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Painted in oils on canvas. 2000. 500mm x 400mm |
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‘The Circus comes to town’ When Sir Alan Cobham created his National Aviation Days in 1929, his fleet of aircraft and daring aerial performers were soon popularly known as ‘Cobham’s Flying Circus’. One of the first venues Cobham chose was Reading Aerodrome which had been opened by Charles Powis just a month earlier, at the Easter weekend of that year. There, as in many airfields around the country over the next five years, thousands of spectators flocked to see the ‘Circus’. Return visits to Reading Aerodrome were made by Cobham and his ‘Circus’ in April 1932 and June 1934. These events, aimed at making the British public ‘air minded’, provided the opportunity for many people, including two of my elder brothers, to gain their first experience of flying. Cobham was, of course, no stranger to Berkshire, having started his post-war career after leaving the R.A.F. by ‘barnstorming’ with the Berkshire Aviation Company, based in East Hanney, near Wantage. ___________________ |