RAF Museum gets Lindbergh's miles

Air Classics, Mar 2001

The Royal Air Force Museum received an important aircraft at the end of 2000. Miles M.12 Mohawk G-AEKW was donated to the museum by Louis Casey. Casey, former curator of the NASM, had partially restored the aircraft. During World War Two, the plane had been impressed into RAF service in November 1941 with the serial HM503.

The importance of this unique aircraft is that it was commissioned by Charles Lindbergh from the Miles company in 1936. The plane was built to Lindbergh's specifications to create a high-speed touring aircraft that Lindbergh could fly around Europe.

The plane was test flown by F.G. Miles in 1936 and on 28 January 1937 received its certificate of airworthiness. Painted in a striking orange and black (specified by Lindbergh for high visibility), the aircraft had the classic Miles "look" of the 1930s. A second Mohawk was started but not completed.

After the war, the Mohawk returned to the civil register but on 1 January 1950 the plane crashed while touring Spain and the damaged airframe was sold locally. During December 1973, the remains of the aircraft were discovered by Connie Edwards in a scrap yard near Tablada Air Base which is near Seville. In November 1975, the aircraft was obtained by Louis Casey and moved to Charlottesville, North Carolina. It was intended to restore the plane to static condition and considerable work had been done at the time of the donation. The aircraft will eventually be completely restored but the RAF Museum has several other projects to complete before tackling Lindbergh's Mohawk.