A new gallery of previously unseen images taken throughout Farnborough’s rich aviation history, some as early as 1905, has been unveiled at Farnborough Business Park.
The 14, large scale images come from an archive of over 100,000 photographs owned by Farnborough Air Sciences Trust (FAST) and have been remastered in partnership with park owners, Frasers Property.
Locally born Ben Maxwell Aylwin, development manager for Frasers Property, initiated the idea for the gallery, which took some 10 months to complete, as the final design detail of a new reception area he was project managing in the 1930’s art deco style, The Hub Building.
Ben explained: “I grew up only a couple of miles from the Wind Tunnels, so I’ve always had a keen interest in them and thought the light open spaces of the reception area offered the perfect backdrop to reflect the unique history of the business park.
“It was a much bigger undertaking than I originally thought due to the sheer number of images available, and it became a personal passion of mine to complete in collaboration with FAST.
“FAST helped us narrow the images down to a selection of 50, which are all now digitally scanned, with the chosen 14 being displayed in the newly refurbished ground floor entrance.”
Remarkably the images were taken on the highest quality cameras of the time and photographed onto glass plates to preserve their historic and scientific interest. The high quality of the original images is what has allowed us to remaster and increase their scale so dramatically for the gallery.
“We were fortunate to work with a local company, The Frame Centre, who did an amazing job at digitally repairing and enhancing the images for display. They really went above and beyond.” added Ben.
“A favourite of mine is one which shows some 30 women working across a factory floor in 1916 during WWI. I was able to watch the enhancement process as the image came to life, and you began to see all their faces clearly for the first time in over 100 years.”
The historic Wind Tunnels at Farnborough are some of the few remaining buildings from the world-famous Royal Aircraft Establishment (RAE). Saved from demolition by FAST and given listed status, these magnificent buildings were at the forefront of aerodynamic research and development from the early 1930s until 1994.
Bob Gentry from FAST added: “We were delighted to work closely, creatively, and collaboratively with the team at Farnborough Business Park to create this spectacular display.
“I think Ben showed as much passion for the history of the images as we have. What I feel is interesting about the photos is that they demonstrate the diversity of the people working on the critical research work undertaken before, during and after WWII up to and including the supersonic jet age. It is a very fitting display to be launched on what is our 30th year in September.”
Farnborough Business Park supports FAST by enabling tours of the Wind Tunnels which are not normally open to the public.
The Wind Tunnels Tour provides a close look at two of the remaining tunnels and will give the opportunity to learn about the varied history, the impressive construction, the critical research work undertaken before, during and after WWII up to and including the supersonic jet age.
For further information on the Wind Tunnels and to find out about the Tours visit https://airsciences.org.uk/wind-tunnel-tours/
