Hawker Cygnet – "Mr Selfridge" ITV

Unlike in other countries (such as the USA), I don’t think the CAA grants exemptions to allow UK-registered aircraft to continue to wear their historical registrations from other countries.

It would be truly wonderful to see it repainted as VP-KAA “Miss Kenya”. It spent the first 25 years of its life in Kenya.

Planemike

Seconded. That’s the markings I will always remember her in.

Ah well then, I must be patient and ask my wife to call me if anything with wings and propellors appears on the screen over the forthcoming Sundays. I have no intention of sitting through it myself!

Sadly AA I’m not involved in that, so I can’t tell you. I have to admit that despite the aviation content, I didn’t actually watch Mr Selfridge either!
:eagerness:

So come on then, Adrian, spill the beans! What is going to be masquerading as the De Bolotoff SDEB 14 and is Old Warden going to pretend to be Combe Bank Aerodrome, Sevenoaks?

Shuttleworth’s DH.51 was painted in AT&T colours to masquerade as a DH.9 for the British AIrways ‘Heritage’ advert a couple of years ago. It hasn’t been repainted to it’s original livery yet.

It would be truly wonderful to see it repainted as VP-KAA “Miss Kenya”. It spent the first 25 years of its life in Kenya.

Planemike

Good research (but I was one of those advising them, so I would say that). The production team were very keen to get every last detail right, or as near right as possible. The only thing we had to watch out for was the director (I think – I wasn’t there) of the Duxford sequence who was determined to sneak his beautifully restored old Fiat runabout into one shot or another. Apparently at one point it even acquired ‘Imperial Airways’ stickers on the doors so it would ‘fit in’.

Shuttleworth’s DH.51 was painted in AT&T colours to masquerade as a DH.9 for the British AIrways ‘Heritage’ advert a couple of years ago. It hasn’t been repainted to it’s original livery yet.

Is that serendipity or a rare example of good research on the part of a television drama producer?

abandoned its own historic airliner collection to the scrapper

There are always at least two sides to any story. I am currently one of the volunteers in the British Airways Archives, and at the time of the event you speak of, I was the Hon Sec of the Heathrow Branch of the RAeS, and quite close to ‘the action’ in that regard. I don’t believe it was anything like as simple as ‘abandoning’ – strenuous efforts were made to save the airframes in what appeared to be an artificially tight timescale – but I am also sure I don’t know the whole story so I will say no more.

….the British Airways ‘Heritage’ advert a couple of years ago.

Ah yes, the airline that is so proud of its heritage that it abandoned its own historic airliner collection to the scrapper a few years back. Until, of course, it comes time to cash in on that same heritage. 🙁

Shuttleworth’s DH.51 was painted in AT&T colours to masquerade as a DH.9 for the British AIrways ‘Heritage’ advert a couple of years ago. It hasn’t been repainted to it’s original livery yet.

At least the programme’s researchers had discovered AT&T. One has to sympathise at their inability to find a D.H.16 to feature when Mr Selfridge arrived by air from Ireland and their use of the D.H.51 instead. After all, none of the owners of the surviving D.H.9s are likely to have allowed the producers of the programme to muck about with their aeroplanes by way of widening the fuselage and adding a glazed cabin behind the pilot!

The Radio Times article this week about the programme showed the Dh.51-presumably they had a day filming at Old Warden then?

Glad someone identified the type. I was totally baffled as to what it was, interwar civilian biplanes not being my identification strong point.

You’ll have waited in vain this evening.

Thanks for clarifying that – thought I’d managed to nod off between all the excitement 🙂 Nice shot of the DH51 at the start at least.

You’ll have waited in vain this evening. But based upon that which I saw, it appears that the programme will be serving large helpings of faction!

So rare to see old, civil aircraft on tv at all that I will be watching this for the first time. Will mute it till the good bits appear if I have to lol 🙂

See http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=7668.0. As to the relevance of the Cygnet – well it’s an aeroplane, it’s old and most of the programme’s viewers won’t know or care beyond that!