A WING AND A PRAYER: Henley Men's Shed members work out a way to winch a WWI scale model SE5 to the ceiling. Murray Campbell (centre), Daniel Broome and Doug Hornigold.
A WING AND A PRAYER: Henley Men's Shed members work out a way to winch a WWI scale model SE5 to the ceiling. Murray Campbell (centre), Daniel Broome and Doug Hornigold.
A third-scale model of a World War 1 British fighter plane is to take pride of place at the Henley Men's Shed.
Men's Shed spokesman Jim Buchanan, a former president of the New Zealand Sport & Vintage Aviation Society, said the model Royal Aircraft Factory SE5 (Scout Experimental 5) biplanewas constructed in Masterton in the late 1980s and donated for display at the society museum at Hood Aerodrome in Masterton.
The model boasts a faithful reproduction of the flight colours and insignia of the SE5, featuring as well a polished and revolving wooden prop, canvas, wire and frame wings, and a wooden machine gun mounted above the cockpit.
Mr Buchanan said the model had been selected as a winning float during a Christmas parade in the town during the early 1990s, and ever since had been suspended in the society hangar.
"The society passed it on to us and it should look good hanging on an angle, even if that could be a little ambitious to achieve."
