Review - The Shuttleworth Collection, based at the all grass Old Warden Aerodrome in Bedfordshire, UK, held its original Flying Proms evening airshow on 14 August.

The event, now in its seventh year, sets the displaying aircraft to live classical music from an orchestra and is described by the Collection as the “quintessential summer evening.”

Highlights of the show included the 1910 Bristol Boxkite and 1911 Avro Triplane flying to the music from the film Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines, the two aircraft being replicas actually used in the film when it was made in 1965. 

Both aircraft have been recently overhauled, the Boxkite being recovered with a man made synthetic material that lasts longer, and is stronger, than the original organic Irish linen.  This alone has made the aircraft 70lbs lighter.

Old Warden Park is owned by the Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth Remembrance Trust.  The Trust was founded in 1944 by Dorothy Shuttleworth after her son Richard was killed in a flying accident in the RAF in 1940.  The Collection first opened to the public in 1963 and now, seven full time engineers look after a fleet of 47 airframes.  These aircraft, many from the Edwardian era of aviation, regularly delight crowds from across the globe with unique air displays every summer, with visitors this year benefiting from a new £300,000 visitor centre opened in April. 

back to airshow photographs from 2004