🇬🇧 PR14 – Airplanes over the castle
This year, the Aviation Fair Squadron entered next phase of its activity. After years of preparation, they have started performing with ultralight replicas of historic airplanes at airshows and is also gradually creating its new home in the hangar at the airport in Kunětice near Pardubice into operation. The Pardubice Aviation Exposition is also being created there. The grand opening will take place on Friday, May 17th from 5 p.m., by a short flight performance called Airplanes above the Castle.
„The Aviation Fair squadron was formed already in the autumn of 2019. We had plans for the future already and were preparing our first aircraft, UL replica of the Nieuport 11 aircraft, for its premiere at the Aviation Fair 2020. None of us could have imagined then what would happen next. Today, we all know what widespread measures have been ordered, changing lives almost all over the world, making the Aviation Fair Squadron disruption a completely trivial matter from that point of view. At present, however, the Aviation Fair Squadron is gaining strength to take a new flight,“ says Jan Rudzinskyj, the founder of the squadron and one of the Aviation Fair organizers, and continues: „A lot of time has passed in those four years, but the idea of establishing a squadron has matured for a long time, so we they didn’t give up on the goal and worked in a small team to create an overall concept of what we wanted to achieve. We have also expanded our collection of aircraft, and the audience at the recent aviation day in Plasy were able to get a preview of three of our machines. Next to Nieuport it was Aviatik-Berg D.I and Morane-Saulnier MS.139. In addition, we also have two Blériots in our collection in Kunětice. They are not yet airworthy, but we expect to put them into operation soon.
With the additional aircraft in Aviation Fair Squadron, we expect higher activity and, of course, we also have other plans, which we will gradually introduce to the public. I can certainly reveal that in addition to flight activity, our goal, together with the Pardubice region, is also to build a ‚living‘ aviation museum in Pardubice, which is rightly considered the cradle of Czech aviation. For now, in Kunětice, we are creating an Exhibition of Pardubice Aviation with a panel presentation bringing back rich history of flying in Pardubice. We expect it will open several times a year on the occasion of open hangar days, during which we will organize the Airplane over the Castle event as well.
Due to strictly limited car parking capacity at the airport, we decided to fly circuits around the beautiful Kunětická hora castle so that the spectators will be able to watch the planes from castle walls. It is a style of presentation that is not practiced anywhere in the world as far as we know.
It will not be an airshow, but a short flying performance of about half an hour, during which we will present our aircraft in an unusual environment. We believe this format will be interesting for the audience and the event will become a tradition. Finally, I will add that the flying performance will only be possible in good weather. At the same time, we ask visitors to observe the rules for visiting Kunětická hora castle,“ adds Jan Rudzinskyj.
