Individual of the Year

TIM POWELL

Tim Powell has been the key person in the creation and development of the Aviation and Aerospace Archives Initiative (AAAI).

After a librarian from the Royal Aeronautical Society said to Tim, it is strange that nobody from aero archives talks to each other, he used his contacts to unite volunteer and professionally run archives and groups to mutually support each other.

His continuing work has led to events where the community have come together, the publishing of practical advice for all that care for archives and to bring together and make available information on where all can find aviation’s written heritage.

So far AAAI has created databases of the archives of UK aircraft manufacturers and UK airlines, and is now gathering data on the UK aero-engine manufacturers.

Tim was presented with his award by Martin Withers.

Museum/Group of the Year

THE AEROPLANE COLLECTION

The Aeroplane Collection’s impressive restoration at Hooton Park of Miles M.38 Messenger Mk.2A G-AHUI, expertly led by Ian Maddock and assisted by Steve Poole and others was declared to be 'finished for the moment' by 18^th November 2023 and is believed to be the first example of a Messenger to go on current public display in a UK museum.

Although missing its ‘outer wings’ as the original one-piece 36 foot/11 metre span wing was cut into three years ago, this 1946 Newtownards-built aeroplane last flew in 1957 and after storage by various preservation organisations, was donated to TAC by The Miles Aircraft Collection in 2002.

Together with TAC’s recent acquisitions of Percival Proctor IV RM169/G-AMVY, Miles M.65 Gemini 1A G-AKEN (donated by Peter Turner) and The Hooton Park Trust’s Comper Swift G-ACGL (delivered on 16/09/2024 on loan from the RAF Museum), this project now enables TAC and Hooton Park to have this country’s best and largest collection of British light aircraft after The Shuttleworth Collection.

Lloyd Robinson, on behalf of TAC, was presented with the award by Martin Withers

The Robert Pleming Memorial Award for Innovation

DOUGIE KERR & THE SOLWAY AVIATION MUSEUM

Without a doubt, the headline-grabbing heritage project of the year has been the Solway Aviation Museum’s rescue of the last surviving Blackburn Beverley, XB259.

The story of how this now-unique aircraft’s history as it went from display at Brough to seeming safety at Fort Paull to apparent rescue to renewed jeopardy to final salvation is has kept us all on edge.

The audacious final rescue by Solway Aviation Museum, led by the redoubtable Dougie Kerr, has given the Beverley a chance of survival that few would have dared to believe in a year ago.

Dougie has been Chairman of the Solway Aviation Museum for a number of years and in that time has led the team to improve the Museum year on year.

This alone has been considerable achievement on its own, but in the last year has spearheaded the museum being able to raise funds and save the last Blackburn Beverley.

This project would definitely not have happened without his leadership.

It was his idea to bid for the aircraft and then he was at the forefront of the fundraising – an initiative which raised over £70,000 plus help in kind with transport etc which made the whole venture possible.

He then spent five weeks living in a caravan on site at Fort Paull, leading a small team dismantling the aircraft..

With the Beverley safely installed at Solway, and work proceeding apace on its restoration and re-assembly, the Exec Committee was unanimous in its view that Dougie and his team deserved the recognition reflected in the presentation to them of the 2024 Robert Pleming Memorial Award.

Dougie was presented with the award by Martin Withers.

Lifetime Achievement Awards

AHUK Lifetime Achievement Awards for 2024 have been made to:

KEITH MADDOCK  Keith was one of the founding volunteers of the Spitfire Display Team, joining in 2009.  Keith has spent a lifetime of researching aviation and telling the stories of wartime air combat to audiences across the UK.  A former armourer for the WW2 re-enactment movement, Keith is also well known at most of the UK’s military shows.  Since 2015 Keith has become the lead volunteer for welcoming visiting air cadet and youth groups, also leading on “group tours” for aviation and car groups, where his wealth of information and enthusiastic content has opened up the achievements of WW2 aircrews to many a new admirer.  A former engineer, Keith has been the lead restorer of our mark ix Spitfire (replica) “Lucy” spending thousands of hours restoring her with original parts.  His energy and commitment over the years cannot be overstated.Keith studied as a Vehicle mechanic when leaving School, when mechanics were on the tools and not the laptop.  He often reminisces about the Ford Cortina, Anglias and Princesses he worked on back in the day.

He later moved to TVR motors who has their production plant in Blackpool, where Keith progressed through the ranks and became the Quality Control lead Engineer, test driving the TVR’s that rolled of the production line, at the same time being involved with the TVR race team.  Keiths last Engineering post was within the Arvin Meritor Exhaust systems factory, located in the former Vickers Wellinton production building, locate on Squires Gate in Blackpool.  Keith was in charge of the welding team and was again tasked with the responsibility of quality control on the catalytic systems that were being produced at Squires Gate, in those days, the Vickers factory was still in its wartime configuration, it even had a scale model of a Wellington hanging from the factory rafters!.  Keith loved it!

Keith joined the Air Cadets in his School years, influenced by his Fathers wartime role in the Raf as a groundcrewman.  Keith has always been fascinated by Aviation and the science of flight and his thirst for knowledge saw him as a regular visitor on the UK’s Airshow Circuit, along with his wife Sylvia and would have been well known by Pilots and ground support staff alike.  In his 40’s Keith also became a reenactor and Armourer within the WW2 Reenactment community, preparing battle scenes for public events and overseeing weapon control and safety at WW2 shows across the North of England.  His attention to detail and thirst for knowledge to ensure that equipment, uniforms and reenactments alsike were as accurate as possible, made him the “go to person” for many organisations.

Keith had heard about John Coombes’ purchase of the former 610 Squadron Association Gate Guardian, which had been stored at Hooton Park on the Wirral.  On formation of the Lytham St Annes Spitfire Ground Display Team, I put out the word that I needed to recruit some engineers and model makers.  Keith with his engineering background and his love of scale model building was the first to respond, using his skills as a mechanic, welder and model maker to rebuild and equip our Mark IX Spitfire “Lucy”.  This is a role he continues to this date, with the recent edition of maintaining and upgrading our collections latest arrival, the replica Bf109e to his tasks.

In 2018 Keith also became a member of the Huey 101 Ground Support Team, providing ground support and engineering assistance to this Vietnam era Huey, getting the opportunity to fly at the side door on regular pleasure flights.

JOHN COOMBES  John was born in Lytham St Annes and always had an interest in aviation. Upon leaving school John joined the Army Air Corp and served with 4 Regiment in Germany from 1984 to 1989. On leaving the army John worked in Saudi Arabia for BAE Systems and was based at Riyahd during the Iraq invasion of Kuwait and was awarded the Gulf Medal for Services to the AL Yamamah contract during operation Desert Shield.

John kept his interest in aviation and also in the fact that during ww2 Fylde residents raised over £6,000 to purchase a Spitfire for the RAF one of many funded by towns and villages across the UK/There was an aim to commemorate this action by the community and in June 2009 John became chairman of the Fylde Spitfire memorial fund. A group of volunteers involved in the fund raising and construction of a memorial at the Fairhaven Lake in Fylde. This project with John in the lead raised over £80,000 and in 2012 their goal was reached with the unveiling of a Spitfire mounted on a plinth forming the memorial.

John did not stop there and with further work using a replica Spitfire doing further fundraising as the Lytham Spitfire display team toured the country and film sets to keep the memory alive of the brave men and women during ww2.

In 2015 under Johns leader ship they moved into Hangar 42 an old ww2 hangar at Blackpool airport and started to create a visitor centre . Today under Johns leadership the centre boasts two Spitfire replicas with fully detailed cockpits a Hawker Hurricane and is now also the home to the Saving Amy Airspeed Oxford Project. and an active 20 plus volunteers. And many items on display telling of the involvement of the North West during ww2.

ROSS SHARP  Former Assistant Keeper, Aviation for Leicestershire Museums, Art Galleries and Records Service and former Curator of East Midlands Airport Aeropark, Ross has also worked with the National Museum of Science and Industry, overseeing Wroughton Airfield, the home of the National Air Transport Collection. He has served as Deputy Airshow Co-ordinator at RAF Finningley and Waddington. While at Farnborough, Ross took up the post as Flying Services Manager for the Society of British Aerospace Companies. He has been a member of the Executive Committee of the British Aircraft Preservation Council, a member of the National Committee of the Air Education & Recreation Organisation, and a member of both the Technical and General Aviation Committees of the UK Airport Operator’s Association. Now Chief Engineering Officer of The People’s Mosquito project, Ross is also one of the world’s leading authorities on the Mosquito!

CHARLIE FRASER-FLEMING, FINLEGH GORDON, LAURENCE PESKETT  In 1992 it was announced that the original Royal Aircraft Factory site at Farnborough, occupied since 1908, and later the Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE) was to be closed down and sold. Part of the site was to be moved to the existing Ball Hill Site on the western side of the airfield. This would involve demolishing most of the historical large scientific & engineering structures like the many wind tunnels.

At that time, working in Q153 building on a Chinook project was Finlegh Gordon, an RAF Harrier pilot who took a dim view of the potential losses of enormous historical aviation significance. He, and his friend Laurence Peskett -  a designer & architect -  managed to gain access to the threatened 24 ft wind-tunnel, were much impressed, and agreed that something must be done to save this and other architecturally/engineering significant buildings. They enlisted the help of Charlie Fraser-Fleming who was prominent in local government and a history enthusiast (with a wide range of contacts) and it was these three who sparked into life through hard work and a list of influenceial contacts the formation of a Charitable Trust to house their ambitions. This was entitled Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST)

When FAST was formed in November 1993 its focus was to save firstly Farnborough's historic Main Factory Site from wholesale demolition.  It seemed then that the nation and the world was about to lose an important piece of aviation heritage. The subsequent aim was to save and archive the full remaining scientific & engineering records from RAE.

After substantial in-fighting with the MoD and the owners & developers of the  newly purchased site – both of whom wished for full scale demolition -  and by raising considerable help from several national preservation organisations resulted in six buildings, including four major wind tunnels being listed by English Heritage, two at the highest Grade 1 levels. The site owners subsequently were persuaded to see the light and restored the external fabric of the buildings at a cost of many millions of pounds, and re-erected, as a result of a FAST initiative, the unique 1910 airship hangar.

Later FAST negotiated the lease of the 1910/11 Balloon School building, listed Grade 2* as their Museum, Archive and HQ and this survives today.

If this process had not been successfully fought for, the loss of a significant part of the history of UK aviation heritage would have been lost forever

IAN THIRSK  Ian Thirsk retired from the RAF Museum Hendon staff in 2021 after working there for 32 years. Initially specialising in the museum’s film archives before later becoming its Head of Collections, his most significant achievement was co-ordinating the amazing recovery of the sole-surviving Dornier Do 17 from the English Channel in 2013.

Ian has also now been volunteering at the de Havilland Aircraft Museum for well over 40 years and is a leading authority on the Mosquito having written extensively about the type, been actively involved in the DHAM’s restoration of the prototype and two production aircraft as well as supporting other surviving examples worldwide.

TONY AGAR  Tony Agar has made a hugely significant contribution to historic aircraft preservation in the UK. Over a fifty-year period of steadfast determination, this unassuming and highly modest individual has created a taxying example of the de Havilland Mosquito NF Mk. II. Tony’s project began in 1969 with the acquisition of a Mosquito cockpit section and has grown to encompass components from a variety of original aircraft. Today the completed aircraft is an integral part of the Lincolnshire Aviation Heritage Centre where it regularly performs taxying demonstrations, inspiring visitors on a regular basis.