Spitfires Chilled Beer At Altitude

After the D-Day landings, RAF and RCAF pilots began using Spitfires as improvised beer carriers after troops in Normandy complained that local inns offered little besides watery cider. Ground crews steam-cleaned auxiliary jettison tanks normally used for fuel, filled them with ale, and later mounted beer barrels beneath the wings. Flying across the English Channel at around 15,000 feet chilled the beer before the aircraft landed at forward airfields in France.

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