48 FLYPAST December 2018
visitor at Headcorn in 2014. We
arranged to take him up in the
Spitfire and invited the press to cover
what we were doing. Despite our best
efforts to explain the price of flying
in the three aircraft
though (around
£5,000), ajournalist misquoted us
by saying a Spitfire
flight cost just
£399, so
in thefirst
week we had
a thousand emails!
I was on holiday at the
time and spent it all responding to
people. I think most knew, in their
heart it was incorrect but wanted to
enquire anyway. We still flew about
60 people after we got going
properly in July 2014, and
that was the beginning of
Aero Legends. What
was supposed to be a
hobby business turned
into something a bit
more serious.”
This was all
happening while
Keith was still
working in
finance abroad, so
management of
the operation was
an issue at first.
He hired people
to run the
warbird business
here, and theywere
instrumental
in developing the
idea, but Keith wasn’t
entirely satisfied. The remedy
came in the form of his own son
Ben, who joined Aero Legends’
management in 2015 and is now
responsible for the day-to-day
running of the business.
Ben told FlyPast: “I was
studying chemical engineering at
Hertfordshire University at the
time, but was also working at Aero
Legends as a volunteer and that
was like a long-term interview
for the job! But we now also
have customers and relatives of
groundcrew volunteering for us, so
there’s a family feel to it all. In this
year alone we’ve flown around 4,000
people across the three main aircraft
types, and we’re one of just two
organisations in the UK offering
the means of round-chute para-
drops from a C-47. Our aircraft is
42-100882 Drag-‘em’oot, which flew
with the Greenham Common-based
87th Troop Carrier Squadron and
dropped paratroopers on D-Day,
before being transferred to the RAF
in September 1944.”
In 2017, Aero Legends’ two-seat
Spitfire Mk.IX NH341 emergedOPERATORS AERO LEGENDS
in the three aircraft
though (around
£5,000), afirst
week we had
a thousand emails!
I was on holiday at the
time and spent it all responding to
people. I think most knew, in their
heart it was incorrect but wanted to
enquire anyway. We still flew about
60 people after we got going
properly in July 2014, and
that was the beginning of
Aero Legends. What Aero Legends. What
was supposed to be a
hobby business turned
into something a bit
more serious.”
This was all
happening while
Keith was still
working in
finance abroad, so
management of
the operation was
an issue at first.
He hired people
to run the
warbird business
here, and theycame in the form of his own son
Ben, who joined Aero Legends’
management in 2015 and is now
responsible for the day-to-day
running of the business.
Ben told : “I was
studying chemical engineering at
Hertfordshire University at the
time, but was also working at Aero
Legends as a volunteer and that
was like a long-term interview
for the job! But we now also
have customers and relatives of have customers and relatives of
groundcrew volunteering for us, so
there’s a family feel to it all. In this
year alone we’ve flown around 4,000
people across the three main aircraft
types, and we’re one of just two
organisations in the UK offering
the means of round-chute para-
drops from a C-47. Our aircraft iswith the Greenham Common-based
87th Troop Carrier Squadron and
dropped paratroopers on D-Day,
before being transferred to the RAF
in September 1944.”
In 2017, Aero Legends’ two-seat
Spitfire Mk.IX NH341 emerged“Our aircraft is 42-100882 Drag-‘em’oot, which fl ew with the
Greenham Common-based 87th Troop Carrier Squadron and
dropped paratroopers on D-Day...”Above
Aero Legends is the only
organisation in the UK
to facilitate round-chute
para-drops, via its D-Day
and Arnhem veteran C-47
‘Drag-‘em-oot’.