On Monday (August 22) Cowes Heritage and Community Group will celebrate the 70th anniversary of the first flight of the Saunders Roe Princess Flying Boat, the largest metal seaplane in the world.
The Beckford Centre - at 5, Beckford Road, Cowes, Isle of Wight, PO31 7SE - will house a one day exhibition featuring many images of the design, construction and flying of the Princess Flying Boat and other ephemera.
Scroll through the gallery of pictures above to see more...
The centre will be open from 10 – 4 and admission is free, although a contribution would be appreciated.
The Columbine Shed is also to be celebrated, where she was built.
The Princess unintentionally took off at 12.28pm while on trials. The crew included several local men.
The Princess flew over 90 hours on test flights, including twice “Round Britain”.
The Columbine Shed at East Cowes was constructed in 1935 as the RAF urgently needed new planes.
Built by Boulton and Paul Ltd, the Columbine Shed covered 50,000sq ft (4,645sq m) and the shed still has the art deco features from that period.
Several old workshops, houses and even a road disappeared forever beneath the Columbine Shed.
Without the Columbine Shed, wartime production of planes would have been much reduced. Hundreds of planes were built there. The shed survived the bombs that were aimed at it.
After 1945, production included many innovative designs, such as the first jet seaplane, SRA/1, affectionately known as “the Squirt,” which first flew in July 1947.
The SR45, Princess, was so large the tail and wings had to be completed on the slipway.
To get her out of the harbour, men had to stand on the end of one wing to make the other lift up and over the breakwater.
Plans had been drawn up for her in 1946, when people thought seaplane travel would resume as it had been so popular in the 1930s.
But by 1952, major airlines no longer required seaplanes. Three Princess planes were built but only one flew. All were mothballed in West Cowes and eventually broken up.
WATCH: What happened to the flying boats?
Next, the Columbine Shed was home to the SR53 fighter plane which had rocket and jet engines.
It was ahead of any rivals in 1957, but the Government decided to cancel the project in favour of guided missiles.
More than 20 rockets were built in East Cowes before the Government scrapped that project too.
The first hovercraft was designed and built in the Columbine Shed in 1959.
The SRN4 hovercraft (known as the Mountbatten Class) were “stretched” there and were still in use until 2000 on the cross-Channel service.
The vast concrete floor moves slightly with the tide. This makes setting up a level for construction of any large item difficult!
Recently, Columbine Shed has seen the construction of blades for wind turbines, housed Dame Ellen McArthur’s trimaran and is now used by Wight Shipyard.
The largest Union Flag in the world was painted on the doors in 1977 for Queen Elizabeth’s silver jubilee.
The Columbine Shed is 87 years old now. It is on the Island List, but is not nationally listed. Should it be? This building can tell so many stories of innovative design and skilful work.
(The author would like to thank the Isle of Wight Society for permission to use some of their material.)
Like reading about Isle of Wight innovations? Have you read these tales about the Black Knight rocket?
- Meet Black Knight rocket inventor Paul Leyton
- Isle of Wight rocket played a big part in the space race
Like reading stories about the Isle of Wight and its characters in bygone days? Click here to visit our Looking Back section for more interesting tales.
Have you got an Isle of Wight-related nostalgic or historic tale to tell? If so, you can email: katey@iwcpmail.co.uk
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