Aviation Scotland: Amateur Mechanics Spent 23Yrs Hand-Building WWI Biplane

[Ladybbird]

Meet The Ageing Amateur Mechanics Who Spent 23 Years Hand-Building a WWI Biplane Run by the Aviation Preservation Society of Scotland (APSS)

....And The Young Woman Who is Finally Making Their Dream Take Flight

Ellie Carter, 21, is flying the plane and she wasn't born when construction started

MailOnline 3 FEB 2024









21-year-old Ellie Carter, who will pilot the Strutter, said: 'I've only just turned 21 so they have been building her (the plane) since before I was born – it's kind of like their child and I don't want to break it'

From the moment she reveals herself in the corner of a hangar in a quiet rural airfield, Sophie the Strutter commands attention.








The group undertaking the build, with Sophie behind them. The project has been running so long that nine of them have sadly died before seeing Sophie take to the air. But now, after setbacks, delays and a protracted funding crisis, she is just weeks away from her first test flight



Startlingly different from the sleek fibreglass uniformity of the modern light aircraft ranged beside her, she bears all the hallmarks – and distinctive decals – of a First World War biplane that ruled the skies more than a century ago.

Take a closer look, though, and all is not as it seems. The organic cloth expertly cut and stretched and stitched as tight as a drum over her boxy frame looks too new; the freshly turned and oiled wood and gleaming metal rods that hold her together bear none of the rust of times past.

But then, despite her classic looks, Sophie is no museum piece. Rather, she is a unique piece of aviation history – the world's only fully working replica of a 1916 Sopwith 1½ Strutter, an aircraft that would have engaged in deadly dogfights with German air aces in France and chased down Zeppelins over the Firth of Forth.

Sophie is also much more than that. She is a living testament to the power of hope. For the past 23 years, a group of retirees have spent thousands of man hours painstakingly constructing her from scratch. And just as their 'warbird' is no relic of history nor, insist the men who built her, are they.

Having felt written off by society when they retired, the volunteers – many of whom are in their twilight – felt a rediscovered purpose in life through their involvement in this grand project, run by the Aviation Preservation Society of Scotland (APSS).

The project has been running so long that nine of them have sadly died before seeing Sophie take to the air. But now, after setbacks, delays and a protracted funding crisis, she is just weeks away from her first test flight.

In a separate twist, award-winning director Alex McCall is trying to get a film off the ground documenting the remarkable story of the build, which will hopefully culminate with Ellie Carter, once Britain's youngest female pilot, taking the controls for the plane's maiden trip – in honour of the women who built the originals but were banned from piloting them.

For the APSS it will be a defining moment. The group of around 20, who meet once a month at the APSS base near East Fortune airfield in East Lothian, has included retired medics, teachers, civil engineers, filmmakers and signwriters – none of whom had any experience of building planes.

It didn't hold them back as they gradually hammered, sawed, filed and stitched the warplane into shape with meticulous precision using a facsimile of the original drawings and the varied skills they had acquired during their working lives.

Alastair Noble, 75, is a typical example: 'I joined in 2009. I was a teacher in Prestonpans, teaching woodwork, metalwork and tech drawing, but I also had a lifelong interest in flying an aircraft and even had a private pilot's licence,' he said. 'When I heard about this project, I decided to come along. My first job was on one of the Strutter's wings.

'I would build test rigs for stress-testing things like wheels and engine mounts – with other people. We do everything as a team.'

He added: 'Before the Strutter I found that, having retired, every day was the same and you started to wonder what day of the week you were at. Whereas, coming down here every Wednesday, you built your week round it. It became an anchor for the week.'

Allan Cairns, 81, who has been a part of the group for 17 years, was at least a former aircraft technician with the RAF and later British Airways.

When he retired from BA, a friend who was a member of APSS encouraged him to join. 'Sophie was already under way when I got there. It's a great bunch of people and we just get on with it.

'I've loved aircraft ever since I was a boy. When I lived at Oxgangs in Edinburgh I'd see 603 Squadron flying Vampires overhead and I always wanted to do that.

'I wasn't academic enough to be a pilot so I joined the RAF in 1959, at 17-and-a-half, and did 15 years as an airframe technician before joining British Caledonian which was taken over by BA. It was a good life, travelled the world.

'I have flown in biplanes before, but I would love to fly in this. I just want to see her take off.'

For Mr Cairns and others, the group has always been as much about camaraderie and friendship as precision sanding wing spars or wiring in the delicate navigation instruments. When his beloved wife Nicky started to become ill, his friends were there to offer support: 'Nicky has the start of dementia, which is very difficult. Going on a Wednesday really helps me with all that. It's very sociable. You need that.'

Other wives have quietly encouraged their spouses' hobby: 'I think secretly they're quite happy that you're involved in something, especially a project like this that is so meaningful,' said Alan Campbell, 69, a lift engineer by trade. 'The chats over a packed lunch can be fascinating.

'A lot of it is about flying, but some of the guys are quite talkative about the past and sharing memories.

'And you learn so much from each other – everybody's got different skillsets but we all have the same mindset.'

Before he found the APSS, its current chairman Mike Harper, 64, had tinkered with cars and motorbikes in his own workshop after a career with Honda – he became one of the go-to men on general mechanics.

For Mr Harper, though, the project became a kind of surrogate family when his 35-year marriage broke down.

'The guys were really supportive,' he said. 'They could tell I'd been hit pretty hard and they were always asking how I was. And, of course, having the Strutter to focus on helped as well.'


Others in the group have similar stories. John Guy, a retired orthopaedic surgeon, joined the APSS soon after it launched the project and had used his prosthetic and surgical skills to fashion stunningly realistic copies of the Sopwith's original Vickers machine gun.