Lanark air statue The Spirit of Flight unveiled

LANARK'S new landmark, a statue entitled The Spirit of Flight, was unveiled recently in true aviation fashion.

The new monument, costing over 30,000, was created to mark the centenary of the 1910 Lanark Air Show, Scotland's first ever aviation meeting.

For two years a committee of local enthusiasts, chaired by Sylvia Russell, gathered grants to create the new monument on the former railway embankment at the entrance to Lanark Loch, near to the original Racecourse airshow site.

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All that effort came to fruition when a crowd of 200 people gathered to see the statue unveiled by the man in charge of the RAF in Scotland, Air Commodore Richard Atkinson.

He was flown into the Royal Burgh in the helicopter of committee member Charles McCann.

Lanark-born Wing Commander David Orr also travelled specially from his NATO base in Germany to be there as did the entire RAF Leuchars Pipe Band, to provide music for the event.

After a speech of welcome from Sylvia, the Air Commodore told the crowd: "I was delighted to be asked to an occasion to mark an important milestone in this country's aviation history."

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After he had performed the ceremony, Lanark's St Nicholas Church minister Rev Alison Meikle said a prayer of blessing for the new sculpture, followed by a flypast of light aircraft and microlights from the nearest airfield at Strathaven.

Among those also taking part were members of the Kilninie Club with their Lanimer Procession entry, on a 1910 Airshow theme.

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