Stearman set for 'Out of Africa' flight

摘要

Old Warden-based Ryan PT-22 display pilot Tracey Curtis-Taylor's newly delivered Boeing PT-26 Stearman won the UTC Aerospace Civilian Aircraft Concours d'Elegance at the Royal International Air Tattoo at Fairford, Gloucestershire, on July 20. Restored by Stearman specialists 3G Classic Aviation at Meidl Airport, near Sopron, Hungary, the machine has been fitted with extra fuel tanks in readiness for a commemorative flight from Cape Town to London, which will be undertaken in November. Tracey will be retracing the route flown by Mary Heath in an Avro Avian during the first three months of 1928, for which she was to enter the record books as the first person to fly the perilous 8,000 mile Cape-London trip solo. The route she took was later to become the Imperial Airways scheduled route to Cape Town.