Saturday 16th March brought a new airframe back to the circuit in Britain in the form of a CA-18 Mustang under the registration of G-JERK affectionately known as ‘Jersey Jerk’. This aircraft is operated by Ultimate Warbird Flights. Under the organisation of the Thomas Castle Aviation Heritage Trust a photoshoot was laid on at Sywell aerodrome in Northamptonshire. The airfield can trace its routes back to 1928 where it was heavily used for flight training and later acquired by the Royal Air Force for the same purpose.
Despite only living an hour away this was the first time I’d been to Sywell so this was another place to tick off the list. For most of us we’d come to photograph the unveiling of ‘Jersey Jerk’ as this was its first appearance in public. However digging a little deeper on some of the other airframes on the cards we had some interesting subjects. So let’s take a look at just some of them;
CA-18 Mustang ‘Jersey Jerk’
G-JERK aka ‘Jersey Jerk’ is an ex-Royal Australian Air Force (P-51)Mustang. It arrived in the UK in November 2023 having undergone a new scheme depicting 44-15152 QI-T ‘Jersey Jerk’ which was originally flown by Maj Donald J Strait who commanded the 361st Fighter Squadron stationed at Martlesham Heath in Suffolk.
Slingsby SE.5A G-AVOU/C8846
G-AVOU is a replica SE.5A built by the Slingsby factory at Kirkbymoorside in North Yorkshire, part of a batch of six, in 1967. It’s first screen appearance was in the 1967 film ‘Darling Lili’ by Edward Blake and starred Julie Andrews , Rock Hudson and Jeremy Kemp. It was flown in the film ‘You can’t win ‘em all’ which starred Tony Curtis and Charles Bronson in 1970. It also featured in the 1976 film ‘Aces High’ with Malcolm McDowell, Christopher Plummer and Peter Firth. Whilst this aircraft is not a full scale replica of an original SE.5A, built by the Royal Aircraft Factory, it has been given the designation of a Slingsby Type 56 which technically is a new aircraft type.
For me the highlight was always going to be the P-51, the lighting was just right on this particular airframe and there was a lovely smattering of light from Kettering and Corby in the background which added a certain depth to the image. If you guys at Ultimate Warbird Flights ever fancy doing a shoot I could be persuaded!
View the footage: