One of the world's few two seater Spitfire aircraft arrived early for the weekend airshow, showing what only it and few other Spitfires can do – take people for rides.

The Ardmore based warbird normally charges close to $4000 for a half hour ride but dropped the price to $3000 for a few lucky punters, including John Troughton.

Spitfire pilot Liz Needham and happy passenger John Troughton.

'It was pretty good. It was excellent. Something I've been looking forward to for a long time,” he says afterwards. 'It's probably the best known aircraft in the world.”

Pilot Liz Needham put the WWII fighter through one barrel roll for John.

'It felt pretty good, didn't want her to stop really.”

If he did it again?

'I would do a bit more aerobatics. That would be great. It was good to have done it.”

The Spitfire will also be taking passenger flights Saturday morning before the Tauranga City Air Show starting in the afternoon.

The TR 9 Spitfire started life as a single seat fighter before having the extra seat added in the USA.

The TR9 Spitfire at Tauranga airport

The dual seat Spitfires were mostly manufactured after the close of the war. In 1948, 10 Spitfire T Mk IXs, were exported to India. In 1951, a further six TR 9 trainers were converted from the standard Mk IX to train pilots for the Irish Air Corps Seafire fleet.

The Ardmore based aircraft has been in New Zealand since 2008. It is painted in RAF desert colours with the markings of a Mk IX flown by a New Zealand Squadron Leader Colin Gray, when based in Tunisia in mid-1943.

The Theme of the Tauranga City Airshow is Spitfire at Sunset.