Skip to main content
Hello! We use cookies to improve your experience by providing insights into how the site is being used. Find out more.

To: Leicestershire County Council

Save the Desford

Please don't abandon the county's industrial history, keep the Reid and Sigrist Desford flying

Why is this important?

Reid and Sigrist made two aeroplanes, one of them survives, and only just as it was almost burned following its time providing the Royal Aircraft Establishment with pioneering research. That survivor is the Desford - named after the Leicestershire town where it was designed, developed, built and flown. It stopped flying at airshows and events across the UK during the 1970s, but, in 2018, it flew for the first time in around four decades. It has flown nearly 10 hours with a short test flight away from receiving its permit to fly and making appearances at airshows once more. However, Leciestershire County Council want to abandon all that hard work and give the Desford to a museum in Nottinghamshire.
Leicestershire, UK

Maps © Stamen; Data © OSM and contributors, ODbL

Updates

2020-12-16 21:10:07 +0000

Well, we’ve done it! Or at least we almost have. Yesterday afternoon, Leicestershire County Council voted to postpone the decision to transfer ownership of the Desford to Newark Air Museum until after the county councillor elections on May 6, 2021. This means we have just over five months to work to secure the aeroplane’s flying future.

We'd like to thank you all for your support over the past week and we'd like to keep in touch with you via our Facebook page - https://www.facebook.com/SaveTheDesford - as we continue to work to keep the aeroplane in the air. Subject to national and local lockdowns, we're planning to host several 'Desford Days' where members of the public will be able to see the aeroplane and speak to its custodians. Plans are also afoot for a photocall - organised by https://www.threshold.aero/ - with the Desford, a few of its hangar mates and maybe some visiting aircraft too.

2020-12-14 11:38:58 +0000

The Desford is currently airborne, you can watch it departing from its Spanhoe base here: https://www.facebook.com/SaveTheDesford/videos/1398476197157273

2020-12-11 08:58:12 +0000

1,000 signatures reached

2020-12-09 14:26:07 +0000

500 signatures reached

2020-12-08 17:33:05 +0000

100 signatures reached

2020-12-08 16:22:23 +0000

50 signatures reached

2020-12-08 16:08:38 +0000

25 signatures reached

2020-12-08 15:50:33 +0000

10 signatures reached