A GRAND DAY OUT – A WESTLAND WALLACE AT SYWELL

The Westland Wallace was a British two-seat, general-purpose biplane of the Royal Air Force, developed by Westland as a follow-on to their successful Wapiti and first flew in 1931.

The original PV-6 prototype, registered G-ACBR (and also known as the ‘Houston-Wallace’) along with Westland PV-3 G-ACAZ, was part of the Houston Everest Expedition, named after Lucy, Lady Houston, the patron of an attempt to fly over Mount Everest. Both aircraft received modifications that included fitting heating and oxygen equipment, fully enclosing the rear cockpits and using highly supercharged Bristol Pegasus IS 3 engines.

Flown by Flight Lieutenant D.F. McIntyre and Douglas Douglas-Hamilton, 14th Duke of Hamilton, otherwise known as Lord Clydesdale, the two aircraft became the first to fly over Mount Everest on 3 April 1933 (as a side note, Northampton Central Museum and Art Gallery holds examples of the boots designed in the town for the successful 1953 Everest Expedition).

Most of the Wallaces served with the Auxiliary Air Force: 501, 502, 503 and 504 squadrons beginning with the converted Wapitis early in 1933. Others operated with the Anti-Aircraft Cooperation Flight at RAF Biggin Hill. The last Wallace was completed in October 1936.
The first RAF casualties of WW2 occurred when a Wallace of the RAF Observer School (K6028) crashed at Bennachie, near Aberdeen. P/O Ellard Alexander Cummings (23) & LAC Alexander Ronald Renfrew Stewart (24) both lost their lives.

When withdrawn from the general purpose role, many Wallaces were converted into target tugs. A total of 83 Wallaces remained in service at the beginning of the Second World War. The last were withdrawn in 1943.

The only surviving original Wallace is Mk II K6035, the fuselage of which is on display at the RAF Museum, Hendon. A replica fuselage was built in the 1980s by Skysport Engineering for a film about the Everest Flight which was never made. Not completed, it is displayed at The Shuttleworth Collection, Old Warden.

This undated photograph likely to have been taken in the late 1930s shows a visiting Wallace at Sywell Aerodrome, sadly we can’t make out the serial number.

Sywell Aviation Museum proudly announces its sixth Brass Monkey Book and Model Sale on Sunday 22nd March 2026 1000-1400hrs

What will be there?

- Aviation Books/ Model Kits/diecast models and more for sale by fair donation thanks to our donors we have a great selection for you to choose from!

-Think of it like a small church bazaar/table top sale!

- Also attending are Vince and the good folks at Models for Sale for all your kittage needs! www.modelsforsale.com

- Other model traders will also be coming to display their wares...follow this page for updates!

- Please note that there will be NO ACCESS to the Museum that day

- This event is held OUTSIDE and as such is weather dependent - if it is raining heavily then trader numbers will reduce significantly though the Museum will still sell items from inside

- The sale will be held in the Museum car park on tables outside the Museum entrance - parking is free. The Aviator Hotel garden and Pilots Mess SHOULD be open

- If you have items you'd like to donate please contact us in advance or bring them along - we'd really appreciate it!

What is the cost?

Entry is FREE, parking is FREE!

Thereafter the Museum plans to reopen on Easter Saturday -4th April 2026 at our Grand Opening and will then be open 1030-1630 each weekend and bank holiday until the end of September.

We hope also to be open Tuesday/Wednesday afternoons between 1200-1600hrs from Mid May

Any questions or queries, please email
sywellaviationmuseum@gmail.com or call 07968061708

Event page here:

www.facebook.com/events/845489221595452?active_tab=about&locale=en_GB

CHILLY CHIPMUNKS AT SYWELL C.1950S

Given the blanket of snow we had overnight it seems appropriate to post this shot of Sywell Aerodrome dating back to some time in the early 1950s -(the Chippie entered RAF service in 1950 and the units operating them at Sywell had left by the end of 1953).

It shows the flightline of 5 DHC Chipmunk T.10 aircraft of either 6 Reserve Flying Training School (12/5/47-31/3/53) or 4 Basic Flying Training School (14/11/51-21/7/53) then based here.

One of these machines may well be WG419, the cockpit of which the Museum has on display.

Photo - the Frank Golding collection.

SYWELL AVIATION MUSEUM REVIEW OF THE YEAR 2025

With the champagne nearly ready to pop it’s time to undertake the annual Sywell Aviation Museum Review of the Year!

The start of 2025 began with the first of our popular winter talks when the brilliant Debbie Land told us of Stalins ‘Night Witches’ – female pilots flying antiquated PO-2 biplanes, followed by Gary Weightman on ‘Victor tanker operations’ in February then Rod Dean in March on his experiences and anecdotes over the past ‘40 years of display flying’.

Huge thanks to them, and to all our previous speakers (and talk attendees). Sadly infrastructure changes at the aerodrome mean that these are the last of our talks which will take place at least for the foreseeable future.

30th March saw the Museum’s popular Book and Model Sale take place at the Museum which raised a goodly sum in truly appalling weather thanks to kind donors of model kits and aviation books. This in turn helped to fund progress with the Jetstream this year.

The sale will hopefully return in 2026 so if you have any model kits and accessories, diecast models or aviation books to donate please get in touch.

Many new exhibits arrived this year. After an epic restoration by Trustee Roger Batten, our replica DH Dragon Rapide cockpit ‘G-AJHO’ – ‘Rachel’ -as kindly donated last year by Mike Davey was unveiled in sharp new Brooklands Aviation Colours as worn by ‘JHO. Huge thanks as ever to our friend Ollie at Sprint Graphics (www.sprintgraphics.co.uk )who prepared all the decals including the very complicated Brooklands logos and even did a few spares for the Thomas Castle Trust (www.tcah.co.uk) to add to their Brooklands marked Tiger Moth G-ANTE. Kids have been busy trying out Rachel the Rapide all year!

The RAF Museum also kindly donated two models – one a Handley Page Jetstream G-AXEK for our displays and a rare wind tunnel model of another Handley Page type – the Heyford. This was appropriate as 2025 marked the 90th anniversary of the ‘Daventry Experiment’ where RADAR was tested over Northamptonshire using a Heyford in 1935. Something commemorated in a special display in the Museum.

19th April saw the 24th Sywell Aviation Museum Grand Opening which saw fab displays from our friends at Northamptonshire Home Guard, TTSG, South East Midlands MVT, Tommy Atkins Group, Bruntingthorpe Classic Jets, Tony Collins together with May Blosom and DJ Kelv - and many more vehicle owners and re-enactors! Thanks too to our visiting pilots!

We were treated to not one, not two, but THREE Supermarine Spitfires attending the Opening – our old friends at Air Leasing (www.airleasing.co.uk) bringing out ML407 aka ‘The Grace Spitfire’ and our new friends at Lilham Aviation (www.lilhamaviation.co.uk) with their two machines - ‘Normandy Spitfire’ MK912 AND ‘Suffolk Spitfire; RW 382!

We were very lucky to be invited to Lilham’s hangar for a special ‘run up’ in May and to meet the team -fab bunch of people!
Our popular Young Aviator Tours started again and this year we managed to take the total of young people taken on the tours to over 19,000 – we are approaching the magical 20,000 figure!

The main focus this year has been on our Handley Page Jetstream G-RAVL aka ‘Jenny’ with regular Facebook followers being able to track her progress.

Thanks to the whole JetsTeam but particularly Rob Colbert – pictured – she was fully rubbed down and prepared for primer which has now been applied ready for a top coat in 2026 – this was a HUGE amount of work for our volunteer team and we are very proud of them! Just look at the ‘before and after photos’ below!
With the season coming to an end at the end of September, we can look back on the huge number of visitors, groups, car clubs, fly ins and clubs who attended us this year. The final act of our season being to cover up the aircraft for the winter which was done in November.

So as the year comes to a close it remains for us to thank you our visitors and followers for your kind support through 2025 – in particular to those who have so generously donated model kits, diecast models, aviation books and more to help raise funds to keep us going.

Since we opened in 2001 the museum has always remained FREE to enter- our visitors pay not one penny unless they choose to leave a donation. This is really important to us especially as money is very tight for people at the moment due to the costs of living - people should not be excluded from their local history due to means.

Remember we are still on the lookout for such donations and plan to have another Book and Model Sale in March – watch this space! If you can help please contact us
sywellaviationmuseum@gmail.com or call 07968061708
Meantimes please put the following date in your new shiny 2026 diaries!

4th April 2026 – Sywell Aviation Museum Grand Opening 2025
If you fancy joining the SAM team – why not get in touch and consider volunteering with us?

As ever, this page will continue to provide you with local history stories, photos, Museum news (plus the occasional bit of silliness!) and more – and much like the Museum itself its all free (and actually takes quite a bit of work!) – many of you have been ‘invited’ to follow us but haven’t clicked the button to ‘accept’ so please do follow us for more!

If you’ve enjoyed our content this year and are able to, we welcome donations via PayPal to sywellaviationmuseum@gmail.com

All good wishes to you and yours for 2026 from all at Sywell Aviation Museum.

With not an awful lot going on between Christmas and New Year we thought we’d share this rather lovely short low budget film relating to Bomber Command released this year.

It’s only half an hour long and we thought it was wonderful. See what you think- it’s free to watch link here:

youtu.be/PYtZtSvEGwo?si=xVaW7xHqoEKh8ggA

Well you’ve given us all a terrific Xmas present- we’ve now reached an amazing 15,000 followers which is a huge milestone for a small museum like ours! Thanks so much and a huge welcome to all our new followers!

We’re glad you’re enjoying our annual repost of The Shepherd- that’s it for us now until the Museum Review of the Year next week! Merry Christmas! 🙂

THE SHEPHERD AUDIOBOOK- A CHRISTMAS TRADITION TO LISTEN TO….

Christmas Eve 1957, a de Havilland Vampire departs RAF Celle in northern Germany en route to RAF Lakenheath in Suffolk. Lost in fog over the North Sea and low on fuel…. How will the young pilot get home….

Frederick Forsyth’s epic 1975 short story read by Alan Maitland has been broadcast every Christmas Eve in Canada since 1979 and has recently appeared on Disney Plus as a short film…

In a Sywell Aviation Museum tradition, we too post it before Christmas for you to enjoy. If you’ve heard it before you’ll remember it fondly, if you haven’t you’re in for a treat….

“Celle Charlie Delta, Celle Charlie Delta, calling North Beveland Control…”

www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2_bLEqmBi0

A very Happy Christmas to all our friends, supporters, visitors and Facebook followers, and all good wishes for 2026.

The SAM Team 🙂

BRISTOL BLENHEIM I AT SYWELL

This undated photograph shows a visiting Bristol Blenheim MK1 at Sywell Aerodrome c.1937-1938.

The type first entered RAF service in 1937 with 114 Squadron.

After short service in WW1 with Bristol Fighters, 139 (Jamaica) Squadron was stood up again on 3rd September 1936 at RAF Wyton, Cambs as part of the RAF’s Expansion Programme. Initially equipped with Hawker Hinds, 139 transitioned to Blenheims including L1208 pictured here.

Sadly the machine was lost en route from RAF Wyton to an Armament Practice Camp at RAF Aldergrove on 12th November 1938 when control was lost in bad weather, the order having been given to return to base.

The aircraft hit the ground near Rugeley, Staffs and all three crew were killed. The cause of the crash was unknown.

In memorium:

Pilot: F/O Robert Duncan Tate aged 23.

Observer: Cpl Headley George Kennett aged 27.

Wireless Operator/Air Gunner: Robert Cyril Salter aged 18.