Lanark children help airshow centenary celebrations

ALTHOUGH their great-grandads were about their age in 1910, today's generation of Lanark schoolchildren rose to the occasion when asked to help celebrate the centenary of the town's airshow, the first ever held in Scotland.

As reported in the Gazette, there are many and varied celebrations of this August's anniversary planned but one which has already proved a major success was designed to get today's youngsters enthused about the feats of those magnificent men in their flying machines at Lanark Racecourse almost 100 years before they were born.

And the end of the contest resulted in 10-year-old Lanark twins, Lewis and Matthew Stewart, really riding high – quite literally – in a helicopter ride, the top prize in the contest.

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They were actually on two separate flights, one with dad, Lanark firefighter Alistair, and the other with their uncle, Ex-Lord Cornet Kenny Lean.

The rides were donated by the helicopter's owner and pilot, Lanark businessman Charles McCann.

Said Lewis after the flight: "It was brilliant. It was our first flight in a helicopter but we weren't frightened at all."

He said that the experience might come in handy later in life.

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"I want to join the RAF," he revealed. As for Matthew: "I want to be a firefighter like dad - or I might become a winchman on an RAF helicopter."

For more information on this article, see this week's Lanark Gazette which is in the shops now.

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