Wight Aviation Museum

The New Museum

No single center exists where the extensive history of aviation on the Isle of Wight can be exhibited, seen and experienced by the public.

Working in partnership with our member groups and with support from the public, our aim is to convert one of the aircraft hangars at Sandown Airport to create the Wight Aviation Museum. This will allow us to display our current exhibits as well as build our collection for the future.

The Princess Flying Boat under construction at the Columbine building in East Cowes.

The museum will recognise the fusion of marine and aviation skills that led to the building of 600 aircraft on the Island during WW1 and we will illustrate the intense "War in the Air" over the Isle of Wight, during the Battle of Britain.
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An early Seaplane built by J S White of West Cowes, in 1916

We plan to unite two special icons of Island engineering excellence, the Spartan 3-seater and the Britten-Norman Islander.
The Simmonds Spartan 3 seater G-ABYN built at Somerton in Cowes, it's still airworthy & currently in New Zealand. The current owner Rod Hall Jones has lovingly restored the aircraft and would like her preserved at the Wight Aviation Museum. With your help & financial support combined with grant & fundraising assistance, we can bring one of the World's rarest aircraft back home to the Isle of Wight.

Artist's Ivan Berryman’s painting of the BN2 Islander G-AVCN C/N 003 currently being restored by the volunteers of the "Britten-Norman Aircraft Preservation Society" (BNAPS) for public display.

Full Size Black Arrow Rocket Display

We also want to show the diversity of aerospace skills through showcasing a replica Black Arrow Rocket and bring people up to date with the current work of GKN Aerospace, IFPL Ltd, Airframe Assemblies, Britten-Norman and BAE Systems.

An artist's impression showing the full scale replica Black Arrow at Sandown Airport

We will celebrate the life of 1st Officer Mary Ellis ATA 1917 - 2018

Mary Ellis

1st Officer Mary Ellis ATA is shown 2nd left with fellow pilots Joy Lofthouse and Molly Rose filming with Dermot O’Leary at Sandown Airport in preparation for the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Britain in 2015 - Photo credit ©Phil Brace.

Wight Aviation Museum is extremely saddened to hear the news of the death of Mary Ellis at the age of 101. The Chair of the Museum, John Kenyon, wished to express the deep condolences of all its members to Mary’s family and friends at this sad time. “I have known Mary for a number of years now and she will be remembered locally as a heroine who helped to establish the role of aviatrix pilots at a critical time for the nation.

Without the ATA’s wartime efforts the RAF would not have had enough aircraft to put into the sky to counter the war in the Air.” Mary was an extraordinary lady and her legacy as a World War II pilot and her pivotal role at Sandown Airport, were key inspirations for the creation of the Wight Aviation Museum. It's aim is to celebrate the considerable history in aircraft design & production on the Isle of Wight, as well those individuals on the Island who have made an outstanding contribution to aviation, of which Mary was certainly one.

We had been working with Mary and her associates to bring her story to our new museum and we hope our Mary Ellis exhibit will be a fitting tribute to this truly inspirational lady. Mary was born in 1917 and had her first flying lesson in 1938 at the age of 21 soon after gaining her civilian pilots licence. With the outbreak of WW2 in 1939, she joined the Air Transport Auxiliary (ATA) on the 1st October 1941. The role of the Air Transport Auxiliary ( ATA) was to ferry fighter and bomber aircraft from the factories to the airfields, as well as to return damaged aircraft for repair. Although there were no female fighter pilots during the war, 168 woman pilots took part in ATA operations flying aircraft to front line active airfields around the UK, often with only rudimentary navigation aids, no radios or any kind of defenses and, in consequence, several lost their lives during operational service.

Mary flew a total of 400 Spitfires, delivering over 1000 planes to RAF stations. By the end of the war she had amassed 1100 hours flying on nearly 80 types of aircraft, including the Wellington heavy bomber and Britain's first jet fighter aircraft, the Gloster Meteor which could fly at speeds of up to 600 mph. After the war she moved to the Isle of Wight and became Commandant of Sandown Airport from 1950 to 1970 helping it to develop into a thriving commercial airfield. She pioneered regular air services in the 60’s from the North of England and was the air traffic controller as well as running the airfield by installing CRDF direction finding equipment enabling planes to still land in inclement weather.

Mary even laid on coaches to take holiday makers to their hotels in Sandown and Shanklin! In 2017 she celebrated her 100th Birthday with a flight from Sandown in her favorite aircraft, the Spitfire, becoming the oldest person to do so. More recently, Mary was awarded the Freedom of the Isle of Wight and, presenting the award the Leader of the Council exalted Mary as a “national, international and Island heroine”.

The 1st Museum

Our plans are to lease one of the main hangars at Sandown Airport and convert this into our first aviation museum. This will allow us to both build our collection and establish the museum as a viable tourist attraction.
Positioned close to the airport Control Tower and Bistro, the museum will be a short distance from the parking facilities.

The airport is located on the main route between Newport & Sandown and is in the ideal position for attracting visitors. The airport is also home to Airframe Assemblies one of the World's leading Spitfire and classic Warbird restoration companies and these aircraft are regular visitors to the airfield.

The museum will be free to enter and staffed by volunteers, enabling maximum access to all visitors.

Visitors will be able to view and research artifacts from the past in the surroundings of an active airfield.
Vintage aircraft will be running up, flying and being rebuilt, maintained and worked on.
Exhibitions will focus on showcasing the design and engineering expertise of the early pioneers who skillfully transferred marine knowledge into a new era of seaplanes, flying boats and aircraft.
Our "Aviation Timeline Display" will illustrate the history of both Aircraft and Spacecraft developed and built on the Isle of Wight over the last 120 years, as well as highlighting Island based companies still involved in the aviation sector today.

Museum_Location

Our Plans for the Future

We hope to obtain planning permission for a purpose built museum at Sandown Airport. This larger facility will be both a major tourist attraction and heritage center, enabling us to house many more classic aircraft and expand the space technology exhibition.

This will be a world leading attraction with a high level of public interaction and will also feature an education and hospitality center.

New WAM

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Outreach Program

Wight Aviation Museum aims to have a pro-active outreach program, engaging with education providers across the Isle of Wight.

Our team recently attend the 2017 Noel Turner Physics Festival at Cowes Enterprise College, the event was attended by over 2000 pupils from across the Island.

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The Black Arrow Replica

To celebrate the Isle of Wight's history in building Britain's biggest space rocket "the Black Arrow" during the 1960's, Wight Aviation Museum is creating a full sized replica of the rocket, for display at the museum site.

We are working with East Cowes based fabricators AMC Ltd to build the main body of the rocket and a team from Vestas Technology UK Ltd, have very kindly offered to help make the distinctive red nose cone section, using their skills in Glass fibre manufacturing.

Vestas Technology UK Ltd who carry out research and development into Wind Turbine Blades at their facility on the Isle of Wight.

The replica which will stand just over 13m ( 40 feet ) in height, when displayed vertically. This will be the only vertically displayed Black Arrow in the UK.

Once the main body of the replica is built it will be transported to our custom built workshop in Hangar 2, at Sandown Airport, where the finishing details will be added and the livery markings applied. The rocket livery will match the R3 which was the final rocket to be launched in 1971, just days after the program was officially cancelled. The R3 successfully launched the 66kg Prospero satellite into orbit at just over 17,000 mph and is still orbiting the Earth today.

The project is being sponsored by Isle of Wight based electronics company In Flight Peripherals Ltd. IFPL founder Geoff Underwood's late father, John Underwood, was a senior engineer on both the Black Arrow and it's precursor the "Black Knight" rocket. The Black Knight was also built and tested on the Island from the late 1950's and it's development led the way for the larger Black Arrow.

The main body of the rocket is being designed and manufactured by Aluminium Marine Ltd
The red nose cone section being built in partnership with a team from Vestas UK Ltd.
Additional details will be made by students from the CECAMM College.

A brief history of the Black Arrow Rockets

5 Black Arrow Rockets were designed and built in East Cowes during the 1960's by Westland Aircraft Ltd who inherited the space rocket program following their take-over of Saunders Roe Ltd. (SARO).
SARO had previously developed the smaller Black Knight Rocket which was used for testing missile warhead materials, these had to withstand the extreme high temperatures of re-entering the Earth's atmosphere.
Both the Black Arrow and Black Knight rockets underwent full qualification testing at the "top secret" High Down test site, near the Needles on the Island.

The rockets would then be shipped to Australia to be launched from the Woomera rocket range. Limited airspace prevented launches from UK soil although launch sites were considered on both the Norfolk coast and the north coast of Scotland.
The Rockets were numbered from zero "0", so the 1st rocket to be launched was the R0, the last rocket to be built was the R4 ( number 5 ) which now resides on display in the Science Museum in London. A non-working Black Arrow, constructed from left-over parts, is also vertically displayed at the Woomera in Australia.

Visitors will be able to learn more about the history of Britain's fastest ever vehicle ( 15 times faster than Concorde! ). Once completed the Black Arrow will be on public display at Sandown Airport as part of the museums collection, this will be the only Black Arrow rocket vertically displayed in the UK.

The project also plans to work with local schools and apprentices, to inspire the next generation in key areas such as; Science, Technology & Manufacturing.

A Black Arrow rocket under construction at Westland Aircraft, East Cowes and being test-fired at the Needles during the 1960's.

Richard Holleyman Collection

Richard Holleyman has built up a private collection of aviation artifacts over 30 years, this includes the fuselage of an Scottish Aviation 120 Bulldog plus a large collection of early material including Spartan Airways timetables, photographs, models and aircraft parts, as well as archives from the first aircraft to land on the Island in 1910.
Fundraising is helping to keep this unique collection on the Island for display at the museum.

RH01

The Prof. Geoffrey Lilley Library

Geoffrey Michael Lilley, OBE (16 November 1919 - 20 September 2015) was an aeronautical scientist known for his work on jet engine noise reduction. His pioneering work led to him being known as the 'father of aero acoustics', and he played a key role in the development of Concorde.
His family have kindly donated his extensive library of scientific works to the museum and his family is represented on the museums board by his son Michael Lilley.

GLilley

“Charlie November” The Britten-Norman Islander No:03

Artist's BN2 Islander G-AVCN C/N 003

This aircraft is currently being restored by the volunteers of the "Britten-Norman Aircraft Preservation Society" (BNAPS) and we hope to work in partnership to display “Charlie November” at Sandown Airport as part of the museum.
As the first production Islander, G-AVCN, (c/n 003), is unique and therefore of historic significance as part of the British aviation industry’s heritage. Constructed in the original Britten-Norman (B-N) hangar at Bembridge, the UK registration G-AVCN was issued on 12th December 1966. To signal the opening of the new B-N factory building at Bembridge, “Charlie November” was “rolled out” for the press in April 1967.
It made its first flight on 24 of April 1967 and in May 1967 appeared at Paris Air Show. A Certificate of Airworthiness was issued on 12 August 1967 and on 13 August 1967 “Charlie November” was delivered to Glosair, later in 1967 re-named as Aurigny Air Services. After several years operation with Aurigny Air Services “Charlie November” was traded in to B-N and subsequently exported to the Caribbean where it served with a number of different operators.

Recognising the significance of BN-2 Islander, Peter Graham devised a plan in 1999 to recover the aircraft from Puerto Rico where it was languishing in a partially dismantled state at the San Juan Isla Grande Airport.
The recovery was a joint effort by Peter Graham and his company Airstream International Group with Allan Wright and Andy Clancey of BN Historians and Tim Barton, Service Engineer with B-N Group.
With support from sponsors and help from local contacts in Puerto Rico, the remains of the aircraft were acquired.
The preparatory work being made possible through the encouragement, generous technical assistance and facilities provided by Britten Norman Group and enthusiastic support from several former employees including Peter Ward and the late Jack Griffin.
A working party was organised consisting of Peter Graham, Allan Wright, Andy Clancey and Tim Barton and traveled to Puerto Rico on 17 January 2000. With limited facilities “Charlie November” was dismantled and packed for shipment into a sea freight container.

The wing had to be shortened by removing the wingtips and a further 5 foot long section of the port wing de-riveted to ensure that the main part of the wing would fit into the 40 foot long container. After overcoming a number of difficulties the Aircraft was shipped home to the UK.
The BNAPS group are hoping to complete the restoration work in the Spring of 2019 and "Charlie November" will go on public display.

You can read more about this amazing project on the BNAPS webpage via the link below, which is hosted on Ivan Berrymans website: http://www.ivanberrymandirect.com/bnaps.htm

The Trustees

Select a photo to see more about our volunteer Trustees:

John

John Kenyon - FAETC, PGDMS, Chartered FCIPD

Chairman

Director and Museum Trustee

Background Work Experience:
Commencing industry as a commercial apprentice in 1961 his formative career progressed to Board level by 1986 as UK Director of Human Resources and in 1989 Regional Human Resources Director for Europe Middle East Africa with Warner Lambert, a US Pharmaceutical Company now absorbed into Pfizer. During this period he was a legal entity Director of the UK Company and also of 14 overseas affiliates. He worked for the company in a variety of roles for 18 years. [1974-92].

From 1992 to 2013 for 21 years he ran his own business, IPC Consultants as an Organisational Development Consultancy for SME’s and was engaged on delivery of government contracts with Quality South East for Investors in People, Legal Services Commission, Business Link and SFEDI. Also delivered a range of HE programs at IOW College as a course co-ordinator/tutor. Contracted to Right Management, part of the Manpower Group for delivery of business start- up & career transition programs across the South and tri-service leavers for MOD at HMS Nelson.
From 2013 has been active in the third sector as a Charity Trustee and Chair of the Friends of St Mary’s Hospital Shop and Café Ltd, also delivered an Interim contract as Director of Carisbrooke Castle Museum for a 9 month period.

Relevant Aviation Experience
His early period of service was in the Royal Observer Corps and ATC. Commissioned in RAFVR (T} at age 23 he served in 4 Wings across the country. The Airforce taught him to fly at No 631 Gliding School at RAF Sealand. Later qualified as NPPL in 2007 and now flies regularly. He was founder Chair of the Northern Aircraft Preservation Society, the UK’s first amateur preservation group in 1962 in order to to rescue the country’s sole surviving Avro Avian 111A G-EBZM from extinction.

Also founder Chair of the British Aircraft Preservation Council in 1967.Later initiated the reforming of the Britten Norman Aircraft Preservation Society in 2009 and managed the rescuing of the world’s oldest BN2 Islander G-AVCN, from the scrap heap.
Now trying to return the world’s sole surviving airworthy Spartan 3 Seater G-ABYN back home to the Isle of Wight where she was built in 1932, for display in Wight Aviation Museum.

Bill

Bill Cooper

Company Treasurer

Director and Museum Trustee

Helen

Helen Blake

Head of Public Relations

Director and Museum Trustee

Jon

Jon Fishman

Director and Museum Trustee

Michael

Michael Lilley BSc MSc (couns.psy)

Director of Civic Affairs & Fundraising

Director and Museum Trustee

Background Work Experience:
Michael went to school on the Island but left in 1974 to start his working career. He has worked for 40 years either in the public or voluntary sector in a senior role. His early career was in youth and community development specialising in development of cooperative and community enterprises which created employment in deprived unemployment areas of UK. He became a recognised specialist in development of community businesses and worked in Midlands, Middlesbrough, and Hastings in 1980s/90s. Ventures he established won several national awards. In the mid-1990s, he had a slight career change and went to University to train as a criminologist and counseling psychologist.
In 1999 Michael founded a family mental health center in the West Midlands which pioneered a new approach to tackling depression, anxiety and mental health issues created through traumatic experiences such as domestic violence. This became known as My Time in 2002. Michael was Chief Executive of My Time from 2002-17, and led this award winning pioneering psychological practice and mental health service to become a successful community business with a £2M turnover, employing 60 staff and supporting over 2000 service users per annum.

In 2013, Michael successfully merged "My Time" to join 5 other organisations in a new group which became one of the largest mental health charities in UK (Richmond Fellowship – Recovery Focus Group) with a turnover of £50M, employing 1500 and supporting 30,000. In 2013, Richmond Fellowship/My Time established on the Isle of Wight and is now the Island’s leading mental health charity working in partnership with NHS. Michael moved back to the Island in 2013 and now retired from being a CEO.

In 2016, Michael was elected as a Ryde Town Councilor for Green Party and in 2017 was elected as an IW Councilor to represent Ryde East. Michael is a Board member of Isle of Wight Youth Trust and Wight Community Energy. He has established a local publishing company, Papa Owl Publishing and writing/publishing children’s educational books.

Relevant Aviation Experience Michael’s link to aviation is through his late father, Professor Geoffrey Lilley OBE, who died in Ryde in 2015. Geoff Lilley was Professor of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Southampton University from early 1960s to 1980s and a significant contributor to the growth of aviation and space industry in the Solent. Geoff had fallen in love with aircraft at an early age and as a young apprentice was spotted by the CEO of Kodak before the Second World War. He went onto work with Barnes Wallis.

He was a specialist in acoustics and became the UK leading expert on aircraft noise and its reduction. He worked on iconic planes such as Harrier and Concorde. In 1977, he led the team that persuaded New York State to allow Concorde to land at JFK Airport. He had a 4 decade relationship with NASA and was still listed as a Chief Scientist there at age 88. In his later years he became a founder of Owl Technology and the concept of silent flight. He had a life-long passion for man powered flight and at age 60 actually flew the Gossamer Albatross, the most successful of man powered airplanes.

On his death, Michael and his sisters brought his work together as an archive and now working with Wight Aviation Museum and Winchester Science Centre to establish permanent exhibitions of Geoff’s work and achievements.

Rich

Rich Curtis

Creative Director

Director and Museum Trustee

Richard's background is in construction design specialising in off-site construction technology. He has been involved in many social and private housing projects over many years built with sustainable timber frame, including developments worth up to £4 million in value.
He has a long standing passion for space technology nurtured from the age of 2, watching Neil Armstrong walk on the Moon and has avidly followed the development of the space technology and exploration in the subsequent decades.
Richard on the Black Arrow replica -
"I created the project to build a full scale replica of the Black Arrow as a way of celebrating the Isle of Wight?s history in building Britain's biggest space rockets during the 1960?s and to give the public a real sense of the scale of these incredible machines and bring their history to life for a new generation".

Tony

Tony Smart, MSc, MRAeS, I. Eng, MCQI, CQP.

Director: Technical Advisor.

Background Work Experience:

12 years in RAF, finishing as a Chief Technician, Maintenance Chief on major overhauls of Valiant ‘V’ Bombers.
Experienced CAA Licensed aircraft engineer. Over 40 years’ experience on military and civilian aeroplanes. More recently he has just retired after 16 years as the Head of Quality for a UK aircraft manufacturer. Responsibilities, in addition to quality standards, was obtaining approval for the various CAA requirements including EASA 21 Manufacturing, JAR 145 Maintenance and EASA Design and Flying approvals. Responsible for the ISO 9001:2000 (including AS/EN9100) approval and Defence Standard 05.123 for Design. Approving the companies’ sub-contractors at home and overseas and overseeing training programs related to personnel certification for parts and aircraft.
After retiring, worked for BSI and TUV as independent Lead Auditor to recommend accreditation of specialised aerospace sector schemes.

Relevant Aviation Experience.
• EASA 21 Sub part G (Manufacture) and J (Design), EASA Sub. Part M and 145 (Maintenance) Advice on gaining and maintaining approvals, writing procedures and expositions. Independent technical and process audits.
• AS/EN9100 Aerospace Sector scheme (IRCA Registered Aerospace 2000 Lead Auditor) No 01185028
• Human Factors Training for EASA Part 145.
• Training in procedure writing, implementation, and internal auditing.
• Aircraft surveys, accident assessment, including technical records assessment.
• Assessment and audit of sub-contractors/suppliers.
CAA Licence No. 17411. Authority to release Aircraft ‘Fitness for flight’ after maintenance and
issue of Certificate of Airworthiness for new manufacture.
Master of Science. Quality Management.
Engineering Council, Incorporated Engineer.
Member of Royal Aeronautical Society.
Member of the Chartered Quality Institute.
Chartered Quality Practitioner.

Colin

Colin Kurek

Director and Museum Trustee

Brian

Brian Curtis

Director and Museum Trustee

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Fundraising Appeal:

If you would like to support our campaign please click on the link below to our MyDonate page (link opens new page) which has further details on this exciting project, many thanks for your support

The New Museum

Full Size Black Arrow Rocket Display

We will celebrate the life of 1st Officer Mary Ellis ATA 1917 - 2018

The 1st Museum

Our Plans for the Future

Outreach Program

The Black Arrow Replica

Richard Holleyman Collection

The Prof. Geoffrey Lilley Library

Our Partners

“Charlie November” The Britten-Norman Islander No:03

The Trustees

John

Bill

Helen

Jon

Michael

Rich

Tony

Colin

Brian

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