Foreground - Avro Tudor: The Avro Tutor was designed as a replacement for the Avro 504 trainer. The prototype was fitted with the lower powered Armstrong Siddeley Mongoose engine, but production engines were fitted with the Lynx engines. The Tutor entered service with the RAF in 1933 and from 1933-36, Tutors from the Central Flying School were famed for their impressive formation aerobatic displays. Tutors were also used throughout the RAF as elementary training aircraft. The Tutor was a luxurious and well-equipped aeroplane for its time, with a tail-wheel, effective brakes, seats that could be adjusted for height and rudder pedals for distance, spacious cockpits and a variable incidence tail-plane. The Tutor was mainly a military aeroplane and only nineteen appeared on the civil register.

K3215 was civilian registered as G-AHSA. It was built as part of the RAF's main production batch in 1933. It served with the RAF College at Cranwell and is painted in these colours today. It is believed to have been the last Tutor on RAF strength when in December, 1946 she was struck off. It was owned by the John Neasham of Darlington & District Aero Club. It was later bought by Wing Commander Heywood and was used in the film 'Reach for the Sky' when it suffered an engine crankshaft failure. Engine problems in 1979 caused the machine to be grounded for a number of years, a suitable Lynx could not be found even after a world-wide search. The existing engine was painstakingly rebuilt at Old Warden in 1981-82 by a senior member of the engineering staff. K3215 is now the only surviving example of the Avro Tutor and can still be seen flying at Old Warden.

Background - Hawker Hind: The Hawker Hind was built 1937 as a Royal Air Force standard light two-seater single engine day bomber, and is one of the smallest built for this purpose. Two 250lb bombs could be carried, or a larger number of smaller bombs. Powered by a 640hp Rolls Royce Kestrel engine with a maximum speed of 299kmh (186mph). Armed with two .303 Vickers machine guns, one in the nose and one in the aft cockpit. It was developed from the fast and beautiful Hawker Hart.

K-5414 is the famous Shuttleworth Collection's Hawker Hind, the only example of its type still flying. It is one of two Hinds discovered in open store with the Afghanistan Air Force and which were donated by the Afghan Government to the British Government and brought back to the United Kingdom for preservation. The other airplane is with the Royal Air Force museum at Hendon, and sports Afghan Air Force colours. It was brought back from Afghanistan overland with the help of the Ford Motor Company, and was restored to full flying condition at Old Warden in the colours of 15 Squadron.

The Hind was an interim replacement light bomber in the RAF. Although most Hinds were two-seater bombers, some were fitted with dual controls and used for pilot training. Production ceased in 1938, in total 528 were built. Most of the freshly trained bomber pilots of the mid-to-late 1930's began squadron life flying Hawker Hinds. The last biplane light bomber flown by the RAF, the Hind had vanished from first-line and even auxiliary squadrons by 1939.

K-5414 can be seen flying regularly at Old Warden Airfield to the delight of visitors who can hear it's special V12 engine reverberating around this wonderful old airfield.