An Air Test in a BE2

Recent Posts
  • Operating 100-year-old Aircraft Today

    If it was easy, everyone would be doing it. On Thur 2 Dec 21 at 1930, the WW1 AHT Team lead by JeanMichel Munn and Stu Goldspink will be discussing the challenges of operating aircraft designed when aviation was in its infancy. Many of the quirks of powered flight were learnt the hard way as the science was not always understood. Most things modern pilots take for granted were not available to the early aviators – brakes, starter motors, reliable engines, and radios as a starter for 10. We are delighted to announce that John Lanham (Chief Pilot – TVAL) and David Bremner (Bristol Scout) will be joining the Panel for this and future sessions. If you would like to join us and help keep our aeroplanes flying, please follow the link.

  • Excellent! Interesting! Top Stuff!

    Yesterday (Thur 4th Nov at 7.30 pm [UK]), the pilots of the WW1 Aviation Heritage Trust chatted about their experiences flying WW1 aeroplanes. The title reflects the feedback that we received. We were joined by David Bremner who built and flies a reproduction of his grandfather’s Bristol Scout and John Lanham who is the Chief Pilot at the Vintage Aviator in Wellington NZ. Between them, the pilots had flown all the aeroplanes under discussion – Bristol Scout, DH2, Sopwith Pup, Nieuport 17, Bristol Fighter, SE5a, Sopwith Camel,  Albatros Dva, Sopwith Snipe, Nieuport 28. Our thanks to Darren Harbar and Allan Udy of HAFU for providing lots of great video. If you missed it, you can listen to the pilots’ pearls of wisdom by clicking this link.

  • 4 Hours to go – Thur 4th Nov 7.30pm. WW1 Fighters Compared

    On Thur 4th Nov at 1930 on Zoom, the WW1 AHT Pilots led by JeanMichel Munn and Stu Goldspink assisted by David Bremner will talk about the different WW1 Fighter that they have flown. This will be the first in the new programme of chat sessions that the Trust will run monthly for the winter months on the last Thursday of each month after the first one. Get the dates in your diaries. The Full programme can be found here. While the chats are fascinating in their own right, you will be contributing to the Trust’s continuing efforts to keep their WW1 aeroplanes flying. In this session, they will discuss the Bristol Scout, DH2, Sopwith Pup, Nieuport 17, Bristol Fighter, SE5a, Sopwith Camel,  Albatros Dva, Sopwith Snipe, Nieuport 28. If ever an aeroplane owed its place in history to the men who flew it, then that aeroplane was the Nieuport 28. Surely one of the most elegant-looking warplanes of the war, the Nieuport 28 was enjoyable to fly but was far from outstanding in the performance stakes and plagued by serious design problems. Passed over by the French, it became the first operational fighter to equip the American Expeditionary Force in 1918 mainly because there was a shortage of SPAD XIII fighters at the time. Its wing fabric-shredding tendencies and volatile Gnome-Monosoupape engine notwithstanding, the Type 28 was generally well-liked by its American pilots; several of them, such as Eddie Rickenbacker and Douglas Campbell, scored a number of victories flying these aeroplanes. Each Chat will cost £5 per head (ex VAT) and last approximately 1 hr 15 mins. If you would like to book a ticket, pse click on the link.

  • An Air Test in a BE2

    With a speed range of 36 mph (stall) and a Vne of 105 mph, an air test in a BE2 is not quite like any other. JeanMichel Munn (WW1 AHT’s Chief Pilot) explains the flight testing regime in this video.

  • Pilot Chat Sessions – Rain Check

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  • WW1 AHT Albatros Check Flight 7 May 2021

    An insight into what a Check Flight on an Albatros DVa involves.

  • Lt. Francis McNamara VC, Australian Flying Corps 10-19

    VICTORIA CROSS VINNERS OF THE FIRST WORLD WAR (Q 68088) Lieutenant Francis Hubert (Frank) McNamara VC, No. 1 Squadron, Australian Flying Corps. Copyright: © IWM. Original Source: http://www.iwm.org.uk/collections/item/object/205315396 Supplement to the London Gazette on 8 June 1917 For most conspicuous bravery and devotion to duty during an aerial bomb attack upon a hostile construction train, when one of our pilots was forced to land behind the enemy’s lines. Lt. McNamara, observing this pilot’s predicament and the fact that hostile cavalry were approaching, descended to his rescue. He did this under heavy rifle fire and in spite of the fact that he himself had been severely wounded in the thigh. He landed about 200 yards from the damaged machine, the pilot of which climbed onto Lt. McNamara’s machine, and an attempt was made to rise. Owing, however, to his disabled leg, Lt. McNamara was unable to keep his machine straight, and it turned over. The two officers, having extricated themselves, immediately set fire to the machine and made their way across to the damaged machine, which they succeeded in starting. Finally Lt. McNamara, although weak from loss of blood, flew this machine back to the aerodrome, a distance of seventy miles, and thus completed his comrade’s rescue. The drama of this brave episode is not entirely captured by the citation. McNamara and his wing man were flying Martinsydes armed with bombs made from converted artillery shells. One of these bombs detonated prematurely as he was trying to bomb a train badly damaging his aircraft and injuring him in the right thigh. As he climbed out from the attack he noticed that one of the BE2cs that they had been escorting was on the ground with Turkish cavalry approaching who were known to pay little attention to the concept of prisoners of war. Having crashed trying to get airborne with his fellow pilot sitting on the wing of his Martinsyde, McNamara then extracted himself from the cockpit and got back to the BE2 by which time the cavalry were in rifle range. The BE had been damaged during the bombing runs and the subsequent emergency landing – bracing wires broken, a tyre had come off, and a drum of Lewis gun ammunition wedged under the rudder bar. Those of you who have witnessed more recent attempts to start a BE in a hurry without any distractions will be aware of what a lottery it is. However, McNamara not only got the badly damaged back in the air but then flew it for over an hour back to base and landed safely. His ordeal was not over as he then nearly died when he got back from a reaction to a hastily administered tetanus jab and he got burned when attempts to revive his circulation using preheated bricks touched his bare skin. He survived the War and went on to serve with distinction in WW2 retiring in 1946.

  • Sergeant Thomas Mottershead VC RFC

    For most conspicuous bravery, endurance and skill, when attacked at an altitude of 9,000 feet; the petrol tank was pierced and the machine set on fire. Enveloped in flames, which his Observer, Lt. Gower was unable to subdue, this very gallant soldier succeeded in bringing his aeroplane back to our lines, and though he made a successful landing, the machine collapsed on touching the ground, pinning him beneath wreckage from which he was subsequently rescued. Though suffering extreme torture from burns, Sgt. Mottershead showed the most conspicuous presence of mind in the careful selection of a landing place, and his wonderful endurance and fortitude undoubtedly saved the life of his Observer. He has since succumbed to his injuries. No. 29937″. The London Gazette (Supplement). 9 February 1917. p. 1445. On 7 January 1917, Acting Flight Sergeant Thomas Mottershead was on patrol near Armentieres in FE2d of No 20 Squadron. He had just returned from leave and had to contend with a late change of aircraft delaying his departure. Once on patrol at 10000 ft, he and his wingman met a pair of Albatros (DIII). Having despatched one Albatros, the other flown by Vizefeldwebel Walter Gottsch opened fire from below and behind Mottershead’s FE2d and set the fuel tank on fire quickly setting the clothing of the unfortunate pilot alight – every pilot’s nightmare. Already a holder of the Distinguished Conduct medal for destroying an ammunition train and an Eindecker in one sortie in November 1916 while flying an FE2b, Mottershead was the only non-commissioned officer to be awarded the Victoria Cross for valour in the air.

  • Albatros G-WAHT displays at Stow Maries

    The skies over Essex last Sunday reverberated to the sound of WW1 Aviation Heritage Trust’s Albatros taking to the skies in mock combat with the Trusts Nieuport 17. The Albatros was flown by JeanMichel Munn and the Nieuport by its owner John Gilbert

About WW1AHT

WW1 Aviation Heritage Trust Ltd

We intend to provide an enduring flying collection of World War I Allied and German aircraft based in the UK flying from heritage sites like Stow Maries Great War Aerodrome.

Company No 8753767

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info@ww1aht.co.uk
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With thanks to Darren Harbar, Huw Hopkins, Leigh Smith and Russell Savory for their magnificent photographs

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