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Shuttleworth Collection

The main entrance to the Shuttleworth Collection in 2017
Established	1928
Location	Old Warden, Bedfordshire
Type	Aviation museum
Website	http://www.shuttleworth.org

G-EBWD, flies regularly during displays at the Shuttleworth Collection. This Moth was originally Richard Shuttleworth's own private plane and during its career was extensively modified with an original Cirrus Hermes engine but an x-legged undercarriage and different windshields on the front and rear cockpit.

The Shuttleworth Collection is an aeronautical and automotive museum located at the Old Warden Aerodrome, Old Warden in Bedfordshire, England. It is one of the most prestigious in the world due to the variety of old and well-preserved aircraft.

History

The collection was founded in 1928 by aviator Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth. While flying a Fairey Battle at night on 2 August 1940, Shuttleworth fatally crashed. His mother, in 1944, formed the Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth Remembrance Trust "for the teaching of the science and practice of aviation and of afforestation and agriculture."^[1]

Collection

Spitfire Vc, AR501, during extensive renovation by the Collection in September 2008.

Restoration and maintenance work is carried out by a staff of nine full-time and many volunteer engineers. These volunteers are all members of the 3,000-strong Shuttleworth Veteran Aeroplane Society (SVAS).^[2] These dedicated enthusiasts are crucial to the preservation and restoration of the collection.

In addition to the aircraft, the collection houses a number of vintage and veteran cars. Events include model-flying days, and once a year, there is a special flying day for schools in the area.

The Shuttleworth Collection puts an emphasis on restoring as many aircraft as possible to flying condition, in line with the founder's original intention.^[3] There are typically about twelve air shows per year, including evening displays, which offer the opportunity to see aircraft which in many cases are the last of their type to survive, let alone existing in flyable condition.

The Edwardian flying machines

Some of the most notable aircraft in the collection are the five Edwardian aeroplanes, of which one is the oldest British aeroplane still in flying condition. What makes these exceptional is that they still fly (weather permitting). The oldest, with British civil registration G-AANG, is the Bleriot XI (still with original engine), which dates back to 1909 - six years after the Wright brothers' aircraft and the world's oldest airworthy aeroplane, the next oldest being, at only three weeks newer by date of manufacture, the Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome's own restored original Bleriot XI (Bleriot factory serial number 56, with civil registration N60094) in the United States.

Aircraft in the collection

Also resident, but privately owned:
Avro Anson (BAE Systems)

• 
  Miles M14a Hawk Trainer N3788 G-AKPF


• 
  Westland Wallace replica fuselage


• 
  De Havilland DH89A Rapide G-AGSH painted as British European Airways

Vehicles in the collection

The Shuttleworth Collection's Bristol F.2B Fighter

The Hucks starter of 1920.

DH88 Comet Racer 'Grosvenor House' at Shuttleworth Collection 2010

There is also a collection of tractors.

See also

• Shuttleworth College (Bedfordshire)

Other large collections of flying historic aircraft

• 
  Battle of Britain Memorial Flight, at RAF Coningsby, United Kingdom


• 
  Cole Palen's Old Rhinebeck Aerodrome, directly inspired by the Shuttleworth collection, located in Red Hook and Rhinebeck, New York.


• 
  Royal Navy Historic Flight, at RNAS Yeovilton, United Kingdom


• 
  Commemorative Air Force, in Midland, Texas


• 
  Fantasy of Flight, in Polk City, Florida


• 
  The Fighter Collection, at Duxford Aerodrome, United Kingdom


• Champlin Fighter Collection at the Seattle Museum of Flight (formerly housed at Mesa, Arizona)


• 
  Lone Star Flight Museum, in Galveston, Texas


• 
  Yankee Air Museum, in Ypsilanti, Michigan


• 
  Historic Aircraft Restoration Museum, in St Louis, Missouri

References

Notes

Bibliography

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Shuttleworth Collection.

• Official site

Coordinates: 52°05′08″N 0°19′32″W / 52.08556°N 0.32556°W / 52.08556; -0.32556