This weekend, small planes will take to the skies above the Cotswolds to commemorate the 90th anniversary of the historic London to Melbourne Air Race. Pilots from across the UK and beyond have gathered at Cotswold Airport, formerly known as Kemble Airfield, to celebrate this significant aviation milestone.
The festivities are set to continue throughout the weekend, culminating in a formation flight planned for Sunday. Organiser Tony Blake, secretary of the Bull Pup Flyers, noted that attendees have traveled from far and wide for the event, which will feature a speech from the grandson of the original race winner.
Many participants have personal ties to the 1934 race, as Blake explained: “We have one chap coming in an aircraft that’s exactly the same as one that competed back in 1934. He flew the entire distance 40 years ago to celebrate the 50th anniversary.” Additionally, the grandson of the race’s original champion will attend, bringing with him cherished memories and memorabilia of his grandfather.
The original race, organized by the Australian state of Victoria to mark its centenary, offered a prize of up to £10,000 for the winner along with a gold cup. All participants were amateurs except for Dutch airline KLM, which entered a professional crew. “They did extremely well until they got lost and landed in a muddy racecourse in the middle of Australia,” Blake recounted.
The race also featured the flamboyant US pilot Roscoe Turner, known for flying 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, created a uniform, and promoted himself to colonel,” Blake remarked. “You can’t do much more than that, can you?”
Despite challenges, including eight planes failing to finish and two fatalities from a crash in Italy, the race was ultimately won by the English team of C.W.A. Scott and T. Campbell Black. Scott’s grandson, Tim Barron, is scheduled to deliver a speech at a special dinner on Saturday evening.
While this weekend’s pilots will not have a live tiger onboard, Blake emphasized that they embody a similar spirit 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 stated.
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