Edwardian Pageant 2017

We said farewell to out hosts, two- and four-footed, and departed a very friendly and comfortable BnB this morning, bound for the Edwardian Pageant 2017, at Old Warden Aerodrome.  (One of the four-footed hosts did a runner through the front door and had to be persuade with guile, to return to the fold! Thank goodness his Mummy knew his ways, and soon had him back in custody.)

What can I say about our Shuttleworth experience?  It was a once-in-a-lifetime day for me, and enjoyed it thoroughly.  Enough to say, perhaps that I burned through two batteries on the Nikon, and took over 3,000 photographs?

I will have to create a photo album of this event, but for now, two photos will have to suffice:

In 1934, the MacRobertson Air Race celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Australian State of Victoria.  British designer Geoffrey de Havilland was determined that a British aircraft should win. Three DH-88 Comets were purpose-built for the race. (One, G-ACSP "Black Magic", was flown by famous aviatrix Amy Johnson and her husband.)  The race began at RAF Mildenhall, and ended in Melbourne, Australia, a distance of approximately 11,300 miles. 

Making six stops along the way to refuel the outright winner was this aircraft, G-ACSS "Grosvenor House", which completed the race in 71 hours 18 seconds. It would have won the handicap prize as well, were it not for a race rule that no aircraft could win more than one prize.

The 1933 "Mew Gull", was designed by Capt. Edgar W. Percival as a single-seat racer.  This E.2H version,  G-AEXF, was owned and much modified by Alex Henshaw (later a famous Spitfire test-pilot during WW-II).   In 1937 it won the Folkestone Trophy and in 1938 it won the Kings Cup.

In 1939, it set a new mark for the London-Cape Town (and back) class-record. Henshaw's time from Gravesend to Wingfield at the Cape was 39 hours and 25 minutes, while the return trip took 11 minutes longer.  This record stood for 70 years, until 2009. Upon his return to Gravesend, Henshaw was so tired that he had to be lifted out of the cockpit.

I've always loved these two historic aircraft, and never expected to see them in the air today.  (I did expect to visit them in their hangars, but...)  It was a tremendous pleasure to see these on the grass when we arrived at Old Warden, and a positive joy to see them in the air.

Alas, we had to leave early to make our long journey towards a bed for the night, so we just missed the Red Arrows finale to the day.  And as we drove away, for the next ten minutes we kept having jets blasting past, low over the car, while motorists everywhere stopped and climbed out of their cars to watch the show, and every rooftop was packed with people doing the same.  I have seen them several times before, but I regret Derek didn't get to enjoy their performance.

And it was probably pointless anyway, because a crash on the M23 had us parked on the road for over 30 minutes anyhow, so we could probably have been able to stay and watch it!

Anyway, it is the airport for us first thing in the morning, so it's bedtime for me now.  But let me leave you with a special photograph:

It just doesn't get much better than that.