Shuttleworth Collection – 2019 Season Premier Air Show
by George Land
Sunday, May 5th, 2019 saw the Shuttleworth Collection hold their first show of the 2019 season, at Old Warden Aerodrome, in Biggleswade, England. The display featured a selection of Shuttleworth’s own aircraft and those based with them, along with a good selection of visiting historic types as well. The participants ranged from First World War aeroplanes such as the Avro 504K, Bristol M-1C Monoplane, Sopwith Camel and Triplane through to aircraft from the twenties, thirties and World War Two period with a Gladiator, Spitfire and Hurricanes making appearances, then and on to the Vietnam War with displays from the North American Rockwell OV-10 Bronco and the amazing Bell HU-1 Iroquouis ‘Huey’.
This event saw the arrival and landing of what I believe to be the two largest aircraft to have made a stop at Old Warden, the Canadian Vickers PBY-5A Catalina (Canso OA-10-Vl) 44-33915 Miss Pick Me Up and the Douglas C-47A-75-DL Dakota 42-100884/TS423-RAE N147DC sn19347, the displays by these two alone made the show worthwhile.
The excellent flying programme well organised and orchestrated by the volunteers of the SVAS with the flying under the control of the new chief Pilot Paul Stone as usual commenced at 2pm with the appearance of the Battle of Britain’s Mk.XVI Spitfire, this was followed a series of segments featuring different types of planes from different era’s which allowed the planes to be displayed to their best advantage.
The segments ranged from basic training gliders through primary and basic trainers to advanced trainers up to fighters from the First World War through the late thirties to World War Two along with Observation/co-operation as well as transport planes, and a maritime patrol aircraft supported by civil aircraft and an early passenger plane in the colours of the British European Airways.
The one disappointment was that ARCO’s newly restored Westland Lysander went technical on the morning, so the sight of two ‘Lizzies’ flying together will have to wait until later in the year.
The running order of the show was:
Battle of Britain Memorial Flight – Spitfire Mk.XVl TE311
Vietnam _ NA Rockwell Bronco
Training – Elliots Primary EoN Type 7 Glider
WW2 – Spitfire and Hurricanes
Training – Tiger Moth and Blackburn B2
WW2/Vietnam – C-47 Dakota
Early WW2 – Gladiator
Vietnam – Huey
Observation – Birddog and Grasshopper
Civilian /General Aviation – de Havilland DH51 Moth and Southern Martlet
WW2/Vietnam – Catalina
Post WW2 Trainers – Piston Provost and de Havilland Chipmunk
WW1 – Avro 504K, Bristol M-1C Monoplane, Sopwith Camel and Tri-plane
Civilian Airliner – de Haviland Rapide
WW2 Army Co-operation – Westland Lysander
Racing Planes – de Havilland Comet, Percival Mull Gull and Miles Speed Hawk 6
Overall the event was as usual for Shuttleworth a very enjoyable occasion ran well and that catered for all aviation enthusiasts as well as the general public.
Many thanks indeed to George Land for this story and his lovely images!
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