British Pilot/Veteran Day Outing In Its Seventh Successful Year

by Aero-News Senior Correspondent Kevin R.C. "Hognose" O'Brien

Three pilots walked across the ramp to the Miles Messenger, a low-wing liaison plane with an elegant triple tail that was built beginning in 1942 in low numbers (about 89 in all). They all expected Peter to fly; but Peter said he was tired. "You two flip for it." John won, and after takeoff Peter handed the plane to him.

John Potter wasn't exactly current. He hadn't flown an airplane since he mustered out of the RAF at the end of World War II. But he was far from the only septuagenarian taking the controls on that day in 1999. You see, pairing up World War II pilots and aircrew with today's private pilots was the whole idea of Project Propeller, which gets bigger every year -- when it isn't rained on by the fickle British weather, as happened in 2005.

Each year they try to make the place a new airfield, and have attractions of interest to both the veteran pilots and their younger "chauffeurs". For 2006, they'll be going into Wolverhampton Business Airport -- known during the war as RAF Halfpenny Green -- on Saturday June 24.

Wolverhampton is west of Birmingham in the industrial West Midlands of England. The airfield still has its wartime three runways, or most of them; and a terminal building is crowned by what appears to be the original RAF control tower.

In keeping with Project Propeller tradition, there will be food and drink available, a swing band will play nostalgic tunes, and the Battle of Britain Memorial Fund's Spitfire will conduct a fly-past. The speaker will be Raymond Baxter, OBE, a famous Spitfire pilot turned BBC television personality.

The first publicized, 1999, event, was intended to have about 20 pilots and planes participating, all from the London area, each bringing a veteran or two. That plan was overwhelmed by enthusiasm; as it happened, 60 pilots and 150 wartime Air Crew from a much wider swath of Britain attended -- limited by the ability of venue North Weald to handle the traffic, and the crowd.

Since then, the crowd has grown annually, unless the weather closes the destination airfield.

I first learned of Project Propeller when I ran into one of the organizing committee members, Dave Cockburn, in Florida this month. We were both admiring Craig Muth's 80% Spitfire reproduction, when Dave asked me if we had a US equivalent to Britain's Aircrew Association. Unfortunately, we don't; lots of individual squadron and wing associations, but not on overarching group.

The reason Dave was asking, is that he'd like to extend the same invitation to American WWII air-war vets that he and the staff of Project Propeller do to their British aircrew: come to Project Propeller and share your stories -- and a plane ride -- with people who appreciate you.

After all, it's not like the participants have always been all British. One gentleman who attended a previous event had never flown over England in the daylight before. You see, he was a German bomber pilot, and experienced the Battle of Britain from the "wrong" side. If they can welcome him -- and they did, as a fellow airman -- they can probably find room in their hearts for a Yank.

FMI: www.projectpropeller.co.uk