The Castle Bromwich Aerodrome Factory was built in 1940 to produce planes for the war effort. About 12,000 Spitfires were made there from 1940 to 1945. Over 37,000 test flights were made from Castle Bromwich Aerodrome. The completed planes were towed across the road from the factory to the Aerodrome. The sculpture was unveiled by Alex Henshaw. He was the Chief Test Pilot for spitfires.