Nearly 100 years of reaching for the sky

Significant anniversary coming up - the British aircraft industry turns 100 in just over a year. The Avro Triplane was the first British designed and built aircraft to fly in Britain in July 1909 - I mentioned seeing a replica in a museum in Manchester recently. There are some rather spiffing aerial photos of the Shuttleworth Collection's flying replica here. According to what I read on the web, the replica is performing rather better than the original, which apparently managed a flight of 900 feet at an average height of 10 feet. The original aircraft is in the London Science Museum.

It's a century which has seen the UK produce some aircraft in huge numbers, such as the Spitfire (over 22,000 produced), Hurricane, Wellington and Anson (all with production runs of over 10,000) and some significant firsts, such as the Alcock and Brown's Atlantic crossing, the Comet, the World's first jet airliner and collaboration with the French on Concorde. The UK has also held some air speed records, (George Spratt in an SE4 in 1914, George Stainforth in the Supermarine S6B in 1931, a couple of chaps in Gloster Meteors in 1945 & 46, Neville Duke in a Hawker Hunter in 1953 and Peter Twiss in his Fairey Delta 2 in 1956.

Maybe it's been a story of decline since - consolidation of manufacturers, no British-owned companies making airliners any more, but the UK is still involved in the industry, albeit often as part of international projects and we've got a proud heritage of innovation and boffinry to look back on. Chocks away, chaps!