TV News reports on Project Propeller 2017 and 2018
It was with great sadness that we reported the death of Project Propeller founder, Ian Burnstock, on 3 November 2021.
In 1998, Ian and a flying club friend, Gideon Todes, came up with the idea of PP as a way of saying thank you to World War II aircrew veterans and to give fellow private pilots the opportunity to put their skills to really worthwhile use. The annual event, held at a central airfield location, enables veteran aircrew to fly again on the way there and back and to meet up with old comrades in convivial surroundings, and their younger pilots to hear some interesting war stories along the way.
It was a winning concept and even now, over 20 years later, both veterans and pilots still tell us that they look forward to it as one of the best days of their year.
Ian was too young to join the RAF until after the war but, as a teenage Air Cadet, he and a couple of mates hit on the idea of visiting the very active wartime USAAF base at Bovingdon in uniform, and hitching rides all around Europe in Liberators, Marauders and Mitchells, with no money or passports, at a time when foreign travel was not authorised for civilians. In this way, before the war was over, he had visited France several times, as well as Italy and Denmark. His teenage partners in crime on these jaunts were his life-long friends Bev Snook (later Chairman of the Royal Aero Club) and Mike Beavis (a Vulcan pilot who retired as an Air Chief Marshal).
Many years later, Ian wrote this article about these adventures.
Later on, he learned to fly and accumulated 1500 hours flying a Piper Cherokee all around Europe for both business and pleasure, and introduced many younger pilots to the joys and tribulations of long-distance international trips. He taught his daughter Tania to fly straight and level and to hold a course while she was still small enough to sit on his knee in the cockpit.
The PP team all extend their deepest sympathies to his wife Ursula and to Tania.
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