Colin Essex has undertaken much work on projects other than his own. So impressed were people at the quality of the Cygnet’s propeller when it appeared at Old Warden that he started getting orders for more. Replica props made from offcuts are sold at Shuttleworth shows and in the collection’s shop. He has done numerous jobs for Shuttleworth, including wing repairs on the Sopwith Triplane after its 2014 incident, and making propellers for that aeroplane and the recently completed Camel (see Aeroplane December 2017). A current focus is the rebuild of the collection’s DH53 Humming Bird, G-EBHX. Other tasks have included wing repairs on Pitts Specials, Chilton DW1A G-CDXU and the German Quax-Flieger group’s Tiger Moth. But Colin has recently acquired a new aircraft, in the form of Heath Parasol G-AFZE.
Designed in the US by Edward B. Heath, the Parasol was a pioneering kit-built aircraft first flown in 1926 with a 27hp Henderson motorcycle engine. It was the first homebuilt to be licenced for flight by the American authorities. Nearly 1,000 kits were sold, together with 50 factory-built examples. Sadly, Heath was killed when a low-wing prototype crashed in 1931.
Just two Parasols were built in Britain. G…
