A FLYPAST over York is planned to commemorate the 70th Anniversary of the arrival of 2,300 French airmen in the city.

Yorkshire Air Museum has organised the spectacle by the Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight to coincide with York's leg of the Grand Départ on July 6.

The famous Lancaster bomber, accompanied by the Hurricane and Spitfire fighter escorts, will fly in a classic formation, making three complete passes over ‘Boulevard St. Leonard’s’, which is being created in St. Leonard’s Place.

Ian Reed, the museum's director, said, “This is a very special time for York and we are delighted to be doing our bit alongside many others, to help bring a week of spectacle and celebration during the Tour de France Grand Départ and especially to mark a historically significant anniversary of the formation of the only two French Squadron’s in Bomber Command at RAF Elvington. It will be a week to remember.”

The special flypast is in commemoration the 70th Anniversary of the arrival of French airmen in York in 1944 who were based at RAF Elvington, now the Allied Air Forces Memorial & Yorkshire Air Museum.

The flypast is the grand finale to a week of events taking place in Boulevard St. Leonard’s, which will see the Museum’s Hawker Hurricane aircraft lifted onto the roof of York Theatre Royal where it will overlook the peleton of the Grand Départ as it goes through the city.