Robin and business partner Pat Crawford first saw the triplane in a hangar at Land's End airport, where it was in the capable hands of Viv Bellamy who'd originally built it. He was selling it on behalf of the owners.
How odd to find a replica of the Red Baron's triplane in the most remote edge of Southern Britain. However, this wasn't the first time that the area had had a connection with von Richthofen or at least, his family.
His cousin, Frieda von Richthofen, married the controversial author D. H. Lawrence, and in 1914 the couple were resident in Zennor just as The Kaiser's War - as it was known then - was getting underway. The Red Baron had not made his name at that early time, but the Lawrence's were certainly viewed with suspicion and not made welcome. Rumours were rife that Frieda was going to the cliffs to signal German U-boats.
They were eventually forced from their Zennor home and had to leave the UK. Lawrence in particular, never forgot the attitudes of the locals in Zennor, and included some incidents in his later work.
Monday, 26 March 2012
Wednesday, 5 January 2011
A Kennedy in Devon
Robin flew from Dunkerswell airfield on many occasions and was well known there. Today, the airfield abuts the trading estate and you have to use your imagination when trying to picture the airfield when it was first constructed and in use by the US Navy as a base for Liberator squadrons. The Liberator crews flew hundreds of sorties out into the channel, the Atlantic and Bay of Biscay seeking out and destroying German U-boats. Not all made it home and if you visit the village church you'll see a memorial to the many flyers who didn't make it back.
August 1944
The squadron's most famous pilot was Jo Kennedy Jnr, elder brother of JFK. Kennedy's last mission was part of a secret operation to bomb the V2 rocket sites with a Liberator bomber loaded to the gunnels with high explosives. After setting the bomber on its course, Kennedy and his co-pilot Wilford Willy, were to bail out over the Norfolk coast in order for the plane to be remotely guided to its target, but before they could jump the plane exploded in mid-air - the largest explosion ever witnessed in Northern Europe at that time. Only fragments of the plane were recovered and they can be seen in the museum at Dunkerswell.
Had Jo Kennedy succeeded in his mission, he might have lived to become president instead of his younger brother Jack. Had that happened, we can only speculate as to the outcome of the Bay of Pigs incident and the Cuba Missile Crisis.
Also, had the mission succeeded, Robin may well have been born in his native London rather than in Blackpool, his mother Violet having been evacuated along with many hundreds of other Londoners after having witnessed the destruction caused by a V1 rocket.
August 1944
The squadron's most famous pilot was Jo Kennedy Jnr, elder brother of JFK. Kennedy's last mission was part of a secret operation to bomb the V2 rocket sites with a Liberator bomber loaded to the gunnels with high explosives. After setting the bomber on its course, Kennedy and his co-pilot Wilford Willy, were to bail out over the Norfolk coast in order for the plane to be remotely guided to its target, but before they could jump the plane exploded in mid-air - the largest explosion ever witnessed in Northern Europe at that time. Only fragments of the plane were recovered and they can be seen in the museum at Dunkerswell.
Had Jo Kennedy succeeded in his mission, he might have lived to become president instead of his younger brother Jack. Had that happened, we can only speculate as to the outcome of the Bay of Pigs incident and the Cuba Missile Crisis.
Also, had the mission succeeded, Robin may well have been born in his native London rather than in Blackpool, his mother Violet having been evacuated along with many hundreds of other Londoners after having witnessed the destruction caused by a V1 rocket.
Thursday, 16 December 2010
Robin Bowes - Not the Red Baron
This blog is dedicated to the life and times of Robin Bowes, a British civilian display pilot who earned his living flying a remarkable selection of historic and replica aeroplanes including: the Fokker triplane, the Sopwith triplane, a Pitts Special, the Curry Wot known famously as "Airey Mouse" and many others.
My interest in Robin's remarkable story comes at the very end of his life when I witnessed his final flight at Stourhead Gardens in Wiltshire in 1995. Since that fateful incident, a series of coincidences has led me to research his life story through his many friends and family, and in the years since his death I have been trying to find a publisher for his autobiography.
In addition to his flying, Robin was an accomplished jazz band drummer, sports car driver, aviation artist and engineer, and I'm going to use the blog to highlight these various abilities for which he was widely known and loved by so many.
I hope that you get something out the blog as it grows, and that you'll become a follower of Robin who flew as the "Red Baron" in his scarlet red triplane; but this is not the story of the Red Baron, this is the story of Robin Austin Bowes.
My interest in Robin's remarkable story comes at the very end of his life when I witnessed his final flight at Stourhead Gardens in Wiltshire in 1995. Since that fateful incident, a series of coincidences has led me to research his life story through his many friends and family, and in the years since his death I have been trying to find a publisher for his autobiography.
In addition to his flying, Robin was an accomplished jazz band drummer, sports car driver, aviation artist and engineer, and I'm going to use the blog to highlight these various abilities for which he was widely known and loved by so many.
I hope that you get something out the blog as it grows, and that you'll become a follower of Robin who flew as the "Red Baron" in his scarlet red triplane; but this is not the story of the Red Baron, this is the story of Robin Austin Bowes.
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