His clever design was the first aeroplane bought by the War Office, the US Signal Corps and the Canadian military.
The first American woman to become a licensed pilot and the first woman pilot to fly across the English Channel. Just three months later she died in a tragic accident in Boston.
the early parachute jumps and the girl whose deliberate jumps didn’t always go well.
principal support for A V Roe’s early aeroplanes, tested and sold Bristols and won the 1914 Schneider Trophy race.
His passenger-carrying glider flew more than 50 years before the Wright brothers’.
The essential supporter of the Wrights. He built their first engine.
An experimental flying boat using an interesting design concept. In 1936 the Air Ministry issued Specification R1/36 which called for a medium-sized reconnaissance flying boat
(includes the life stories of careers which began in WWI)
A brief look at his designs, helicopter, 4-engined bomber, flying boat, helicopter.
His extra-ordinary achievements, mostly unauthorised.
They attacked Zeppelins and submarines and introduced triplanes to the air war.
He learned to fly with Graham White and despite having to wear spectacles, flew in WWI and became a life-long test pilot, in Europe and the USA.
Navigator of the Southern Oceans – WWI fighter pilot, self-taught navigator, he made many pioneering flights over the Pacific and Indian Oceans.
US style racing, huge engines powering tiny, dangerous planes.
Powering the smallest aeroplane with the biggest engine doesn’t necessarily produce the winner.
The challenge to be first to fly from California to Hawaii ended tragically for many entrants.
Handley Page was furious when his proof-of-concept design didn’t win the competition.
There’ve been many retreats from Kabul. This one worked out rather well.
The winner of one of the prizes still flies at Shuttleworth.
one of the entrants and a replica of another are Shuttleworth fliers.
A tremendous achievement which seemed to embarrass the Air Ministry.
The first flights over the Poles – both North and South.
‘Organise an evacuation – tomorrow’ was the order. And he did.
The Schneider Trophy competition for seaplanes was first announced in 1911. It was a contest for speed over a triangular course and became a vehicle for the
Wiley Post was born in Texas in 1898, the youngest son of a farmer. But he had no interest in farming, or in school. It
The highest mountain in the world began to attract the attention of serious mountaineers from the beginning of the 20th Century. It was difficult to
Being asked to pick a favourite from Shuttleworth’s collection of aviation exotica induces a flurry of regretful rejections. How could anyone not choose the racy red Comet,
We’ve just past the 75th anniversary of a significant flight. It is notable for its daring and successful execution.It appears in this Newsletter on the
If you fly to New Zealand today you’ll arrive at the Jean Batten Terminal at Auckland Airport although it’s more usually referred to as the
12 January Amelia Earhart lands at Oakland after 18 hr flight from Honolulu.12 February USN Macon crashes
Clouston was running his second hand car business in New Zealand when he heard that Charles Kingsford Smith in Southern Cross was making the first
Mike was just 18 when he started his career as an air traffic controller at Liverpool’s Speke airport in 1970. He went to work in
Aeroplanes had developed rapidly during the First World War with the stimulus of the need to out-perform the enemy. With peace came the opportunity to
The earliest aspiring aviators drew their inspiration from birds and built machines to imitate their shape. The next step was more difficult. How could they
Helmut Steiger was a Swiss aircraft engineer who completed his training at Imperial College in London. There were job opportunities at several of the small
It is modestly displayed. It hangs quietly out of the way in one of Shuttleworth’s hangars – a small silver and blue light aeroplane, usually
She was, and probably still is, America’s most famous ‘aviatrix’. Yet she was never a particularly skilled or natural pilot. She was 23 before she
Arthur Clouston was one of the first civilians employed as a test pilot at Farnborough. A New Zealander, he had previously served four years in the
It is very unusual to carry passengers in wings, for a number of logical reasons. Wings have a special curved shape and are mostly quite
It was a quiet afternoon in July (1938) when a rather scruffy little aeroplane landed at Baldonnel airfield, Dublin. The pilot was walking towards the
A very welcome recent arrival in the Shuttleworth hangars is the Percival Mew Gull. It was last here in 2002 and has since been privately owned
It had been a very early start. The passengers had been roused from their beds at 2.30 am. They had enough time to enjoy a
In the 1930s aircraft were growing heavier, needing larger airfields for operation. There was more than a passing interest in developing some method of helping a