This is a still from a British Pathe newsreel taken at the Imperial Pageant at Croydon in late summer 1926. I believe the second aircraft, a Sopwith Snipe, is from 23 Squadron and shows the early version red and blue band markings here. If this is the case it would be a very rare image as pictures of 23 Squadron Snipes are virtually non existant as Alec Lumsden says in his book On Silver Wings. 23 Squadron was reformed July 1925 at Henlow first using Snipes which were replaced with Gloster Gamecocks shortly after.
The Full British Pathe newsclip can be seen here
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=14887
By: John Aeroclub - 17th July 2009 at 22:17
Well spotted, that’s a very interesting photo. The Genet Moth in the foreground was also present at the Dominion Premiers Demonstration at Croydon in October 1926. I wonder if the Snipe was there too?
John
By: CTDavies - 17th July 2009 at 20:09
You can spend hours at the Pathe website like I did typing in search words like Hendon Air Pageant etc. They have some amazing stuff even from the inter war period of the RAF, which is my main interest, from the Hendon air shows to Wapiti Squadrons at the Northwest Frontier.
I am building a flying scale Sopwith Snipe for myself at the moment which will of course be in inter war silver. I have chosen a 32 squadron Snipe for my model which is also very attractive as can be seen on this image.
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July 17, 2009 at 7:41 pm