Aviation Festival makes its debut

A new festival, celebrating the story of military and civil aviation in Orkney, is running until September 14.

Orkney has been at the centre of numerous aviation developments over the years, through two world wars and the pioneering air service of Captain E.E. (Ted) Fresson in the 1930s.

A new era in island aviation began in 1967 with the start of Loganair’s inter-island service, and the company’s president, Scott Grier, will tell the story, with archive footage, tomorrow evening, Friday.

The festival is an initiative of a local group, Another Orkney Production, led by photographer and film-maker Moya McDonald, who says that the driving force behind the new initiative is to put on record the remarkable range of achievements in aviation that have taken place in Orkney.

“Scapa Flow had a huge impact, and the programme will include a talk about radar in Orkney in World War II,” she said. It will be given by Ian Brown, curator of the National Museum of Flight at East Fortune.

“We will also hear about the Fleet Air Arm in Scapa Flow from the daughter of one of the pilots, Sheena Taylor, who comes from Stromness.”

The festival opened on Wednesday with an Aviation Film Night in Westray, introduced by Richard Fresson.

A film show in Birsay tonight, called Flying High, will feature films from the Scottish Screen Archive collection. The closing event of the festival will be an Aviation Trail Bus Tour on Sunday afternoon, including the unveiling of an aviation interpretation board at the Standing Stones Hotel in Stenness.