The Scramble on Sunday 26 April will mark 100 years of the former RAF Bicester with a celebratory display of wings and wheels inside Hangar 113.
The Technical Site, which is today home to more than 50 specialists and hosts thousands of enthusiasts three times a year, was first laid out in 1926 and still stands largely as it did a century ago.
Buildings including the grand Station Offices, recently given the green light for its restoration, the Guard House, Power House, Parachute Store and two Type A hangars were among those created in 1926. The site reopened as RAF Bicester in late 1927.
RAF Bicester was further developed a decade later, but its history stretches further back than even 1926. A Bristol Boxkite of the Air Battalion Royal Engineers, later the Royal Flying Corps, landed at Bicester in 1911, and the new RAF temporarily moved to the site in 1918 at the end of the First World War. It closed within a year, until the Force’s expansion.
A Bristol Scout like those used by the RFC will take centre stage in the hangar to honour those pioneering days. The plane itself, 1264, is owned and was built by David and Rick Bremner as a tribute to their grandfather, who flew the plane during the war. The brothers found parts of 1264 in his shed, and set out reviving it in his honour.
1264 has strong links to the modern site, too, having appeared at Flywheel and the Super Scramble where its propeller was signed by Sir George White, grandson of the founder of the Bristol Aeroplane Company.
Tickets to the Scramble sold out in 11 hours when they were released in January. Tickets to the October event will released to Pegasus members on 20 April, before general sale opens on Monday 27 April.
