WW1 Aviation Heritage Trust

We exist solely to keep the Aviation Legacy of World War 1 alive!

Have WW1 Simulator with VR, Will Travel!

STEM for All Youth Organisations and Private Events

Earlier this month, the WW1 Aviation Heritage Trust rolled out its first School STEM Day at Shoreham College. It was aimed at Year 6 focussing on the history of the inventor of the Simulator in 1915, Major Lanoe Hawker VC, DSO, RFC, and D&T pupils studying his engineering concept to provide a 3-axis motion aeroplane simulator. Thus allowing the pilots to practice firing at moving targets from a moving platform on a range. Unable to rehearse in the same way for obvious reasons, the Trust has fitted a VR Game to the simulator which quickly brings home all the challenges of early flight not to mention combat in such frail machines.

For schools, we can provide a programme integrating flying missions with briefings on WW1 aviation history and the charismatic legend that was Major Hawker – a man with incredible engineering and flying skills as well as an inspirational leader. If you would like to know more contact Dick Forsythe (dick.forsythe@ww1aviationheritagetrust.co.uk or 0870 9191914)

All this has only been possible through the generous grants provided to WW1 AHT by the DCMS through the NLHF during the pandemic lockdown.

Recent Posts
  • Poetry Plane 2025 – The Planes

    The Poetry Plane is about Remembrance – Lest We Forget. Children from around the World will be writing poems in recognition of the sacrifice of the Great War, The poem papers will be seeded with  Memorial Flowers – the Poppy, the Cornflower and the Forget-Me-Not. We will be making 3 drops of poems written by children from around the World on 1 July 2025 at the Great War Somme Commemorations at Lochnagar Crater and Thiepval Memorial and at the Kiwi Memorial in Le Quesnoy.  We also hope to drop poems at the Remembrance Service at the UK National Memorial Arboretum on 9 November 2025. I will be explaining the Plan, the Planes, the People and your Part in the Programme over the next 3 months.  Help us build a network to pass the word on. We seek to make the Poetry Plane an annual global act of Remembrance. The Planes – Under this Section we will be assessing the DH9’s contribution in 1918 and explaining how the current DH9 was recovered from a stable in India. We will explore the wartime adventures of Tiger Moth DE 745 and its history since then.  We will explain the challenges of getting clearance for either aircraft to drop articles at the commemorations in France and look at the proposed transit route and basing for the aircraft to conduct the drops on 1 July 2025. Want to know more? Want to join in? https://ww1aviationheritagetrust.co.uk/index.php/ww1-poetry-registration/ Buy Poem Paper? https://roamwildproducts.co.uk/collections/seeded-paper/products/roamwild-seeded-paper Download Lesson Plan, Video and Slideshow? https://ww1aviationheritagetrust.co.uk/index.php/poetry-temporary-landing-page/ Help us fund the Programme https://wwoneaviationheritage.enthuse.com/cf the-poetry-plane-2025 The Plan The PoemsThe PoppyLe BleuetThe Forget-Me-NotLochnagarThiepvalLe QuesnoyThe PlanesDH9 – 1918DH9 – 2025Tiger Moth – 1943Tiger Moth – 2025The ClearancesThe TransitThe PeopleClive DenneyWillie HarrisonThe TwinsCeline PlantainSally CrabtreeDick ForsytheJean-Philippe FromentYour PartFranceBritainGermanyAustraliaNZCanadaUSA

  • Poetry Plane 2025 – The Plan

    The Poetry Plane is about Remembrance – Lest We Forget. Children from around the World will be writing poems in recognition of the sacrifice of the Great War, The poem papers will be seeded with  Memorial Flowers – the Poppy, the Cornflower and the Forget-Me-Not. We will be making 3 drops of poems written by children from around the World on 1 July 2025 at the Great War Somme Commemorations at Lochnagar Crater and Thiepval Memorial and at the Kiwi Memorial in Le Quesnoy.  We also hope to drop poems at the Remembrance Service at the UK National Memorial Arboretum on 9 November 2025. I will be explaining the Plan, the Planes, the People and your Part in the Programme under the headings on the right of this page over the next 3 months. Help us build a network to pass the word on. We seek to make the Poetry Plane an annual global act of Remembrance.The Plan – fly a DH9 or Tiger Moth (not WW1 but our best compromise between historical accuracy and getting the job done) to Abbeville ready for the drops on 1 July 2025 at Lochnagar 0755, Thiepval 1150, and Le Quesnoy Kiwi Memorial 1630 – all time local.Want to know more? Want to join in?https://ww1aviationheritagetrust.co.uk/index.php/ww1-poetry-registration/Buy Poem Paper?https://roamwildproducts.co.uk/collections/seeded-paper/products/roamwild-seeded-paperDownload Lesson Plan, Video and Slideshow?https://ww1aviationheritagetrust.co.uk/index.php/poetry-temporary-landing-page/Help us fund the Programmehttps://wwoneaviationheritage.enthuse.com/cf the-poetry-plane-2025 The PlanThe PoemsThe PoppyLe BleuetThe Forget-Me-NotLochnagarThiepvalLe QuesnoyThe PlanesDH9 – 1918DH9 – 2025Tiger Moth – 1943Tiger Moth – 2025The ClearancesThe TransitThe PeopleClive DenneyWillie HarrisonThe TwinsCeline PlantainSally CrabtreeDick ForsytheJean-Philippe FromentYour PartFranceBritainGermanyAustraliaNZCanadaUSA

  • Send Your Poems to the Battlefields in our Plane

    Write your WW1 poems on paper seeded with memorial flowers. Join the 2500 other children that have already done so. See your thoughts grow into flowers on the battlefields where so many soldiers died. WW1 Poetry Registration (ww1aviationheritagetrust.co.uk)

  • Essex Primary Schools Reaching for the Sky

    The WW1 Aviation Heritage Trust together with YES Young Flyers completed their18-month journey visiting 60+ Primary Schools in Essex with the WW1AHT Simulator in July 2024 – thanks to a grant from the CAA’s Reach For the Sky Initiative.  One hundred and thirty-seven schools applied for the day visit so we hope this will become an enduring feature. We have applied for a further grant from the CAA for 2025 and 70 schools have applied for a visit. The Programme is to encourage and inform Years 5 and 6 about careers in aviation. It is important that they understand the origins of the flying machine and it how it surged into the front pages over a hundred years ago in World War 1. It is equally important that they are made aware of the sacrifice in the Great War as the subject disappears from the syllabus in English schools. SE5a Simulator This is exactly what the Trust is doing by visiting the Schools with their WW1 Flight Simulator.  The Pupils are all motivated by the prospect of a flight in a simulator designed in 1915 based on WW1 SE5a fighter with a VR game that includes all the missions available to a Scout pilot as they were known back in the day. While not in the Sim, they take part in a quiz about the life and times of the simulator’s designer, Major Lanoe Hawker VC DSO RFC, and take part in poetry writing workshop based on the Great War which culminates in each of them writing a poem on seeded paper as a part of another of WW1AHT’s initiatives – The Poetry Plane. This is a collaborative effort with the Poetry Postie, ArtConnexion, Hautmont College, Somme Tourism, Le Quesnoy Kiwi Association and the Sir John Monash Museum. Over 3500 poems were dropped from our Plane over the commemorations for the Battle of the Somme, Wilfred Owen and the Kiwi Division of Le Quesnoy on 1 Jul 2024 where they were collected and planted by those attending as an act of remembrance and reconciliation.  The British, French and German Memorial Flowers (Poppy, Cornflower, and Forget-me-Not) are the seeds in the paper. French and German children also wrote poems as part of a wider initiative to expand the Poetry Plane concept around the world. We have much bigger plans to include Australian, Canadian and US children in writing poems in 2025. The children in any country can join in. WW1AHT provide lesson plans, videos and links to the seeded paper as part of the concept. Watch out for updates on the plans for 2025 coming before Christmas . We plan to return to the Somme and Le Quesnoy on 1 Jul 2025 and hope also to deliver poems at the Remembrance Service at the UK National Memorial Arboretum in November 2025. Sam Dunne, the Headteacher at Colne Engaine Primary School, wrote after our visit: I would just like to say another big thank you for the wonderful opportunity the children had today.  The whole session was so very well organised, and the children have been talking about it all afternoon. They thoroughly enjoyed learning the history in class and then experiencing the simulator. We are full swing with some wonderful poetry too. Opportunities like today are those golden moments, moments that make children aspirational about their futures and know more about the endless opportunities there are out there for the taking. Who knows we may have another aviation enthusiast joining you or seeking out a new interest!  Thank you for bringing your knowledge and enthusiasm to our little school and of course being part of such a brilliant STEM opportunity. The poetry-writing was not restricted to Great Britain and N Ireland but children from France, Germany, Australia and New Zealand were invited to participate. We hope to expand it further in 2025. A small team of 8 WW1 AHT & YES volunteers are giving freely of their time.  Each visit involves 3 members of the Team for 6 hours on site – 1500 hours of volunteering.  The Programme would not be possible without the Twins, Ant and Ed, who drive the Simulator to each location and ensure its safe operation during each visit. If you want to know more, please contact dick.forsythe@ww1aviationheritagetrust.co.uk

  • Did you Miss It – WW1 AHT Chat Session 5-5.

    The Best Fighters of WW1 and Their Tactics On 28 Feb 2023, the WW1 AHT Pilots and Friends had their final chat session of the Winter 2033/23. The Session provides a summary of the Scout Development over the 4 years discussed by Year in the previous sessions. It also covered the tactics that evolved as the aircraft became more capable. The pace of development was set by the German Ace, Boelcke, who was the first to codify fighter tactics with his Dicta that became the byword for fighter pilots for the rest of the century. He also was major influence of the transition of the Fliegertruppe into the Luftkeitkrafte empowering German tactics to the maximum advantage. All this before his untimely death, as with his famous protégé – Richtofen, by the age of 25. Want to know more? https://ww1aviationheritagetrust.co.uk/index.php/product/the-best-fighters-of-ww1-and-their-tactics/

  • WW1 AHT Chat Session 5-5, The Best Fighters of WW1 & What Had They Learned By The End of The War

    As our Final Chat of this Winter season (22/23), the WW1 AHT pilots and friends will review the best Fighting Scouts of WW1 which cannot be done without framing the progression of aerial warfare from unarmed reconnaissance in 1914 to Wings of Fighters in mortal combat at astonishing altitudes over N France without oxygen by 1918. Join us on Tue Feb 28th at 1930 UTC to learn more. The Best Fighters of WW1 & What Had They Learned by the End of the War (ww1aviationheritagetrust.co.uk)

  • WW1 AHT Chat Session 4-5, The Fighting Scouts, 1918, A Bitter Climax

    Welcome to the 4th of five Chats on the evolution of the Scout into the fighter role that survives to this day – although the term fighter was a post-war connotation. One of the most frightening statistics is that over 2051 of the 4733 air combat casualties in N France occurred between April 1918 and the Armistice.  The WW1 AHT Pilots and Friends will chat about their experiences flying these planes. This is now only available Pay Per View

  • Did You Miss It? Chat 3-5 The Fighters of 1917

    The WW AHT Panel of Pilots from NZ and UK explored the good, bad and the ugly of both Allied and German Fighting Scouts that graced the skies over N France in 1917 from their experiences of flying them today. From the Albatros to the DH5, the Fokker DR1 to the SE5a, the Sopwith Camel to the Halberstadt and many more. Click the link to find out more

  • Chat Session 3-5, The fighting Scouts of 1917

    This is the third of our monthly chat sessions where we have been discussing the evolution of the Scout aeroplane as a fighter aircraft year by year with our pilots and their friends that fly them today. 1917 was a crucial year for the development of fighter tactics setting some of the primary principles that survive to this day. If you would like to to learn more join us for our Christmas Special at the link below. All proceeds go to help us keep our aeroplanes flying. To join the meeting, find the instructions in your My Account/Orders on our website once you have paid. Tue 20th December 2022, 1930 UTC

  • Chat 2-5, 1916 Scout (Fighter) Development, The Stuff of Legends

    Join us on Thur 17th November 2022 at 1930 UTC Want To Know More Fokker DIV

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

Registered Charity No 1156699

Contact:

+44 870 9191914
info@ww1aht.co.uk
rockingnacelle@ww1aht.co.uk

Photography

With thanks to Darren Harbar, Huw Hopkins, Leigh Smith and Russell Savory for their magnificent photographs

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Affiliated Organisations

Art Connexion
Yes Flyers | UK Youth Aviation Education
Sally Crabtree – Poetry Postie, Pushing the Envelope of Poetry

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