Vintage aeroplanes are just one part of the Shuttleworth Collection, a unique trust still housed on the Bedfordshire estate of its late founder. Born in 1909 to a family of wealthy engineering industrialists, Richard Ormonde Shuttleworth grew up surrounded by all the latest boys’ toys, eventually becoming a motor racing enthusiast and champion. A participant in the inaugural London to Brighton Car Run, Shuttleworth won the Brighton Speed Trials twice, as well as the Donington Grand Prix and Brooklands Mountain Championship.
As well as accumulating cars and motorbikes (along with tractors and farm machinery) throughout his lifetime, Shuttleworth was amassing an impressive collection of flying machines. His first plane – a DH60X Cirrus Moth – was bought as a form of convenient transport between his home in Old Warden and his beloved Brooklands in Surrey. However, his racing career came to an end in 1936 following an accident at the South African Grand Prix, after which he focused increasing attention on his growing collection of planes.