Extraordinary transport adventures with daring tales of motor racing, aviation and round-the-world journeys are all part of the autumn programme of lectures at the National Motor Museum, Beaulieu.
Starting the season on Saturday 21st September, David Bremner will be Following in Grandad’s Flight Path as he fires-up his incredible recreation of a vintage aeroplane, the ultimate tribute to his World War I pilot grandfather.
After discovering old aircraft parts in his grandfather’s shed, relics from a 1915 Bristol Scout flown by his grandfather during World War I, David was inspired to build a replica of this early aeroplane. With no airworthy examples in existence, it took six years of painstaking research before the ambitious build could begin. The completed Bristol Scout triumphantly took to the air in 2015 and was an exact replica of his grandfather’s plane from a century before.
David’s Bristol Scout will be roaring into life at the National Motor Museum for the evening, giving event participants the chance to see and hear this incredible machine. The start-up at 6.15pm will be followed by the screening of a documentary of the build and a talk with David.
Ivan Dutton: a life of motoring passion and achievement on Saturday 19th October, will remember the on and off-track career of the 1973 Production Saloon Car Championship winner. Ivan will recall his days working in the Chequered Flag workshop, before taking to the track in 1963 at the wheel of a Jaguar Mk1.
Following his championship victory a decade later, he went on to form his Bugatti restoration company, before his twin passions for racing and all things Bugatti saw him compete in a succession of these revered machines.
On Saturday 16th November, pilot Paul Catanach will be relating his tales of living life on the edge in Gone Bush as he describes his experiences flying across the Australian Outback.
Combining a career change with emigration, Paul embarked on his flying career after gaining his commercial pilot’s Licence in Queensland, before becoming a flight instructor. In his greatest adventure, he took a job in the Northern Territory transporting freight night and day in clapped-out aircraft. Experiencing the delights and perils of the dry and wet seasons of the extreme Australian climate, not to mention the trials of passengers, live freight, other pilots and wildlife, Gone Bush will tell of his hair-raising experiences.
The adventuring spirit continues on Friday 6th December, as Pat and Ness Garrod relate their incredible travels around the world on two wheels, in Bearback: The World Overland.
Putting their medical careers on hold and riding off into the sunset on their trusty motorcycle, nicknamed The Bear, the intrepid couple covered 100,000 miles unsupported as they travelled across 64 countries and 6 continents. Over the mountains of the Andes, across the deserts of Africa, deep into the jungles of Indochina and beyond the Arctic Circle, their four-year trek became one of the longest journeys undertaken by a couple on one motorcycle.
All of the talks will take place at 7.30pm in the Lecture Theatre of the National Motor Museum’s Collections Centre, with the exception of Following in Grandad’s Flight Path on Saturday 21st September which will start in the National Motor Museum at 6.15pm.
Tickets are £10 (or £7.50 for Friends of the National Motor Museum Trust) which are available from Theresa Browning at friends@beaulieu.co.uk or 01590 614792. All profits help support the National Motor Museum Trust. For more information about membership of the Friends of the National Motor Museum Trust and lecture series details click here.
