Of course, I had meant "antique" but it does seem sometimes that these aircraft are that old; however, powered, heavier-than-air aviation was not even 100 years old until late 2003.

The ancient Shuttleworth family had land, money, and influence, and before descendent Richard Shuttleworth had collected his first aircraft, he was already purchasing old autos and motorcycles. This was in the late 1920s. Very soon his personal and extensive auto and motorcycle restoration facility became recognized by many museums as being one of the best.

In 1939, Richard, having acquired an enviable range of aircraft, enlisted in the RAF, but was killed in a night flying accident the following year.

The family established a trust in memory of Richard and this has now broadened to include many other interests.

One of the conditions of the Shuttleworth Estate Trust is that all aircraft, motorcycles, cars, trucks, etc., are to be maintained in working order, and in the case of many of them, this means demonstrating them in operation.

It is now one of the finest "living" history museums in the world and they are continually rebuilding vehicles.  "Rebuilding" requires an explanation.

The first time I was there, I was snooping around the "Please Do Not Enter -- Private Workings" sign, and through a large crack in the middle of double doors, I could smell dope and see bare wing framing.  I did not know that I was blocking a gentleman in white coveralls behind me. He was waiting to go back to work.

I had my nose against the door and eye against the crack. We might have been there a while when he started chuckling.  I've had a gray beard a long time, but I guess I looked like a kid with my nose pressed against a candy store window.

I apologized for blocking his way and said I was a model builder, my engineering career had always involved aircraft from B-36s to Lear-23s, and I was intrigued by the restoration of antique aircraft.

He asked if I would like a personal tour of the "closed" facilities and held the door open for me. (Alice in Wonderland!)

They had six aircraft in various states of assembly.  One was the twin-engined De Havilland Comet, and a Sopwith Pup was in for routine inspection.  The Sopwith was without cowling and inspection panels, and all lacing was off the fabric sides. These side coverings were folded down to expose the inner workings of the cockpit, fire-wall, and engine rear parts.

The fellow was explaining what they were doing in very general terms. I pointed to a slightly complex, fabricated bell crank on the bottom of the control stick and commented, "This is formed from one piece of aluminum sheet and because the bend radii is so abrupt, it looks like very soft aluminum -- so, if such a piece as this was missing from an aircraft under restoration, what would you do?"

He then understood the direction of my interest.  He said they would try to buy a good one and they knew pretty well who might have such a part.  If they found a used piece, they would refurbish and use that. (Bear in mind that most of these aircraft are being flown and I later saw this Pup fly.)

And if a used piece couldn't be found?

Then they would fabricate a new piece.  (I was thinking about George Washington's original axe -- the handle had been replaced three times but the head only twice.)

And would the obvious design flaws and limited choices of materials be modified when fabricating the new piece?

"Oh, NO! Heavens, No! No, we couldn't do that!" He looked hurt that I would suggest such a thing, and he added, "It isn't done. We would build it exactly like the original and often using the same techniques used to fabricate the original piece."

"But what if you didn't know what it really looked like?"

"Well...we just do."

He showed me huge flat-file cabinets with copy after copy of original drawings. The originals were properly archived.  They have original, factory construction drawings of almost every part of every aircraft and in the rare cases where they don't, they make drawings from other aircraft of the same type.

I commented with a smile, "So you don't use much carbon fiber, fiber-glass, resins, etc.?"

He smiled back: "Not if the original didn't."

It was a very enlightening tour and I talked to many of the old guys who worked on these wonderful aircraft -- and yes, they had young apprentices working with them.   The pilots of these aircraft understand that they, the pilots, are replaceable; the aircraft are not.

I have a great interest in aircraft design and I like to look at aircraft to get an understanding of design problems and compromises, and with antique aircraft, this is so obvious.

The principal design constraint was weight. This was necessary because of the second factor -- a small amount of power from a (moderately) heavy power plant.

Besides the enjoyment of seeing these aircraft in flight, there are the sounds they make. We do not hear these sounds today.  The sounds are absolutely wonderful -- if you like mechanical things. It is like listening to a symphony where one can hear the integrated sound, or you can concentrate on individual instruments and hear perhaps the oboe or flute. The same can be done with this aircraft symphony.

The most predominant sound is the exhaust. This is a "spitting" sound because often the exhaust comes straight from the valve and whistles past or through the exhaust valve return spring -- lubricating it (and everything else) liberally with castor oil while doing so.

The valve train with push-rods and lots of tappet clearances are the next sound, and when the ignition is cut, the valve train is the loudest sound and it seemingly lasts forever with the heavy, wooden props (walnut and over 6' in diameter on the Bleriot) still pushing and pulling the pistons through the cylinders.

Often, these engines, if hot, will keep detonating because of the heat and they continue to tick over. This seems a good way to have an aircraft ignite or break something in the engine.  So the ignition would be reconnected and the rpm brought back up. Then, at maximum rpm, the ignition would be turned off again so the fuel would be burned out as it was coming to a stop. With fuel vapor carried in the crankcase, this might need to be done three or four times before the engine would finally (obstinately) quit for good.

Sometimes the opposite approach would be needed. The engine would be rev'd up and then the choke put on and ignition turned off.  This would let the flooding gas cool the cylinders as the prop came to a stop. There would be a little miss-firing through open valves but it would finally settle down.  At the evening flight demonstrations, it took about six tries to stop the engine of the Deperdussin.

Almost as loud as the engine noises in flight is the wind in the wires combined with a drumming resonance from the large areas of fabric.

There are many famous and esoteric aircraft in the Collection and in the photograph are some lined up for a flying afternoon at Old Warden Aerodrome.  There are three aircraft in the Collection that I find particularly interesting and I have seen fly. They represents a quantum leap in early aviation design -- if such a term is possible -- and they are the Bleriot XI, Deperdussin, and Blackburn.

Ken Cashion