Last weekend’s remembrance commemorations were the culmination of a year of events which aimed to mark the centenary of the beginning of the first World War – the war to end all wars. The horrors of this conflict both captivate and petrify in equal measure, but it has been quite sobering to see how people continue to mark the sacrifices of the Great War fallen with great respect and genuine emotion. High above the horrors of trench warfare, a new kind of war was being waged, with just as much ferocity as on the ground and with equally high percentage attrition rates. For some reason though, these combatants were viewed as almost conducting a chivalrous war and the phenomenon of celebrity pilots began to grip the populations of the opposing nations. There was no doubting that aerial warfare was gaining in importance, from a strategic military perspective and it would continue to dominate the battlefield from this point forwards.
The Great Air War – The Remaining Few
The magnificent aircraft which gave birth to aerial warfare as we know it today, are very rare birds indeed. The vast majority of these rather fragile machines were destroyed, or simply rotted away through the passage time and very few genuine WWI aircraft remain in existence. The ones that we can still see are usually beautifully manufactured replica aircraft, which certainly help to give us a tantalising glimpse into this fascinating era of aviation, but very few aircraft in the world can claim to have genuine wartime provenance. Recent research conducted by the National Archives, has proved the Great War credentials of a very rare aircraft indeed and I was lucky enough to spend some quality time with it, earlier this year. The picture above was taken at Old Warden, in September this year, where the magnificent aircraft of The Shuttleworth Collection can be viewed and experienced. This living, breathing aerodrome really is something of a national aviation treasure. A visit there will allow you to view some very rare aircraft indeed, which not only make themselves available for close inspection, but also take to the sky at regularly organised events, doing just what they were designed to do – a truly unique venue. One such aircraft is this Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a, which is a fitting and authentic tribute to the Great Air War.
Shuttleworth SE5a F904 – Great War Survivor
As the German Air Service began to take control of the skies over the Great War battlefields, an urgent request to develop a new and dominant fighter was raised by the Royal Flying Corps. Importantly, as well as being better than anything available to the Germans, the aircraft had to be easy to fly, so that a novice pilot could handle the aircraft effectively in a combat situation. The resultant aircraft was known as the Royal Aircraft Factory Scout Experimental 5 (SE5), with the later ‘a’ versions being upgraded versions of this initial production design. The original aircraft were certainly a marked improvement on existing designs, but they suffered from a lack of power, which quickly had to be addressed – the much more effective SE5a model was significant in regaining control of the air for the Allies once more, which is why most references to this famous aircraft include the ‘a’.
The Shuttleworth Collection’s SE5a fighter carries the serial number F904 and was built by Wolseley Motors Ltd, towards the end of World War One. It was issued to No.84 Squadron Royal Air Force in November 1918, but until recently, it was thought that the aircraft did not actually see combat. Following meticulous research work undertaken by The National Archives, it has now been confirmed that SE5a F904 saw action in France on 10th November 1918 – just one day before the Armistice. On this day, the aircraft was being flown by RAF ace Major Charles Pickthorn (MC), when he engaged a German Fokker DVII, east of Chimay, in Belgium. Pickthorn successfully shot down the Fokker and with it, claiming his fifth and final victory of the war. This information is of huge interest to the aviation enthusiast and adds even more importance to the magnificent collection of aircraft, housed at the Old Warden aerodrome. This already famous and extremely rare aircraft is a genuine Great War combat veteran and with it, surely becoming one of the most important historic aircraft anywhere in the world.
The Shuttleworth Collection obtained their SE5a in 1955, when it was discovered in the old Armstrong Whitworth factory, near Coventry. It was in such a poor state, that the restoration work would have been beyond the capabilities of the Shuttleworth team at that time, so the Royal Aircraft Establishment agreed to restore the aircraft on their behalf and the work was completed by the end of 1959. During the restoration, the RAE installed an Hispano-Suiza engine in the aircraft, which they sourced from the Science Museum, as they were unable to access a Wolseley Viper engine, which would have been originally fitted to the aircraft when it was manufactured. During subsequent work on the aircraft, a Wolseley Viper was sourced and fitted, bringing Royal Aircraft Factory SE5a F904 to its original specification. She is a wonderfully historic aircraft and serves to commemorate the pilots of the Great Air War with glorious authenticity.
World War 1 Aviation for the die-cast collector
There can be no doubting that some of the most popular die-cast aviation models in our hobby, mark the introduction of the aeroplane as a weapon of war. The Corgi 1/48th scale range of WW1 fighters are not only some of the most heavily collected models in their range, but they also occupy quite an important place in the history of the hobby itself. These models were highly advanced, when they first appeared in 2007, with their fully rigged construction challenging the boundaries of manufacturing techniques available at this time, with the larger 1/48th scale being chosen due to the diminutive nature of these early aircraft. As we now know, 1/48th scale was the ideal choice for these magnificent models and it is rather surprising that Corgi did not follow these up with more releases in this larger scale, specifically utilising WWII subject matter. The evidence was certainly there, as these Great War beauties began to sell in large numbers, both here in the UK and in America, as the unique profiles and beautiful colours of these aircraft began to captivate collectors both new and established.
The Secondary Market – A die-cast world of pain!
As many of these magnificent models have long since sold out at retail outlets, the Corgi WWI aircraft have become some of the most sought after models in our hobby, with collectors who have them feeling extremely fortunate and those without coveting them avariciously. As a consequence, the only way to find one of these earlier releases now, is to delve into the murky waters of the secondary market and the highly inflated prices associated with it. In recent times, we have seen the prices for Corgi WWI fighters increase steadily, as they become much more difficult to locate and with few new models listed for impending release, this situation really does not look like altering any time soon. In fact, we only hold stocks of TWO Corgi WWI fighters and these are in extremely short supply indeed – when they have gone, they will have gone for good. Our feature regarding the Shuttleworth SE5a obviously featured the SE5a and a Fokker DVII and these are the two aircraft types that we have available.
The Last of our Great War Fighters
In support of this week’s feature and by way of a Special Offer on our last remaining WWI aircraft models, we are making the last few models we have in stock available POST FREE TO UK MAINLAND POSTAL ADDRESSES. This magnificent offer will see us cleared out of these superb models for the final time and it is a great opportunity to shore up your WWI collections, before they are only available on the secondary market. With just a handful of each model still remaining, time is certainly of the essence with this offer and you will need to act quickly. The models will be allocated on a ‘first to order’ basis and even though your automatic order confirmation will still show the postage element of the order, this will be manually adjusted down at the time of processing the order and the postage amount will be removed. For collectors choosing to pay using Paypal, the postage element of the order will be refunded to your account at the time of processing your order. Finally, in order to be fair to our international collectors, we will reduce the postage price of any order for one of these models by £5.00 at the time of processing, in the manner described above. We really do only have a handful of models remaining, so please do not delay with this fantastic offer.
Die-cast Collector – BAe Hawk 40 Feature Published
It is with some pride that I inform Flying Tigers Newsletter readers that I have had one of my articles published in the current edition of Diecast Collector magazine, which is the UK’s No.1 model magazine. The three page feature was in connection with the recent 40th anniversary of the British Aerospace Hawk and importantly, how the aircraft had been represented in the Die-cast aviation world. Although I have had a number of previous articles published, this one was particularly special, as I think it marks an exciting development for the die-cast aviation collector. I have always been of the view that our particular interest in die-cast collecting has been really poorly represented in enthusiast magazines in the past and I know of quite a number of previous subscribers who let their memberships lapse, due to the poor representation of aviation subject matter in print. Thankfully, this looks like being addressed, as the current editor of the magazine is very much an aviation enthusiast and we are already beginning to see very positive results and much more aviation content than in previous years. The latest edition is in the shops now and if you decide to buy a copy, I hope that you enjoy the Hawk feature. If you are struggling to find a copy locally, the link to the magazine sale site IS HERE!
Century Wings Clear-out – Time to get serious!
It has been a couple of weeks now since we made the announcement regarding the future of Flying Tigers and after a short period of reflection, it is now time to get on with the job of moving forwards. We have a warehouse full of superb models that we need collectors to find new homes for and this weekend is the first time that we get serious about the project. As usual, all our prices will be discounted, but this weekend, we are doing something really special – HALF PRICE ON ALL OUR REMAINING CENTURY WINGS STOCK! These models enjoy such a fantastic reputation within the die-cast aviation hobby, that they are always extremely popular with the collector and they are difficult to keep in stock. As a consequence, we only have small numbers of these beautiful models still available – in the main, two’s and three’s, with the greatest stock just seven models. Unfortunately, the quality and popularity of these models has seen the price increase steadily over the years, to a point where most are well over £100.00 each, when they are first released. This is where our offer comes in – you can secure some of the best quality modern jet models in our hobby for just a fraction of the usual price and in most cases, at a discount of up to 50% off retail price. We have added all the available models to our OFFER OF THE WEEK section, so you can see them all together in the same area of the web-store, but numbers are extremely limited, so please act quickly if one of the models takes your fancy. As we expect the website to be extremely busy over the weekend, we will allocate available models to the first collector to place their orders, so please jump in quickly, if we have managed to tempt you. I will leave you with this beautiful picture of the stunning F-8E Crusader – ‘The last of the Gunfighters’. This machine is from US Navy VF-162 ‘Hunters’, which operated from USS Oriskany, during 1966. We only have TWO examples of this fantastic model available!