Going Back to the Roots of Aeronautics

I have had on my bucket list for very many years a trip to one of the Shuttleworth Trust Vintage weekends at Old Warden. At the beginning of August Jo & I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary and Jo presented me with tickets for the Vintage flying display at Old Warden, which took place yesterday (Sunday 5th September). We stayed overnight Sat & Sun (in Bedford) to allow an early arrival and later departure from the airfield which, in hindsight, was exactly the right thing to do. All I can say is Wow, why have I not found the time to go before? We were blessed with almost perfect weather (despite what Carol Kirkwood had been threatening at the beginning of the week) with, most importantly, winds light enough for them to fly some of the Edwardian era aircraft at the end of the day. I am sure many of you have visited them already but if you have not and have the merest hint of aviation in your blood then I highly recommend it. I was pleasantly reminded of the hook that drew me deep into aeromodelling and later a career in aviation when they flew the Avro Triplane replica, which I had witnessed (and had been fascinated by) being test flown around Eastleigh when I was a youngish child, it having been built by the Hampshire Aero Club (at Eastleigh Airport) under the guidance of Viv Bellamy for the film Magnificent Men…….

I’ll just post up a few of the fantastic photo opportunities that abounded during the day, for you to enjoy also.

The little English Electric Wren put putted around at tree top height doing rudder only turns, as banking would have put a wingtip into the tree tops!! The Bleriot managed to get a couple of short hops of about 3 - 4 ft height down the entire length of the runway into what little wind there was but the pilot clearly thought he could do better so he turned around and and tried to gain enough speed back along the runway to get properly airbourne teetering on the edge of flight until one rather large yank on up elevator resulted in the nose rising alarmingly and then stalling back down with a suspicious ping from the undercarraige. Just like those early days of my model flying!

Avro 504 and the Bristol Fighter

Stampe Team walking the display before the flight

Comet 'Govesnor House' the actual aircraft that won the race, Miles Hawk Speed Six, Percival Mew Gull. The only light aircraft Hawker ever built the diminutive Hawker Cygnet. The Miles Gemini being thrown around in spirited fashion and used by one of my former bosses (Nay Somers) to compete in the KIngs Cup Air Races in the 1950s.

An amazing collection of aircraft and excellent photographs Peter.