Wight Aviation Museum Donates Historical Souvenir To Island Collection

Helen Blake, Chairperson of Wight Aviation Museum (WAM), presented Gavin Stride of Island Collection with a picture of Pauline Gower and Dorothy Spicer with their Spartan Aircraft called “Helen of Troy” this week.

The presentation was made during a fact finding tour of the museum yesterday (Tuesday).

Gavin’s role is leading the establishment of a new Arts Council Not-for-Profit Organisation (NPO) which has the ambition to encourage shared ambition, nurture talent, support creative education and produce a cultural strategy for the Isle of Wight.

The presentation shows a picture of Gower and Spicer’s aircraft, which was built at Somerton works near Cowes, and was used by them for their Air Tours business and touring the country to encourage support for aviation.

It was one of 3 Spartans owned by the couple.

WAM is raising funds to return a fully restored example of this aircraft to the Island.

Gavin in his role directing Creative Island, the Cultural Development Agency for the Isle of Wight, was shown how the Island made gondolas for airships, thousands of planes for the first and second World Wars.

Helen and Gavin discussed the recent collaboration between GKN at Cowes and Rolls Royce to develop a revolutionary composite turbine blade which has enabled the building of the UltraFan; the biggest and most powerful jet engine in the world.

At same time the UltraFan offers a 25% fuel saving relative to a first generation engine.

For more information, email "Spartan Campaign" to wightaviationmuseum@gmail.com, phone/text 07949704052 or visit the official website.