Part 15 - Planes over Longford Town

Black and white print

A view of biplanes (and a autogyro) over Longford Town in about 1935. The larger plane is apparently an Airspeed Ferry, a ten-seat passenger biplane built in the early 1930s. The photograph is related to an aviation display organised by Alan Cobham (1894-1973). Cobham organised displays of various aircraft, ranging from single-seaters to modern airliners, with many skilled pilots. He toured both Britain and Ireland, calling at hundreds of sites, some of them regular airfields and some just fields cleared for the occasion. Generally known as ‘Cobham's Flying Circus’, it was hugely popular, giving thousands of people their first experience of flying. These displays continued until about 1935.