Aviramp partnership supports US veterans’ emotional return to Normandy
World War II veterans have made an emotional return to France for D-Day thanks to a partnership between Delta Air Lines, US charity Best Defense Foundation and Shropshire manufacturer Aviramp.
With 23 veterans needing to disembark the charity’s Normandy Legacy Flight by wheelchair in 2025, Aviramp not only manufactured one of its step-free International ramps in half the usual lead time, but also donated it to be used for as long as the legacy flights continue.
Normandy native Virginie Durr, Delta Air Lines enterprise sales manager and project lead on the Normandy Legacy Flight project, thanked Aviramp for its generosity in donating the ramp, calling it a ‘gamechanger’.
Aviramp CEO Graham Corfield and his wife Lisa were special VIPs on the tarmac at Deauville airport on Sunday to see the veterans, many of whom are over 100 years old with reduced mobility, wheeled safely down the Aviramp.
Former Kansas City Chiefs footballer Donnie Edwards, who heads up Best Defense Foundation with his wife, Kathryn, launched the legacy flights in 2022.
Donnie said: “It is truly amazing to have the veterans come back here for the 81st anniversary. It makes it so much easier and feasible for World War II veterans to take the opportunity to come back. That’s why we land in Normandy and not in Paris, we want to make it smooth as possible, because we owe it to them. They gave it to us and we need to pay it back. And Aviramp, Best Defense and Delta Air Lines, we did it together.”
Mr Corfield said even the rain which fell as the last veterans were wheeled down the Aviramp could not dampen the joy of the occasion.
“This was a fantastic opportunity to honour these brave servicemen, and 103-year-old former nurse Betty Huffman-Rosevear. They were waving and smiling all the way down the Aviramp and Lisa and I were very proud to be at the end of it to welcome them and say hello!”
Mr Corfield joined US Embassy, US Army and Deauville dignitaries on stage for the welcome ceremony before heading to a gala dinner.
“During my speech, I told the veterans that it was the whole Aviramp team who had made this happen. When Delta and Best Defense Foundation asked for our help, there was only one answer we would ever have given.
“But it takes more than intent – we needed to make the biggest Aviramp we make in record time. But we did it for these heroes, so they could travel back to where they fought so bravely and disembark with dignity to meet the cheering crowds.”
Members of the Aviramp team also welcoming veterans included assembler Stephen Kemp, a UK armed forces veteran and bugler, who greeted the flight with a traditional Reveille.
