Century wait for plane lift-off

By Fatima Manji
Look East reporter

The team hopes an improved version of the original engine will allow the replica to fly

A group of Oakington residents are building a replica of a 1909 aeroplane.

The plane was originally built by Alfred Grose and Neville Feary who both lived in the village.

They were entering a competition to build the first British plane to fly a circular mile.

At the time they were described in a local newspaper as 'flying men' building a 'cigar shaped machine!' But Grose and Feary did not manage it and the plan never got off the ground.

One hundred years later one Oakington man wants to revive their dream.

The plane was designed to fly a circular mile

Pioneering times

Nick Harrison found a letter describing the plane in a box of old village photographs he inherited.

He has spent ten years researching the history surrounding the almost forgotten device. Now Nick and his team are building a replica.

"It was probably the first aeroplane to be built in Cambridgeshire," says Nick. "It was an era when a lot of people didn't have cars so it was pioneering times.

"And I just thought it should be put back into the history books."

Nick and his team have tried to rebuild the plane using traditional materials.

Modern techniques

The wood and other components have been donated to the project by local businesses.

Neville Feary designed the original plane with Alfred Grose

Edgar Stearn has also been working on the flying machine.

He says they've used modern techniques to improve the build: "We haven't got any real desire to stand there for hours on end with a chopper and chisel as the original designers would have done.

"So we've used modern technology to get where we are."

The next stage of the rebuild will be to create a replica of the original engine. It will have to be modified as the original did not have enough power.

This should allow the plane to finally take off - if and when the team get permission to fly it.

So the Oakington monoplane may finally see the skies - albeit a hundred years late.