Pilots commemorate iconic 1934 air race

Small planes are taking to the skies above the Cotswolds this weekend to mark the 90th anniversary of an epic air race.

Pilots from across the UK and beyond have gathered at the Cotswold Airport, known formerly as Kemble Airfield, to commemorate the 1934 London to Melbourne Air Race.

Celebrations are set to run over the weekend, with a formation flight planned for Sunday.

Organiser Tony Blake, secretary of the Bull Pup Flyers, said people had "come from all over" to take part, with the grandson of the original race winner attending to give a speech.

Many of the people attending the event have a personal connection to the 1934 race, as Mr Blake explained.

"We have one chap coming in an aircraft that's exactly the same as one that competed back in 1934," he said.

"He flew the entire distance 40 years ago to celebrate the 50th anniversary."

He added: "Another particularly important character is the grandson of the man who won the race in the first place, and he'll be there with a lot of his grandfather's memories and memorabilia."

The original race was organised by the Australian state of Victoria to commemorate 100 years since its foundation, and had a prize of up to £10,000 for the winner as well as a gold cup.

All of the entrants were amateurs, apart from Dutch airline KLM who entered with a professional crew and "did extremely well, until they got lost and landed in a muddy racecourse in the middle of Australia", said Mr Blake.

The race also included US pilot Roscoe Turner, who often flew with a real tiger in the back of his plane to promote an oil company.

"Talk about self-promotion - he invented his own air force, invented his own uniform and promoted himself to colonel," said Mr Blake. "You can't do much more than that, can you?"

Eight planes failed to finish the race and two participants died when their plane crashed over Italy, but it was eventually won by English team C.W.A. Scott and T. Campbell Black.

Mr Scott's grandson, Tim Barron, is due to give a speech at a special dinner on Saturday evening.

While none of the pilots taking part in this weekend's event will have a live tiger in the back of their plane, Mr Blake explained that they retained a similar sense of adventure.

"The people who fly small aeroplanes today are very much the same kind of people who flew the small aeroplanes in the race," he said.

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