Two former Red Arrows pilots from Lincolnshire have recreated some of the most famous aerial battles ever fought as part of a new television documentary.

The Channel 4 show is recreating the dogfights between British and German pilots during the First World War for a 90-minute documentary.

The new show, called Fighting the Red Baron, features former RAF and display team pilots, Andy Offer and Mark Cutmore.

The pair are now both pilots with civilian display team the Bladz.

For the documentary, which simulates reconnaissance and a dogfight featuring camera guns, they flew in real-life versions of the Junkers and SE5A fighter planes - technology which is now more than 90 years old.

Speaking about the five-day shoot, Mark Cutmore, 40, who now lives in Stamford, told the Echo it was equally thrilling and terrifying.

"When I actually got into the Junkers aircraft it was so different to anything I have ever experienced, which made it thrilling as a pilot," said Mr Cutmore, who flew in positions Red 3, 5 and 9 during a three-year stint with the team between 1999 and 2001 when it was based at RAF Cranwell.

"But then you get going and really feel the speed. The aircraft is a single seater, but the pilots in those days had to lean out of the side to take aerial photographs, while still keeping their bird in the air.

"It very draughty and cold, and I was trying to do the things they had to do with snot pouring down my face and wind battering my face – not an easy task and at times, terrifying.

"It was a real privilege to be able to re-enact the origins of flying, which at the time was not considered as the way to fight a war. Things have changed so much now."

The Darlow Smithson Productions' programme aims to document the birth of aerial warfare and show how, in just four years, flimsy flying machines were transformed into war planes.

In 1917 the average life expectancy of a pilot dropped to less than two weeks – or just 18 hours in the air.

The documentary will be screened in May.