No longer living in the UK so I missed seeing the service on TV, but I just wanted to throw in my memory of meeting a WW2 fighter pilot into the thread.
As a young airman serving at Northolt on the mid-70's we had a Devon pilot stationed there with 207 (Communications) Sqn. His name was Joe Kmiecik and was (I was told) the oldest pilot still flying in the RAF. Joe had flown Hurricanes with 303 Polish Sqn. also based out of Northolt, and as I recall he had an amazing story where he had escaped Poland and basically walked across Europe before making it to Britain. The story was that he continually refused promotion as it would have meant he stop flying and that was all he wanted to do, and so he remained a Flt Lt.
I was proud to have met him and to have shaken his hand. Does anyone know if he is still with us?