This picture, while light-hearted, is based on a tragic incident that happened at Clifton Airfield in the 1940’s. A Handley Page Halifax bomber was coming in to land over the road that runs past the former ‘Bumper Castle’ pub. The aircraft came in too low and its wheels clipped the top of a passing truck causing the plane to crash killing several members of its crew.
My picture is not intended to depict the tragedy or make light of it. I just simply took the ideas and depicted a different aircraft – a de Havilland Dragon Rapide which was a short aircraft of the 1930’s and used by the RAF during World War Two. The aircraft is skimming over a Bedford QLD truck that was used by the British forces in the war as well. The truck is buffeted by the plane’s slipstream, leaving both it and its driver astonished.
David Roberts