Video: WW1 bi-plane thunders back into life at York aerodrome

THE first ever live propeller driven aircraft to have been restored at the Yorkshire Air Museum, roared into life today.

A host of vintage aircraft were fired up by museum staff to advertise the first of its upcoming Thunder Day events, which takes place this Sunday.

Among the aircraft on display, was a full size representation of a World War 2 SE5a ‘F943’ bi-plane, which was with 92 Squadron, one of the very first Squadrons of the Royal Air Force (RAF), that has been painstakingly restored to working condition over the past four years.

Also on show was a De Havilland Dove DH104, a short haul airliner used by the RAF as a VIP transport, and which is known to have carried the Queen’s cousin Lord Mountbatten.

A spokesman for the museum based at Elvington, near York, said: “It has been a long held ambition of the museum director, Ian Reed, to have running propeller aircraft on site, to accompany our big jets. And now we have them.”