Open Day at RAF Manston

Join these visitors to RAF Manston as they celebrate Empire Day in 1937 - featuring Avro Ansons and Hawker Hinds amongst other aircraft types

Sydney Bligh's colour film records an RAF Open Day at Manston Aerodrome in Kent where we see the crowds examining a variety of aircraft types. Then we see members of the Comrades of the Royal Air Force - or CRAF, chatting with a smiling Sergeant Price. Young boys crawl all over a biplane before we see several Avro Ansons and Hawker Hinds, piloted by local Auxiliary Air Force members, preparing for take-off as they embark on a formation flight.

Sydney Bligh ran a wireless and electronics shop called S.W.Bligh, which was on North Lane in Canterbury. He was an early pioneer of radio, beginning his experiments in 1913 using the call-sign BXA. By the early 1920s Bligh was broadcasting his own shows - before becoming one of the founder members of the British Broadcasting Company. As well as his work as an amateur filmmaker he also was an early pioneer of television and developed some components that improved television reception.