3 days, 3 aeroplanes

[sandar]

Friday was my wife's birthday and for a birthday treat, she asked if we could go to visit the Swiss Gardens. For you who don't know, the Swiss Gardens are at Old Warden, home to the famous Shuttleworth collection. The collection and the gardens share a carpark, shop cafe etc. and in said car park was the world's oldest airworthy aeroplane, the first machine to be bought and restored by Richard Shuttleworth, a Bleriot XI. It had been serviced ready for the season and the engine was being tested.

On Saturday morning, I was watering some pots in the front garden, when I heard the unmistakable sound of a DH Gypsy engine and sure enough, right over my head, at about 700-800 feet, flew a Tiger Moth.

Just a few minutes ago, again I was in my front garden (this time separating a couple of warring felines) when I heard the sound of music, no, not Julie Andrews, the sound of piston engine perfection in the sound of a R.R. Merlin powering a Hawker Hurricane. It had just done a low fly past over Bletchley Park (a bit under two miles from me) and was climbing under power back to cruising altitude. No chance of grabbing a photo of the Tiger Moth or Hurricane, but I did get a couple of the Bleriot.

[Wing_Z]

'tswot I love to hear..."Honey, it's my birthday, can I drag you off to the vintage aircraft for the day?"
I would not swear to it, but I think that Bleriot has been seen in NZ at the Wanaka Air Show!
(How many can there be??)

[sandar]

It wasn't this Bleriot in New Zealand. This Bleriot XI was built in 1909 making it 100 years old. It has the original Anzani engine. It has been owned by the Shuttleworth Trust since 1935 and has been based at The Old Warden ever since. It bears the builders number 14.

The one at Wanaka is owned by Mikael Carlsson, who brought his original Bleriot XI from Sweden.

The Shuttleworth Bleriot is the world's oldest airworthy aeroplane, it has the world's oldest airworthy engine and it holds the record for the longest time based at the same airfield, currently 74 years. Finally, it is believed that it holds the world record for length of time it has been owned by the same owner.

It flies most years, weather permitting, but only on short, straight hops a few feet across the airfield and never for more than a few minutes each year.

I don't know how many original there are left around the world, but there a quite a few replica's, one of which is in New Zealand residing , I think, at the RNZAF museum, Wigram, Christchurch.

[Lionheart]

Great shots of a beautiful old plane. What a piece of history that is.



I had heard that when the first crossing of the English Channel was made in an aeroplane (the Bleriot), that the Anzani started to heat up. The pilot (forgive me, I have forgotten this famous gentlemans name), spotted a cloud that was lightly raining over the channel, turned towards it, and flew through it, cooling down the engine.

I wonder if they climb well?



Bill

[sandar]

Great shots of a beautiful old plane. What a piece of history that is.



I had heard that when the first crossing of the English Channel was made in an aeroplane (the Bleriot), that the Anzani started to heat up. The pilot (forgive me, I have forgotten this famous gentlemans name), spotted a cloud that was lightly raining over the channel, turned towards it, and flew through it, cooling down the engine.

I wonder if they climb well?
Bill

The famous gentleman's name was none other than the designer of the Bleriot, ie Louis Bleriot. Yes the Anzani did overheat and he did cool it down by flying into a shower. The 'W' arrangement of the cylinders was the cause of overheating and very shortly after the channel flight, Anzani produced the 'Y' arrangement which went a long way tocuring the overheating.