The plane: filmed on a previous flight

The coroner was also told that it was unclear whether the drug caused Mr Lees to be drowsy.

The Spitfire struck a tree at speed while making what was believed to be its final landing approach.

It clipped a tree on the boundary of the airfield, then skidded across the Goodwood motor racing circuit, which was not in use at the time.

The plane finally came to rest some 50 or 60 yards short of the runway.

Mark Hubbard, chief flying instructor at Goodwood Flying School, told the inquest the plane was flying nose-high and slower than expected.

'Wing hit bank'

He said: "The aircraft altitude was the thing that stood out as being strange.

"When you see aircraft flying at Goodwood you get used to how the aircraft looks in flight and when it comes to land.

"The altitude of this aircraft was wrong."

He continued: "It was banking to the right on the final approach and I saw the wing hit the bank.

"It must have been 40 degrees down from horizontal.

"It caused an explosion and then it went over in a somersault and the nose went into the bank."