Guy in the Sky

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On Tuesday evening a good crowd met at Grove Green Community Centre for our monthly social evening with guest speaker. This month it was Guy Bartlett (Guy in the Sky) and his talk on the Aviation History in Kent. What an interesting evening, who knew how much history of flight there was in Kent. From the early days of flight and man’s desire to get into the sky. How and why the Aero Club (that later became the Royal Aero Club) was formed and why it was based near Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey. 

The history of Shorts Brothers, from manufacturing hot air balloons in Battersea to building a factory near the Aero Club and inviting the Wright Brothers to visit them resulting in a licence to build their Wright Flyer before moving to Rochester and building seaplanes that launched from the River Medway. 

Guy told us about how important Kent was during World War II and the Battle of Britain and the relevance of the memorial at Capel-le-Ferne and then brought it up to date with how Concorde ended up doing pleasure flights from Manston Airport with some great video footage of it taking off from there. All in all a great informative and entertaining evening.

Note for your diaries - Guy will be back on April 15th 2025 for another of his excellent presentations this time entitled The Dambusters.

For more information on Guy and his talks visit www.guyinthesky.co.uk