Martin Shaw: Aviators is a six-part British television series produced by Twofour. It was first broadcast on Discovery Real Time in 2006.
Each episode of the series had a number of segments. Together, the segments gave us three key stories, which ran, more or less, in parallel.
Firstly, there is the story of the crash of actor Martin Shaw's, treasured Stearman biplane, G-BAVO, known as "Two-Six" and his project to get it flying again. The aeroplane, a Kaydet Stearman, was crashed on 1 August 2004 by another pilot after the aeroplane failed to climb. No one was injured. The air accident investigation branch released a report of the crash in PDF format on its website, but did not come to any definite conclusion as to the cause of the crash. Shaw states a new engine had been recently installed. He asked Blackbarn aviation to restore the plane. It is not an economically viable proposition, but he commented that it seemed to be the emotional and common sense thing to do.
Secondly, there is an outline of the history of flight from the earliest days of ballooning, through developments driven by war, to dreams of everyday travel into space.
Lastly, he gives us an insight into the world of the aviation fanatic. He took the opportunity to fly some of his all-time favourite aircraft. He took the controls of a Spitfire owned by Maurice Bayliss. At Cranfield Airport, he co-piloted an English Electric Lightning owned by Russell Carpenter. Although forbidden to take off, the jet did reach 150mph in three seconds along the tarmac. He also compared notes with Wing CommanderKen Wallis, the nonagenarian builder and developer of the modern autogyro.
At the very end of the series, Shaw delights in the return of his Stearman to the skies above Norfolk. Following that first test flight, G-BAVO was grounded for several more months by aviation bureaucracy before finally receiving its new air safety certificate.
Anton Herman Gerard "Anthony" Fokker was a Dutch aviation pioneer, aviation entrepreneur, aircraft designer, and aircraft manufacturer. He produced fighter aircraft in Germany during the First World War such as the Eindecker monoplanes, the Dr.1 triplane and the D.VII biplane.
James Allan Mollison MBE was a Scottish pioneer aviator who, flying solo or with his wife, Amy Johnson, set many records during the rapid development of aviation in the 1930s.
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1910:
This is a list of aviation-related events from 1912:
Sir Alan John Cobham, KBE, AFC was an English aviation pioneer.
Raymonde de Laroche was a French pilot, thought to be the first woman to pilot a plane. She became the world's first licensed female pilot on 8 March 1910.
John Bevins Moisant, known as the "King of Aviators," was an American aviator, aeronautical engineer, flight instructor, businessman, and revolutionary. He was the first pilot to conduct passenger flights over a city (Paris), as well as across the English Channel, from Paris to London. He co-founded an eponymous flying circus, the Moisant International Aviators.
Clyde Vernon Cessna was an American aircraft designer, aviator, and early aviation entrepreneur. He is best known as the principal founder of the Cessna Aircraft Corporation, which he started in 1927 in Wichita, Kansas.
Lincoln Beachey was a pioneer American aviator and barnstormer. He became famous and wealthy from flying exhibitions, staging aerial stunts, helping invent aerobatics, and setting aviation records.
Calbraith Perry Rodgers was an American aviation pioneer. He made the first transcontinental airplane flight across the U.S. from September 17, 1911, to November 5, 1911, with dozens of stops, both intentional and accidental. The feat made him a national celebrity, but he was killed in a crash a few months later at an exhibition in California.
Charles Francis Walsh was an American pioneer aviator who died in a crash in Trenton, New Jersey.
The Aeronautical Division, Signal Corps (1907–1914) was the first heavier-than-air military aviation organization in history and the progenitor of the United States Air Force. A component of the U.S. Army Signal Corps, the Aeronautical Division procured the first powered military aircraft in 1909, created schools to train its aviators, and initiated a rating system for pilot qualifications. It organized and deployed the first permanent American aviation unit, the 1st Aero Squadron, in 1913. The Aeronautical Division trained 51 officers and 2 enlisted men as pilots, and incurred 13 fatalities in air crashes. During this period, the Aeronautical Division had 29 factory-built aircraft in its inventory, built a 30th from spare parts, and leased a civilian airplane for a short period in 1911.
Otto William Timm was a California-based barnstormer and aircraft manufacturer of German descent. Charles Lindbergh's first flight was flown by Timm. Timm partnered at times with his brother Wally Timm who did a lot of flying for the nascent Hollywood movie industry.
Preston Albert Watson was a Scottish aviation pioneer, who conceived his own original method of controlling an aeroplane in flight. This was his rocking wing method of lateral control, which consisted of a secondary smaller wing mounted above the main wing on an A-frame that could pivot about its longitudinal axis. Watson's method of lateral control was applied by him in three different aeroplanes; the first was built in late 1909, the second in July 1910 and his third in 1913.
Moye Wicks Stephens was an American aviator and businessman. He was a pioneer in aviation, circumnavigating the globe with adventure writer Richard Halliburton in 1931, and co-founding Northrop Aircraft, Inc.
Arthur Charles Hubert Latham was a French aviation pioneer. He was the first person to attempt to cross the English Channel in an aeroplane. Due to engine failure during his first of two attempts to cross the Channel, he became the first person to land an aeroplane on a body of water.
Flight Lieutenant Charles William Anderson Scott, AFC was an English aviator. He won the MacRobertson Air Race, a race from London to Melbourne, in 1934, in a time of 71 hours.
Théodore Clovis Edmond Lemartin, known as Léon Lemartin was a pioneer aviator who set a world record on 3 February 1911 at Pau, France when he carried seven passengers in a Blériot XIII Aerobus. He then took eight, eleven and thirteen passengers aloft the following month. He is also known as the world's first professional test pilot.
Captain Ernest Emery Harmon, Army Air Corps was an aviation pioneer. Lesser known than many of the major figures of early flight, his significant contributions during the golden age of aviation resulted, by an act of Congress, in the naming of Ernest Harmon Air Force Base in his honor. Dedication ceremonies occurred on August 13, 1949, at the base in Stephenville, Newfoundland.
Tracey Curtis-Taylor is a British aviator who has organised and piloted multiple flight expeditions with historic aircraft across Asia, Europe, Africa, Australia and America.
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