DEPERDUSSIN..................... 0197

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The Shuttleworth Model Collection

	Photo left shows transluscent wings and tail showing structure through. Please note that pilot figure is not included with kit - scale figure casts are available (seated pilot, standing pilot) - please enquire for prices and availability

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Hooton AirCraft's very special model of the Shuttleworth Collection Deperdussin, one of the oldest flying aeroplanes in the world. Our Deperdussin model is unique for a card model in that it reveals the flying surfaces structures through translucent outer skins. 3 years in preparation, the kit contains 4 colour printed cards with special instructions to produce a translucent finish to the model, balsa sandwich cards, resin-cast 3 cylinder "Anzani" engine and propellor, pre-formed wire parts, clear spoked wheels with moulded vintage tyres, rigging cable. Kit includes a comprehensive history of the aeroplane and specially prepared 3-view

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AIRCRAFT HISTORY

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Albert Edward Grimmer of Ampthill, Bedfordshire, was something of a pioneer, designing and constructing bicycles that he raced and he built one of the first steam cars to appear in Britain. It was his firm belief that one day, man would fly mechanically for sustained periods of time&emdash;a belief encouraged by Orville and Wilbur Wright's success at Kitty Hawk in 1908. In 1912, Herr Spitz, a scrap merchant in tyres and batteries by profession, offered Grimmer a broken Channel-type Bleriot that was stored under the Railway Arches at Blackfriars, central London, and Albert bought his first aeroplane in (or on!) which, over the next few weeks, he taught himself to fly.

In 1913, Grimmer bid for a badly damaged 1910 Deperdussin, co.no.143, which had been owned by a jolly juggler called Valazzi. On his flights in the "Dep", Valazzi would take aloft a supply of bad eggs and throw them down at the uplifted faces of his friends. But before long, he had got into debt and his machine was locked up by the aerodrome authorities. The juggler succeeded in breaking down the door of the hangar, only to see it fall on his beloved "Dep", thus smashing its fuselage. Albert Grimmer Grimmer successfully bid for the badly damaged machine at a sale on Hendon aerodrome, took it home, repaired it with new wood and "Croyd" glue, then proceeded to fly it alongside the Bleriot, finding it a much more controllable machine. Came one day, when, egged on by a young Canadian, whom he was teaching to drive a car, Grimmer reluctantly took the 'plane out in dull and heavy weather, with gusty winds. As he later wrote: "As soon as the prop began to produce a steady breeze, I felt better about conditions, so I took off and made a good, easy circuit. But when coming in to land, I made a sharp left-hand turn, just as I passed over a tree. Whether I was travelling too slowly, or whether I got into a down current from the tree, I could never say&emdash;perhaps both; but I found myself taking a nose-dive. I hit the ground with such force that both wings were buried so deeply we broke them in trying to get them out." Grimmer escaped with little injury. They cleared up the bits and Messrs Nicholls of Bedford made him a new pair of wings. But the onset of war and pressure of business meant that Albert never flew the Bleriot or the Deperdussin again.

Twenty years passed. The aircraft and their shed were moved to Grimmer's garage at Ampthill and began to rot. Then Grimmer met Richard Shuttleworth at a Bedfordshire Flying Club meeting and before long, had told him about his veteran 'planes and heard about Richard's collection of veteran motor cars. In no uncertain terms, Grimmer emphasised that aero planes, just like motorcars, should be saved for posterity and given a good home. Richard at once jumped at the hint and asked Grimmer how much he wanted for them? In those days, oil for motor cars, instead of being sold in small scaled cans, was siphoned out of either 40-gallon or 5-gallon drums into measuring tins. At Grimmer's garage, in the shed adjoining the old "hangar", there were some 200 empty 5-gallon drums, and Grimmer said to Richard, "If you take these drums away, you can have the aeroplanes free of charge". Soon after, Shuttleworth and Allen Wheeler arrived in two lorries and dealt with the drums first. They then removed the two aeroplanes, one in each lorry. The 1910 Deperdussin was more or less in one piece, stored with the unused wings off but the Bleriot had its fuselage cut in half. Wheeler recalls: "When we arrived at Old Warden nearly all the top drums from Richard's lorry had fallen of and I had picked them up on the way back. We then dumped them in a wood near Old Warden and got into trouble with Mrs Shuttleworth because it was her favourite beauty spot."

At Old Warden, Richard Shuttleworth and "Jacko" Jackson, who had worked for the Blackburn Aircraft Co., proceeded to restore and rebuild the two veterans. The Bleriot was completed and first flew in May 1936, and was displayed to the public at the RAF Display at Hendon on 27 June 1936. The Deperdussin followed, and was complete and test flown by August 1937. The Dep was flown in front of the public at Heathrow on May 8th 1938 and Flight magazine reported "Mr Shuttleworth and Mr Edmunds both put up fine shows on the Dep making a number of curcuits at 40-45 mph. Mr Shuttleworth told us that the Deperdussin can be easily flown hands-off"

The Deperdussin continues to be flown on calm open days at Old Warden, restricted to straight flights down the airfield and is one of the oldest airplanes still flying anywhere in the world.