FRED turns 50!

"November 3rd, 1963 started off quite foggy, but that did not stop us continuing the taxiing tests. Ernie took FRED up to the top of the hill and drove him off into the fog, returning in a very excited state, vowing he had been airborne, albeit very briefly…. Fortified by the knowledge that it was possible, I really went for it in the clearing conditions and performed the first proper flight. It was just a short hop straight across the field at an altitude of less than a hundred feet."

So Eric Clutton recounts in his memoir “An Aeroplane Called FRED” how the FRED story began 50 years ago today at the former RAF airfield at Chetwynd. FRED looked a little different then—his first of many engines was a converted Triumph motorcycle V-twin, his wings could be removed and strapped to the fuselage but did not yet fold—but Eric still flies that same plane today as N4499Y in Tennessee.

To kick of the 50th anniversary celebrations, I am pleased to share this article (link below), to which I contributed, from the latest issue of the Light Aircraft Association’s magazine Light Aviation. On behalf of Light Aviation editor Brian Hope and myself, happy anniversary to Eric and all FRED owners, builders and pilots from the LAA and Clutton FRED!

Cheers,

Matthew

LAA - Light Aviation - November 2013 - FRED Turns Fifty