This Tiger Moth was actually built by de Havilland themselves (many were sub-contracted out) with the construction number 82845 and the military serial R4922. Initially delivered to 10 MU on 23.2.40 it then went on to serve at 7EFTS right up to 27.7 45, virtually the end of the war. It says a great deal for the strength of the design to able to stand up to 5 years of continuous use in the hands of student pilots.

Ironically it had a major accident in 1949 but was repaired and sold to Wolverhampton Aviation in 1950, becoming G-APAO. Sold to the Wiltshire School of Flying in 1957 it metamorphosed into a Thruxton Jackaroo which was essentially a 4-seat Tiger Moth using the Tigers’ wings, engine and tail assembly but a new, wider fuselage was fitted. It flew in this guise until 1976 when it was rebuilt as a standard Tiger Moth, re-appearing at Newtonards (Northern Island) in 1981. Once again it was damaged by floods but rebuilt and flown regularly until 1991 when it went into storage. It then re-emerged from a further overhaul at Rendcomb in 1994 from where it came into our care and has been repainted in the post war all-silver with yellow training bands colour scheme.

This has, of necessity, been a brief history of the aircraft but we hope it shows how durable this 1930’s design has been. By flying with us you will have helped to keep a small but important piece of Britain’s heritage in the air. To put it into perspective, the Tiger Moth has been around for 70% of the History of Aviation