BAC drone

Category

Library Item

Item no

34695

Title

BAC drone

Description

British Aircraft Company drone.

Artist / maker

Unknown

Date

1935

Size

8.2 x 8.2 cm

Type

Lantern slide

A BAC drone with Stirling Castle in the background, it may have been taking part in the British Hospital Air Pageant. These pageants were held around Britain to raise funds for local Hospitals.

The original full size Drone was built by the British Aircraft company which was founded in 1928 to build a series of gliders, but in 1932 its designer and managing director, C. H. Lowe Wylde, fitted a 600cc Douglas motorcycle engine to the BAC VII tandem two-seater to produce the Planette. Two more were built, but during demonstration flights on 13 May 1933, Lowe Wylde was killed.

The drone shown here was supposedly painted as a Chinese Dragon by English cartoonist and illustrator William Heath Robinson.

Exhibitions with this item

Other views of this item

Related images

Related subjects

Agriculture and fisheries > Landscape > Fields

Homes > Residential buildings > Castles and palaces

People > Transportation > Air pilots

Places > Scotland > Stirlingshire

Transport > Air > Aeroplanes