| Description
| The air-cooled engine was from a Rover 8 car and was converted for use in a hand-made single seat bi-plane built and owned by the Gibb brothers of Hamilton in the 1920s. James (Jimmy) Gibb told Museum CuratorTerry F Mackenzie in the 1970s that the aircraft was built in a rural shed in Strathaven. It was then possibly the only privately owned aircraft in Lanarkshire (c.1920's). All parts, except the engine and instruments, were made by the brothers who at one time owned a joinery business in Hamilton. They laminated the two fixed-pitch wooden airscrews (propellers) themselves. Mr Gibb related that when he and his brother did a trial start up of the engine and began to taxi the aircraft out of the hanger under its own power, the spinning airscrew hit the top of the doorway and shredded itself before they could stop the motor. The airscrew had been fitted horizontally and they didn't realise that it was too high to go through the doorway. The plane was testing for its airworthiness certificate, just before the outbreak of the Second World War 1939-1945. All private flying was banned under wartime regulations.
The aircraft was powered by the Rover aircooled 8hp engine. The plane never officially flew, however Jimmy Gibb confessed to curator Terry Mackenzie that he and his brother had actually 'hedge-hopped' with it illegally in Strathaven!
The engine was originally displayed in the old Transport Gallery (see image) in Hamilton District Museum from Easter 1975 until the museum closed for refurbishment in 1993. |
