VH-USC Silver Centenary (MSN 1) owned by Rodney Edwards, at SABC Annual Fly In, Serpentine Airfield – Sun 28 September 2014. This unique aircraft was designed and built in 1930 in Beverley, Western Australia, by people with no aircraft experience. Selby Ford sketched plans for the aircraft in chalk on the floor of the powerhouse at Beverley, WA, in 1928. Using this as a template, Ford and the local butcher Tom Shackle built the airframe from spruce and maple timber, with Tom’s sister sewing all the fabric for the aircraft. Selby Ford purchased an undamaged engine from an aircraft that crashed nearby during the WA Centenary Air Race in 1929. The plane was towed from the powerhouse along the main street of Beverley to Benson’s paddock, and most of the town turned out to watch the first flight on 1 July 1930. Captain C.H. Nesbitt of Western Air Services intended to taxi around the field, but was in the air within a few seconds. The aircraft handled so well that he flew for 25 minutes and then conducted some joyflights with Ford, Shackles and his sisters. Nesbitt later died flying another aircraft and the Silver Centenary did not fly again until April 1931. The CAA had restricted it to fly only within 5 km of Beverley, but Ford was unaware of this. He obtained permission to return the plane to Beverley in September 1931 and then applied to have the aircraft licensed. With no design documents, the CAA refused to grant a Certificate of Airworthiness. Special permission was granted to fly the aircraft to Narrogin and back to Beverley on 6 December 1931 and this was the Silver Centenary’s last flight for nearly 76 years. In 1933, Ford returned the plane to the powerhouse at Beverley, where it hung from the roof until after his death in 1963. In January 1964, the Silver Centenary was lowered from the roof of the powerhouse, cleaned up, and put into storage until completion of the Beverley Aviation Museum in 1967, where it was the main feature. In 2006, Rod Edwards, the grandson of Ford and current owner of the Silver Centenary, decided to restore the aircraft and apply for a Certificate of Airworthiness. On 12 July 2007, the aircraft was registered VH-USC and made its first post-restoration flight on 20 July 2007. In August 2007, the Silver Centenary finally received its Certificate of Airworthiness – 77 years after its first flights. Photo © David Eyre