King's learner plane flies at Bedfordshire air show
- Published
Prince Charles in the cockpit of an RAF Chipmunk trainer plane during a flying lesson at RAF Tangmere in Sussex
The plane King Charles III learned to fly in in 1968 took to the skies for a celebratory air show on Sunday.
The 70-year-old Royal de Havilland Chipmunk WP903 was among vintage aircraft at the King and Country Air Show at Shuttleworth Aerodrome in Bedfordshire.
It was used by the young prince as a training plane while he was a student at Cambridge University.
He flew solo in it for the first time on 14 January, 1969.
The then-Prince Charles was awarded his private pilot's licence two months later and his RAF Preliminary Flying Badge on 2 August that year.
In August 1971 he was presented with his RAF wings.
The dayglo red, single-engine Chipmunk was affectionately known as "the Red Dragon".
The Chipmunk flew in an air show on Sunday
Since 2001, the Chipmunk has been operated by the Henlow Chipmunk Group and has been based at Old Warden Aerodrome near Bedford since 2020.
The Roe IV Triplane replica also took part in the show
Two Edwardian-era aircraft also took part in the air show.
Both are so fragile, they can only be flown in near-windless conditions - and Sunday's weather was deemed suitable.
The Roe IV Triplane was an early British aircraft designed by Alliott Verdon Roe and built by AV Roe and Company. It was first flown in September 1910 and only one example was made.
The one that took to the air for the King and Country Air Show was an exact replica of the original made for the 1965 film Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines
A replica of the Bristol Boxkite, first flown in 1910, was also on display.
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