant for the United Nations. She is a patron, ambassador or trustee for several charities, and a campaigner for diversity, young people, the arts and wildlife.

The flypast will be in recognition of her role as honorary air commodore of the RAF’s 504 (County Of Nottingham) Squadron, with whom she has been working on issues of diversity and inclusion.

Sunday’s festival will also be attended by the Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, Sir John Peace, and a rare gathering of high sheriffs from several other counties.

The event will feature guest speakers, music, including singing by the choir of St Giles School in Retford, artistic performances and entertainment by the medieval re-enactment group, the Sherwood Outlaws.