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Painted in oils on canvas. 1998. 600mm x 750mm. The original painting is now on permanent loan at the Museum of Berkshire Aviation. |
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‘Ladies Race’ Reading Aero Club was started by Charles Powis and his Wife, Pauline, as a social club for ex-students of the Phillips & Powis Flying School and, by 1931, its members played a big part in the success of Reading Aerodrome. A new clubhouse was constructed early that year, with an official opening on 16 May. Many guests arrived in some forty visiting aircraft, despite heavy rain falling most of the morning. As part of an afternoon flying programme, a Ladies Handicap Race was arranged, with two heats and a final, over a triangular course starting and finishing at the airfield. The spire of St Paul’s Church in Wokingham and Twyford Railway Station acted as ‘marker beacons’ for the turns. Among the contestants, eventually flying into third place in the final, was Amy Johnson, who had shot to international fame the year before when she flew solo from England to Australia in a de Havilland Moth, similar to those depicted in the painting. ____________________ |