Into the blue...

Geoff Wheeler has written to us with an amusing account of a flying incident that happened over Old Warden in approximately 1935. It was related to him by a Shuttleworth mechanic some years ago and Memory Lane is delighted to publish his account here.

Richard E Shuttleworth was a well-known pre-war racing driver.

As a member of a very rich family, he was able to indulge this pastime when there were little or no sponsorships and many cars and drivers were privately financed.

Shuttleworth also had a well-known passion for flying and his collection of vintage aircraft and cars is now housed at the Shuttleworth Collection Museum in Old Warden.

Money seemed to be no problem and if ‘Dicky’ saw an aircraft he liked, he would try to buy it regardless of cost.

One such aircraft was the Comper Swift monoplane which appealed to him in spite of its rather unattractive appearance.

(His attraction was no doubt because it was one of the fastest planes of its day due to it being both small and lightweight, with a top speed of around 100mph.)

Several of these were located at Hanworth Aerodrome and Shuttleworth bought them and ferried them to Biggleswade.

He did not like their rather dingy appearance however, and decided to repaint them blue.

One of the Swifts had a passenger seat and a ‘cubby hole’ was available behind the passenger for travel items etc.

This was fitted with a lid rather like an old fashioned trunk, complete with security catch.

So in the passage of time, Dicky and his mechanic beetled off to collect a five gallon drum of blue dope.On the way back to Biggleswade, the weather closed in and things became rather dicey.

Luckily a hole suddenly appeared in the clouds exactly over the airfield. As the aircraft banked towards the runway, the can of dope rolled against the cubby hole lid and broke free.

It plummeted to the ground and landed on the veranda of a house beneath.

A baby in a pram fortunately escaped the full effect of the blue burst, only being slightly spattered.

But the veranda itself must have been a pretty sight!

There is apparently no mention of this incident in Richard Shuttleworth’s autobiography, of which Geoff has a copy.