Rochester Cathedral prepares for a smooth takeoff for it's latest installation

The Short Scion plane was built in the 1930s, and had it's very first flight on the River Medway.  Finn Macdiarmid reports.

Transcript

00:01Eagle-eyed visitors to the historic halls of Rochester Cathedral might have been

00:05greeted with a different period of history today. A short plane dating back

00:09to the days of Medway's aviation boom when the Short Brothers innovated the

00:13British passenger aircraft and now it's being used to shine a light on the

00:17area's local history. The Rochester Bridge Trust gave a grant to the Medway

00:21Aircraft Preservation Society to restore the plane to its former glory.

00:26We have used some original short images, we didn't have any drawings and we've

00:33scaled those up from the measurements that we've taken from the fuselage but

00:39and basically that's where we've gone from. Everything is as authentic as we

00:44can make it but yes there will be minor differences but then I believe every

00:50plane was made slightly differently anyhow. 88 years ago this plane would have had

00:54its maiden test flight on the waters of the River Medway. Since then it's been

00:58on missions in World War II, used as a photo mapping plane in the 50s and even

01:02laid derelict for more than 30 years in South End's airport. And now after nearly

01:07ten years of reconstruction it's returned here to Rochester but instead of a

01:12warehouse in South End it's now in a slightly grander location. Over a year ago

01:18we've started working on bringing the restored short sign aircraft available

01:22for the public and so we're very proud to be able to present float plane, a free

01:27event for the month of August here at Rochester Cathedral. Alongside being able to

01:31see the fantastic restored aircraft we will have a series of education

01:35activities for all the family. Alongside the short plane in the

01:39cathedral's crypt, work had also started to build a gallery of the Short

01:42Brothers legacy with a collection of artefacts from their work. There's several

01:46aspects here. I think a lot of people have never heard of shorts, they don't

01:50know it existed. One of the key things is that there's very little tangible

01:54evidence left of shorts in Rochester. So whereas with Chatham Dockyard you've got

01:59all the buildings and things, there's nothing left of shorts really other than the

02:03two ramps on the esplanade and a hanger up at the airport. So for most, to a large

02:08extent, there's no trace of the place and so even people that live on

02:12shorts way don't know why it's called shorts way. So we're really keen to tell

02:16people first and foremost why all these amazing things happened.

02:21The Preservation Society, the Bridge Trust and the Cathedral want to make sure

02:24their collaboration can have a smooth takeoff for the opening on the 1st of

02:28August without any turbulence. Finn McDermid for KMTV in Rochester.