YOUR AAA GUIDE TO THE SKYFAME AIRCRAFT STORY: AN OFFICIAL GUIDE TO THE SKYFAME AIRCRAFT MUSEUM
Prix régulier 20,00 € TTC 6%
Characteristics
| Book cover finish | Stapled |
| Condition | Used very good |
| Number of pages | 26 |
| Published date | 1976 |
| Language | English |
| Compiled by | GEOFFREY BODY, M.C.I.T., A.M.I.T.A. |
| Editor | An Avon Anglia Production |
Description
EXTRACT FROM « HISTORY »
The Skyfame Aircraft Museum differs from other aviation collections in Great Britain not only because it was the first but because it was formed to save specific examples of famous British aircraft of the Second World War at a time when these were doomed by the absence of any official preservation plan. At the time, back in the 1950s, there were many aircraft worthy of preservation but few people with the interest and foresight to grasp the opportunities while they existed. One notable personality who was interested was Air Chief Marshal Sir Philip Joubert. He supported Peter Thomas, the director of the eventual museum, in his successful campaign to save a Short Sunderland flying boat and suggested that he should think about the possibility of forming Britain's first purely aeronautical museum.
After the Sunderland, obtained from the French Navy, arrived at Pembroke Dock in March 1961, Peter Thomas turned his attention to the museum project which he had decided to call Skyfame as a tribute to his fellow fliers of the British Commonwealth Air Forces and, in particular, to his eldest brother Desmond Thomas who had been killed in action in July 1941. The aim was to find, acquire and put on display famous wartime aircraft like the Avro Anson, mainstay of Coastal Command at the start of the war and trainer of most of the Commonwealth aircrews later on. Then there was the Airspeed Oxford, Neville Shute's masterpiece. While the Anson trained the crews, the Oxford won more pilots their wings than any other aircraft in the Royal Air Force had ever done before or is likely to do again.
The first aircraft to be saved by the new project was a De Havilland Mosquito. The outstanding aircraft of the war, the "Wooden Wonder" did every job and did it remarkably well. Official plans for the retirement of the type condemned them to fire practice but Skyfame guaranteed a home for one of the ex-RAF versions a year before they ceased flying.
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