FROM THE ARCHIVES The A 50TH ANNIVERSARY SURVIVOR

In 1996 Anthony Preston, then the office manager at Shoreham, engaged the services of local aviation artist Peter Champion to create a painting to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Popular Flying Association.

A lifelong aviation enthusiast, in his retirement from a career as an illustrator for national newspapers, Peter was a regular visitor to Shoreham Airport. His passion had started when, just 10 years old at the outbreak of WWII, he was fascinated by the fighters and bombers overhead and started to sketch them.

Champion became famous during the Falklands War when, with photographs from the Islands unable to make it back for the next day’s editions, he was tasked with painting the day’s events for publication. His would be the first scenes from the battlefield in the newspapers the following day.

The LAA painting includes some of the original PFA aircraft, such as the Currie Wot, Taylor Monoplane, Luton Minor and an original Campbell Cricket autogyro, as well as vintage types, such as the Comper Swift and Piper Cub. It also includes newer designs including the CFM Shadow, Long EZ and Europa, regarded as contemporary types at the time!

The painting was hung in the offices at Shoreham until the Association’s move to Turweston. It was later found in the LAA HQ stores in 2016, and after some sympathetic cleaning, took its place on the CEO’s office wall, where it both tells the story of the Association, and sums up ‘Flying for Fun’. Steve Slater