Adam Smith, former director of the National Museum of Flight, started to recruit volunteers in 2000. The group has included retired medics, teachers, civil engineers, film-makers and sign-writers – no one who knew how to build a plane.
The exact working replica has been built by a team of dedicated experts and enthusiasts. The building of the plane took place over the 23 years. The Strutter was built from scratch in a big shed in East Lothian. A group of pensioners aged between 65 and 100 built the historic biplane with nine of them not living to see it finished as their names have been recorded on a plaque in the cockpit.
The plane was built by pensioners in a barn in East Lothian is set to be flown by a young female pilot, Ellie Carter, 20, for the first time.
But they have now completed a Strutter, with a working engine. The Strutter was seen leaving East Lothian on the back of a lorry to undergo testing in West Lothian.
Funding was needed to keep the Strutter in Scotland. It stands in an outsize converted fruit shed in Congalton, near Edinburgh, soon to be sold.
If the shed cannot be purchased, the plane was likely to move to England.
Mike Harper, chair of the Aviation Preservation Society of Scotland, said: “The Strutter is probably worth twice what the shed is worth, but we don’t want to see it leave Scotland, where it was designed and built.
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