This is one of the two Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah engines from a Mark I Avro Anson, #EF909. The aircraft belonged to No.5 Air Observer School, and crashed in this stream on the east side of the coll between Foel Grach and Carnedd Uchaf, North Wales, in the winter of 1943. The blisters on the engine cowling, some more of which can be seen top-right, belong unmistakably to an Anson.

Sadly, this engine has been removed since I photographed it here 1971.

The crash of Anson #EF909 was quite a saga, but unusually for sagas of this type - it was one with a happy ending! The aircraft took off from its base at RAF Jurby, at the north end of the Isle of Man, on 30th November 1943, on a navigation exercise to Worcester and back. On board the aircraft were Sergeant Jim Knight (pilot); Sergeant Gilbert (Wireless Operator) and Leading Aircraftsmen Reid and Thomson (pupil navigators).

The flight reached Worcester without incident and then turned onto the reciprocal course for the journey home. The route should have taken them back up the Welsh border over Shrewsbury and Wrexham, before passing out over the Irish Sea between the mountains of North Wales to their left, and the city of Liverpool away to their right. However, as they droned slowly back northwards, the anti-aircraft guns around Liverpool (which had been bombed quite heavily by the Germans) opened fire directly ahead, indicating that they had drifted off their planned course to the east.

To avoid being shot down by their own gunners, Sergeant Knight turned the aircraft onto a westerly course while the navigators attempted to fix their positions using their Radio Direction Finder, or RDF equipment. This involved rotating a circular directional antenna on the roof of the aircraft in order to find and then plot the direction to two separate radio beacons of known position. The headings obtained could then be used to triangulate their position.

There were delays getting the necessary radio fixes, meanwhile the aircraft flew into bad weather and the wings started to ice up, which forced the pilot to reduce height to 3000ft. Eventually Sergeant Knight informed the Navigator that he was going to head out to sea to get rid of the ice on the wings. He leaned forward to unlock the land compass . . .

. . . some time later, Sergeant Knight became aware that the steady roar of the aircraft's engines had been replaced by the sound of running water - probably coming from the stream in this photo! Disorientated in the pitch black night, Knight eventually staggered out of the aircraft, where he was soon joined by two more shadowy figures, which proved to be Gilbert and Reid. Only Thomson was missing. They started a search both in and around the aircraft, which had by necessity to be conducted by feel only, and after hunting for several minutes, they located Thomson a short distance away from the aircraft, who having regained his senses, was found to have suffered a broken ankle - the worst injury suffered by any of them.

The crash occurred at 21:30, which meant that they faced a long cold night in the remains of the Anson - made all the more miserable by the fact that they couldn't find the emergency rations - which contained chocolate!

With the coming of the grey dawn, and with cloud swirling around them, they realised that they were not going to be seen by search aircraft any time soon, and that the best way to get help was to go and find it. Knight and Gilbert set off together, heading westwards. I have known the details of this crash since I was a teenager, and it has always interested me that they chose to set off uphill. You would think the natural choice would be to follow the stream downwards to the east. Anyway, it proved to be an inspired choice, as the stream in which the aircraft lay, drops gently downhill to the east for about half a mile, before plunging over a 700ft cliff into the waters of Llyn Dulyn!

Having reached the ridge top, they heard the waters of the Afon Wen ahead, which they decided to head for and then follow downhill. It wasn't easy! The name Afon Wen is Welsh for 'White River', which gives some indication of the steepness of the hillside they had to descend - in flat soled flying-boots. Eventually they reached the valley bottom and a larger river - the Afon Caseg. The ground here was much flatter, but was much boggier in consequence.

After another hour of walking through the mist shrouded landscape, they heard voices ahead, and to their alarm, they realised the voices were not speaking English. How far out could their navigation have been?!! After an awkward few moments, where, to be on the safe side, they walked forwards with their hands raised, they were able to convince the men they met that they were RAF and discovered to their relief, that they were in Wales! Their new found friends took them to Llwyn Radyr near Gerlan, the upper part of the slate-mining town of Bethesda, where they did what the British ha

The Wright brothers inaugurated the aerial age with the world's first successful flights of a powered heavier-than-air flying machine. The Wright Flyer was the product of a sophisticated four-year program of research and development conducted by Wilbur and Orville Wright beginning in 1899. After building and testing three full-sized gliders, the Wrights' first powered airplane flew at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, on December 17, 1903, making a 12-second flight, traveling 36 m (120 ft), with Orville piloting. The best flight of the day, with Wilbur at the controls, covered 255.6 m (852 ft) in 59 seconds.

The Wrights pioneered many of the basic tenets and techniques of modern aeronautical engineering, such as the use of a wind tunnel and flight testing as design tools. Their seminal accomplishment encompassed not only the breakthrough first flight of an airplane, but also the equally important achievement of establishing the foundation of aeronautical engineering.

The Flyer received some minor repairs and cleaning in 1976 just before being moved into the Smithsonian's then new National Air and Space Museum building. In 1985, the airplane was given its first major treatment since preparing it for loan to the Science Museum in late 1926 and early 1927. It was completely disassembled, the parts thoroughly cleaned and preserved, and all new fabric covering applied. A careful search was made to locate new fabric that matched the original as closely as possible. When the fabric was replaced in 1927, it was sewn on in a slightly different way than originally done by the brothers in 1903. When stitching the new fabric in 1985, a large section of original flown 1903 wing covering was available and used as a pattern, ensuring the accuracy of the 1985 restoration.