IT WAS a paparazzi paradise! Glitz and glamour was everywhere as the beautiful people gathered for an ultra-exclusive celebration of a Southampton icon.

Pop music superstar, Ronan Keating together with former tennis champion and darling of the tabloids, Boris Becker mingled with the gorgeous Goodwood glitterati who had come together to salute the world-famous Spitfire aircraft, born and bred in Southampton 70 years ago.

At one time there was even a suggestion Hollywood Oscar winning actress, Cate Blanchett, recent star of the appropriately named film, The Aviator, would be at the Spitfire festival but sadly, in the end, she was not able to put in an appearance.

Despite this, scores of journalists and photographers from upmarket style and fashion magazines across continental Europe had flown in especially to record the event for their glossy pages.

Besides the former Boyzone singer and the flamboyant Wimbledon champion another guest at the Spitfire anniversary was millionaire art gallery owner, Tim Jefferies, who counts supermodels Elle Macpherson, Claudia Schiffer and Koo Stark among his ex-girlfriends.

Even the venue, the 12,000 acres of rolling countryside that surrounds the aristocratic home of Lord March, was carefully chosen for this spectacularly select event sponsored by an international company of watchmakers specialising in timepieces worn on the wrists of the rich and famous.

Besides marking the aviation milestone the two-day event was also staged to launch the latest range of the company's watches that have been named after the Spitfire.

Although the admiring crowd included those who were used to being centre stage in public it was without doubt the Spitfire that was the star of this particular show.

Its sleek, graceful shape was unmistakable and Ronan Keating was one of the first to clamber into the cockpit to get a feel of the controls.

Father and son

"What an amazing aircraft," said the chart topper, who flies helicopters in his spare time. "It is such an experience to sit here in the cockpit."

While sitting in the aircraft Ronan was introduced to 85-year-old Dr Gordon Mitchell, the son of the Spitfire's designer, RJ Mitchell.

"It's a real honour to meet you," Ronan told Dr Mitchell. "Your father designed one of the greatest aircraft in history."

It was more a struggle for Boris Becker to ease his six-foot frame into the Spitfire's tiny cockpit but he did eventually squeeze himself into the pilot's seat.

"I think I am just a little too tall for this." said Boris, who now lives in Monte Carlo and is nicknamed "Boom, Boom" after his all action style of tennis.

"I often have to use a plane to fly to work but I must say I have never been in an aircraft so famous as this one."

Beauty and elegance

Tim Jefferies, a regular on the pages of Hello and OK magazines, was also keen to see the wartime Spitfire that was built in 1944.

"When you see such a magnificent aircraft and you remember all that this fighter did for the freedom of this country it does inspire you to want to learn to fly," said Tim.

Also at the event was Air Marshall, Cliff Spink, a co-owner of a Spitfire, said: "No aircraft I have flown can evoke the feeling of being in a masterpiece more than when I occupy the cockpit of a Spitfire.

"It is a thing of beauty and elegance and when the engine snarls to life, the aircraft possesses a life of its own... Spitfire, the name says it all!"

The Goodwood Aero Club, a former Battle of Britain airfield of the Second World War, once again echoed to the distinctive and unique sound of the Spitfire's Merlin engine as the aircraft was put through its paces as part of the anniversary event marking the 70th anniversary of the maiden flight at Eastleigh in 1936.

For so many of the older generation the Spitfire has become the enduring symbol of the fortitude, heroism and defiance that saw Great Britain through the war's darkest hours.

As Winston Churchill, Prime Minister at the time, said: "Never in the field of human conflict has so much been owed by so many to so few."

In the front line repelling the forces of the German Luftwaffe were squadrons of Spitfires, the creation of design genius, RJ Mitchell at the Supermarine factory at Woolston on the banks of the River Itchen in Southampton.

Deliveries of the first Spitfire's began in 1938, just over two years after 'Mutt' Summers flew the prototype at Eastleigh on March 5, 1936.

The story of the Battle of Britain resounds down the decades as a defining moment of history.

In the summer of 1940 young pilots took to the skies over the south coast to do battle with the enemy while local people strained their eyes to watch the dogfights.

According to the history books the battle officially began on August 13, with an all-out assault on, what the German called, Eagle day.

Five waves of bombers and fighters were sent against nine airfields, from Kent to Portland in Dorset. At times the Luftwaffe threatened to overwhelm the Kent and Sussex sectors, but airfields were rapidly repaired and there was a continuous flow of replacement aircraft and pilots.

The Germans needed victory over the Royal Air Force but with the help of the Spitfires and the brave tactics of their pilots it was not to be and Britain lived to fight another day.