They are the planes that wrote history in the sky. Now skilled engineers and brave pilots are on a mission to return them to the air.

From the iconic Spitfire to the forgotten Dutch fighter that took on the might of Hitler’s Luftwaffe in 1940 and the light plane that became America’s secret weapon in Vietnam, this series follows the struggle to save military relics from the scrapheap.

In hangars and workshops across Europe, we meet passionate engineers using skills that have almost died out in the age of fly-by-wire airliners and stealth jets.

Crafting new parts by hand, rebuilding broken wings and breathing life back into long-silent engines, these men and women are dedicated to making history fly.

We share the breakthroughs and setbacks on projects that can be a decade in completion – and join the test pilots in the cockpit as they return vintage aircraft to the air.

Using newly discovered archive and testimony from the veterans who flew them, we tell the history of modern warfare through the planes that created it.

With fascinating engineering, real jeopardy and stunning air to air filming, Warplane Workshop prises open the hangar doors of a secretive business driven by passion and the sheer love of flight.