WIGHT Aviation Museum is seeking funds for a urgent campaign to buy the last three-seater Spartan bi-plane from New Zealand and return it to the Isle of Wight, where it was built.

Time is running out to secure the historic bi-plane, which is still flying, as its owner, Rod Hall-Jones, must sell it by the end of this year.

If the bi-plane, which dates back to 1932, is to be saved for the nation, the money must be found urgently.

Given the registration number of G-ABYN, serial number 102 when it was built at Cowes, it is the last surviving plane of its type and engine, and a piece of Isle of Wight history.

Isle of Wight County Press: Dorothy Spicer and Pauline Gower with a Spartan in the 1930s. Photo: Michael Fahie.Dorothy Spicer and Pauline Gower with a Spartan in the 1930s. Photo: Michael Fahie. (Image: Michael Fahie)

The story of how Spartan G-ABYN (nicknamed Gabby) moved from Cowes to Heston (London), to Ireland, to Hampshire UK and on to New Zealand, where it was fully restored from a near wreck, is little short of a flying miracle.

There, Gabby graces the South Island fiordland skies as ZK-ARH.

Almost 90 years ago a groundbreaking event took place in East Cowes.

During the 1933-34 winter, hidden from view in a draughty Spartan Aircraft hanger, a lone young woman - Dorothy Spicer - was working alongside men at Saunders-Roe (SARO).

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She was secretly training for the Air Ministry Engineer’s certificate or ‘B’ licence. This certificate would qualify her in rigging and constructing an aircraft and to to repair and certify a aeroplane after service overhaul.  

It's incredible that she managed to avoid publicity, as women were barred from training at Technical Schools in this discipline.

The Spartan was made famous by the now legendary 1930’s aviatrix duo Pauline Gower and Dorothy Spicer.

Can you help Wight Aviation Museum save the Spartan?

Dorothy was the Spartan engineer to pilot Pauline Gower when they were a flying business partnership in the 1930s, first with the now legendary flying circuses, then later as an independent business called ‘Air Trips.’

The two women owned two Spartans during the 1930s, setting records for the number of passengers flown and the number of flying hours clocked up in Pauline’s log books. Keeping the planes airworthy was Dorothy’s job.

One of Pauline’s pilots was Mary Wilkins Ellis, who was later commandant of Sandown Airport for 20 years, where the Wight Aviation Museum is based.

Mary’s flying life is a major exhibit at Wight Aviation Museum.  You could say, it all started with a Spartan!

Author Anne Grant, who runs the Solent Aviatrix website and is also helping to spearhead the Wight Aviation Museum's campaign to buy back the Spartan, said Rod is very keen to see it returned to the Isle of Wight.

Speaking to Anne, he said: “It is my great wish that she be returned to the place that she was built, as she is the only example of her type left."