City is all-a-flutter as hordes of giant moths take flight in memory of Amy Johnson

Amy Johnson Festival, a two-month-long celebration in honour of the Hull-born aviatrix, which features more than 60 events, opens in Zebedee’s Yard, with a major exhibition, Da Vinci Engineered.

Featuring flight machines based on Leonardo Da Vinci’s inventive designs, the exhibition from Florence, Italy, is a first for the UK.

Already causing a flutter is a series of giant painted moth sculptures, inspired by the pilot’s De Havilland Gipsy Moth, and designed by sculptor Saffron Waghorn, which have been appearing on the walls of buildings in the city and elsewhere in the UK. In Hull they can be seen at health and shopping centres, while others have fluttered as far as Croydon Airport, where Amy started her solo flight, and Herne Bay, Kent, close to where she died in an accident 75 years ago.

Rick Welton, Festival Director, said: “The Amy Johnson Festival re-imagines Amy’s world through the lens of today. We hope that our programme will bring Amy to life, through a great progamme of events that will have a wide family appeal.

“We’ve already seen a fantastic response to our festival plans and to ‘A Moth for Amy’, which demonstrates the enthusiasm and excitement the people of Hull have for festivals in general and Amy Johnson in particular.”

A Moth for Amy project manager, Clare Huby, said: “A huge amount of planning and preparation has gone into a Moth for Amy and the team are incredibly excited to see their months of hard work finally come together this week. We’ve already seen a large number of moth hunters determined to see every moth on the trail. People will be able to follow the Moth Trail using a map which will be available to pick up at various locations across the city, the region and beyond.”