Planes and Flags

I did warn that today would be about aeroplanes and it is, amongst other things! Apologies for a lack of photos, they’re refusing to publish but I’ll try and rectify this. 

The National Museum of Flight’s iconic image is Concorde as it’s the home of one of the few remaining examples, it would have been natural for me to include a picture but it’s nigh on impossible to photograph it due to how it’s displayed and the fact it almost fills the hanger so I photographed a Vulcan instead. 

The only problem with Vulcans is they’re fairly common, that’s the third one I’ve photographed in the last few years. I think that’s partly their status but also by the time they were taken out of service the museums were established and able to take them on. 

The museum does a good job of displaying, and telling the stories of, both civil and military aviation. It’s not all planes, either, there’s a section of interactive exhibits for children to learn about engineering and the theory of flight. 

During World War One East Fortune Airfield was home to both planes and airships, used to try and spot enemy shipping and submarines and as part of the defence of Edinburgh. Unfortunately they weren’t successful in the latter role and the city was bombed by Zeppelins L14 and L32 in the night of 2nd/3rd April 1916, leaving 13 dead. One of the bombs failed to go off and is now in the museum. 

This has personal significance because the night before  L11 had dropped bombs on Sunderland killing at least 22 but potentially saving my grandmother’s life. The family story is that the raid brought on premature labour and had the pregnancy gone to full term Nan would have been still-born. The dates fit so it’s quite probably true that without a bomb like the one displayed I wouldn’t be writing this now. 

The weather was very variable, bright sunshine one minute, miserable drizzle the next with the occasional downpour so having seen everything and just about stayed dry I had a very nice toasted ciabatta in the cafe before departing to play Brown Sign Bingo. 

On the way to the museum I’d noticed a brown sign for the Flag Heritage Centre which intrigued me so I went there after leaving the museum. The story is that the Scottish Saltire, a white cross on a blue background, was created after a battle between the Picts, led by Angus mac Fergus, and Scots against the Angles and Saxons under Athelstan. The area was under Northumbrian rule and the former had been on a raid when they were caught and made a stand near what is now the village of Athelstaneford. 

King Angus feared the outcome and led prayers for deliverance, being rewarded with a cloud formation of a white St Andrew’s cross against the blue sky. The Scots won the day, the saltire became the flag of Scotland and St Andrew became their patron saint. 

The Heritage Centre is housed in a 16th Century doocot (pigeon loft to the English) at the back of the church where there’s also a memorial. These buildings were fairly common and have been described as the “medieval deep freeze” since the pigeons provided meat when nothing else was available. At the time only breeding livestock were generally fed through the winter as there wasn’t enough food available, the meat animals were slaughtered in autumn contributing to what’s known as the Hungry Gap. Pigeons took minimal looking after and were self feeding so filled in the lack of meat but the advent of turnips and other root crops for animal feed largely solved the problem and they became less popular.