Lancashire Aero Club Airshow Barton Aerodrome 1959, with fatal aircraft crash to Percival Prentice
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 8 ก.พ. 2025
- Cine Film of the Lancashire Aero Club Airshow Barton Aerodrome in 1959.
Includes the very unfortunate death of Tony Richmond whilst low flying his Percival Prentice.
Other scenes include The Tiger Club (?) Turbulent team, another unknown crash, Tipsy Nipper display and various others including the sort of low flying that just isn't allowed any more...
I did my PPL at Barton 1978 / 79 and flew from there for many years until our group-owned Chipmunk was relocated to Liverpool.
The first on-site crash I remember was at an airshow, the Midget Mustang that went in off a low level roll, very similar to the Prentice in this video. There were several off-site ones like the Tripacer that flew into Winter hill killing 3, a Baby Great Lakes that spun in near Chorley killing the pilot, a C150 in Scotland, one in Spain, one in Gloucestershire where a friend of mine packed too much into the rear fuselage of his Titch and stalled and spun in, and several other Barton based aircraft such as the Luton Major that shed a wing near Culcheth when it was being aerobated even though it was not an aerobatic type. One of my PPL instructors and one of the owners were killed in that. It was the evening after the Barton Airshow and led to a ban on club members going post-show flying henceforth.
There was the Broussard whose engine threw oil all over the windscreen in the Barton circuit causing the pilot to put it down 'blind' in a field the other side of the M62. Sadly it over-ran the field and hit a 2CV car on the motorway. Apparently 2CVs have no structural rigidity and the car collapsed like a house of cards and an occupant killed.
A good friend of mine was killed in a banner pick up accident on the airfield when the wire rope hanging from the Rallye aircraft had unbeknown to the pilot got wrapped around the tailplane and elevator and when he picked up the banner, the drag tightened the rope forcing the elevator fully down and the Rallye dived into the ground at speed.
A bunch of visitors one Sunday arrived from over the other side of the Pennines and the last in the gaggle spun into the ground off the downwind to base turn for 09. 2 killed I think.
Another Rallye took off very early one morning before the airfield was open and stalled and spun shortly after lift off, crashing on the north bank of the Ship Canal.
And then of course there was the loss of the Mosquito during a wing-over overhead Barton Moss.
Back to this vid - I wonder what the first crash was, the one that didn't burn? And who would have been flying the Tiger Club Turbs back then?
Vince C.
Fascinating summary. Wasn't there also a Stampe (blue I think) where the tie rods broke whilst doing aerobatics?
@@tillyfunmilkshake4827 There was a blue Stampe (which I have flown!) with a Lycoming engine which crashed on the beach at Southport (I think?). Not sure of the cause. No injuries as far as I remember.
Good grief ! I thought I recognised that aircraft. I did my initial training on the Prentice with the RAF in the early fifties. It was sluggish and underpowered and in no way suited to cavalier flying at low level. A sad loss from which Aviation has learned much since those days.
Stop bragging about yourself Mr show off 🙄🙄
This must be the oldest footage of the aerodrome we know of! Thank you for uploading onto TH-cam. Would it be possible for us to obtain a copy and use snippets in a montage clip we'd like to produce?
This must've been pulled out of someone's attic for sure. It's an interesting video for me though as i am somewhat familiar with Barton Aerodrome, having been to many former airshows there. Barton had it's fair share of accidents, i saw one in person there, (a "Midget Mustang" augered in coming out of a loop, mid 80's i think). Back when these chaps were flying i suspect one or two drinks may have been downed before removing the chocks! Thanks for posting.
I attended far too many crashes at Barton. My first was a 2/3rds replica Mustang in the 1981 Airshow and then there was a steady stream of them throughout the 80's at the airfield and the immediate surrounding area. One even made an emergency landing on the A57 Liverpool Road and was pushed into the airfield. One landed on the M62 resulting in one fatality. Another was the Piccadilly Radio Eye in the Sky aircraft which also towed an advertising banner which crashed killing the pilot whilst attempting to pick up the banner. An experimental microlight crashed on the other side of the M62 killing both the pilot who was the owner of the company who made them and his passenger a prospective customer and owner of a microlight flying school. Two died when they were the last plane landing in a flight of planes from West Drayton I believe. They stalled and crashed into a field just off the airfield. There were other serious crashes with injuries and a fatal helicopter crash after take off coming down between the A57 and the Manchester Ship Canal. I wasn't sorry to leave the local station when I transferred for a more mundane but busier station in Broughton. The year I retired was the year of the Mosquito crash. I'm glad I missed that one. I cycle to the airfield regularly and pass many of the crash sites, the details still vivid in my memory. When I first went to Irlam FS in 1981 I asked if the aerodrome was a problem only to be told there hadn't been a serious crash in years. Oh boy did that change within a few weeks and it never stopped till I transferred.
So it was your fault. You jinxed the airfield.
Lancashire lament 😢
"An experimental microlight crashed on the other side of the M62 killing both the pilot who was the owner of the company who made them and his passenger a prospective customer and owner of a microlight flying school. "
Was that John Hudson? I knew him well, but didn't know his accident was at Barton.
Sad.
Proof that it is indeed very difficult to fly an aeroplane underground.
before my time, this was talked about within family, we were often visitors to Barton Airshow through the 1980`s and early 90`s,
What a waste, an appalling waste of life. Aerobatics in that aeroplane at that altitude was never going to end well. Mercifully the guidance and training for modern displays is so much better accepted. This however is written in 2024 and not 1959. RIP .
I remember the crowd running towards the crash and the group I was with running away, at 10:31, and a club auster crashing on the Friday, the Turbulent was G-APMZ, I was 15, it was a bad 3 days.
Amazing
Complicated manoeuvres with high G forces on both pilot and machine are only appreciated by fellow pilots for the skills needed to execute them, the watching public for the most part are there to see the aircraft displayed flying within visible range ,simple wing overs and flying down the runway line at a safe height and speed
plus a dedicated display team if there is one will send nearly everyone home happy and safe
Indeed, but even dedicated display teams are not immune, one of my instructors who sent me on my first solo was killed in a mid-air practising a display routine.
This film was made in focus. Why transfer it to TH-cam so badly out of focus?
And why set it to a loop of Mozart's Magic Flute?
Basically Percy by calling himself tony was trying to give a coded message about a man called Tony Richardson.
I have also witnessed what happens when pilots over extend their capabilities when performing to a crowd. 😢 .perhaps there will be an endorsement that must be gained prior to doing demo flights . It would probably incorporate a bit of psychology designed to keep their mind on the job of aviating safely within a new found recognition of their own limitations, and ,of course, the limited capability of the aircraft they are flying. ( also, thank God for the demise of 8mm movie film.)
Cheers from Downunder👍
Why did Percy Henry Richmond change his name to Tony Richmond???
He didn't, as far as I know! I don't know why they think he is called Tony.
Ps just noticed you are a Richmond! 'Tony' was my grandad - how about you?
My dad is called tony Richmond 😆
Are you related to Percy did he know someone called tony Richardson?
m.th-cam.com/video/pJAMPZYXijw/w-d-xo.html
Pushing aircrafts envelopes to put on a good show for the crowd is not always a good idea.
Sufficient to say, he’s done dead
I have also witnessed what happens when pilots over extend their capabilities when performing to a crowd. 😢 .perhaps there will be an endorsement that must be gained prior to doing demo flights . It would probably incorporate a bit of psychology designed to keep their mind on the job of aviating safely within a new found recognition of their own limitations, and ,of course, the limited capability of the aircraft they are flying.
Pilots who think they can fly doing low level tricks. That's been a recipe for disaster since the time of the Wright Brothers. And pilots who think they can fly are still doing it.
And we have examples of better pilots than us making exactly this mistake. Douglas Bader comes to mind. 'Fun stuff' should be done with plenty of height,
@@HarryFaber-z7l Douglas Bader, like many fighter pilots before & since, was an arrogant [censored] who thought he could fly, & was invincible.
Low level aerobatics were specificly banned in his squadron, but he thought this rule didn't apply to him, after all, he was a squadron hotshot.
Naturally, he destroyed a fully serviceable & expensive aircraft, & as well, he destroyed his legs along with the aircraft.
Then during WW2, he got himself shot down, & spent the rest of the war as a POW, so perhaps he wasn't as good a pilot as he thought he was.
@@KB10GL I never met him although in my youth I knew plenty of folk who had. Whether he was as good as he thought he was is one question, but as a pilot, I am confident that he was better than I was. We all make 'mistakes', some of them we learn from but it is better to learn from other people's mistakes. We tend to have a better chance of learning if our mistakes are made over 4,000'. One of my friends made a mistake at 1,000 and got away with it, I made one at 800' and got away with it, my old CO made one at 200', and didn't, killing himself and a pupil.
Similar fatal accident happened at St Mawgan airshow in the 80s...pilot attempted low level stall turn..!!..Saw him do that there the previous year...and it looked close then...!!!!
@@HarryFaber-z7l I suspect that Bader was a better pilot then me also. But I know how good I am, & on a scale of 1 to 10, I guarantee you, it is not 10, & saying I was a 6 would probably be bragging. But I know my limits & try to stay well away from the edge. I am an old pilot [in my 70's] but was never a bold pilot. If dull & boring is the worst I can be accused of, then I'll wear that with pride.
There’s old pilots, and bold pilots, but there are no old bald pilots
There must be tons of old bald pilots😂
m.th-cam.com/video/pJAMPZYXijw/w-d-xo.html
Tony Richardson was the man Percy was making reference to when he changed his name to Tony.
Why this celebrating music???
OK for a show with no accidents, but not in this case, I agree.
What the hell was this filmed with ??? A shoe box with a hole for a lens ??? My old Kodak brownie 8MM took much better clearer pictures than this....must have been a British camera !!!
Looks to me (on the title screens where you can see the reflection of their arms) that someone copied an old cine-camera movie (probably then converted to VHS) by filming it with their phone whilst it was playing. I doubt it came with the music either. Bit much to hope for HD video from the 1950s though, isn't it?