Hood Aerodrome — the next airshow

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

[Kiwithrottlejockey]

On three wings and a prayer

By JAMIE MORTON - Wairarapa Times-Age | Monday, 11 January 2010



HAPPY LANDINGS: Pilots (from left) John Lanham of Wellington and
John Bargh of Martinborough have a post-flight debriefing after taking
up The Vintage Aviator's newly built Sopwith Triplane — one of three
previously unseen aircraft to debut at a Masterton air show this month.
— Photo: JAMIE MORTON/Wairarapa Times-Age.

Wairarapa aviation fans will be in for a triple treat next Saturday, when The Vintage Aviator will debut a trio of never-before-seen World War 1 flying machines.

The group's Joyous Noel air display at Hood Aerodrome on January 23 will mark the public premiere of a British Sopwith triplane, a German D5 Albatros fighter and the latest product — a British BE.2c biplane.

Show organiser Sara Randle said the show would commemorate an interlude of humanity in the early stages of World War 1, when opposing German and Allied soldiers climbed out of their trenches to celebrate Christmas together.

"There were many instances of chivalry during that early era of the war. For example, in a dogfight a pilot might have let his opponent go if he ran out of ammo."

It was also in the early years of the war that the British Royal Flying Corps began sending BE.2 biplanes into battle.

Ms Randle said these planes, initially designed to fly steady and mount cameras on, had a controversial reputation for being vulnerable in dogfights.

The British dubbed the plane "Fokker Fodder", due to its inferiority to the German Fokker fighters, while Germans nicknamed it "Kaltes Fleisch", or "cold flesh".

British ace fighter Albert Ball also summed the BE.2 up as "a bloody awful aeroplane".

The aircraft was eventually removed from service after famed British aviator Noel Pemberton Billing attacked it and the Royal Aircraft Factory by announcing in the House of Commons on March 21, 1916, that RFC pilots flying it in France were being "rather murdered than killed".

The Vintage Aviator project manager Gene De Marco said the BE.2c, which bears a Union Jack beneath its wings, was built in secret from original designs over two years.

It first flew on November 06 and houses an 80hp original Renault engine.

The BE.2c joins the later-model BE.2f as well as another of the company's recent unique creations — an FE.2b bomber — in The Vintage Aviator's fleet of rare fighters at the aerodrome.

The Joyeous Noel air show will be held from 4.30pm-7pm next Saturday, with gates opening at 1pm. Steam traction rides and other entertainment will also be running on the day from 3pm.

www.times-age.co.nz/local/news/on-three-wings-and-a-prayer/3908536