Vintage Aviators book puts wartime aircraft back in the sky

Anthony Phelps/Stuff

Gavin Conroy has written a third book, Vintage Aviators: Aircraft of the Great War.

An aviation enthusiast’s love of photographing wartime planes has led him to his third book, getting commercial and military pilots to test-drive replica vintage aircraft.

Gavin Conroy, the general manager of the Classic Fighters Omaka Airshow, has been photographing and researching World War 1 aircraft since 2006, taking 92 flights to log 26 replicas, reproductions and original World War I aircraft.

Much of them were part of a WWI aircraft collection by The Vintage Aviation Ltd, a company started by Sir Peter Jackson, whose team has restored and reproduced over 20 aircraft from the era.

By 2020 Conroy realised a book was starting to emerge from his work, so he contacted the chief executive at Vintage Aviation saying “there could be a book here” and asked for permission from Sir Peter and Dame Fran Walsh to produce it.

“So we get permission and off we went, and we’ve just carried on the last two or three years.”

He would travel to the company’s headquarters in Masterton most weekends and organise commercial and air force pilots to perform certain formations to be captured for the book.

The pilots, who during the week flew commercially or with the air force, then spoke about their flights for the book, as the vintage planes were often more difficult to fly than a Boeing 787, Conroy said. Some were able to compare it to stories from their own family history, while others talked about the unique flying qualities the planes had.

When asked if he had a favourite vintage aircraft from his time documenting them, Conroy said he was “quite taken” with the Albatros​ aircraft, but it was a plane with a few downsides.

“My favourites are normally the ones that don’t perform well.”

His passion for aviation began “a long time ago”. Conroy got his pilot licence not long after he was 16, with hopes of being able to fly a Spitfire or a Mustang from World War II, but ended up turning to photography to capture these “beautiful aeroplanes”.

And Conroy hadn’t stopped capturing planes since.

“It’s pretty hard to have a bad day.”

Vintage Aviators: Aircraft of the Great War was due to come out in September.

Anthony Phelps/Stuff

Conroy has dedicated the book to his great-grandfather.

The book was dedicated to Conroy’s great-grandfather, Private George Conroy, who had fought in the Boer War during 1902, as a way to acknowledge the conflicts that generation was involved in.

“The only thing that there really is to celebrate these guys and girls, and everyone that fought there or was a part of it, is through the medals, the vehicles, the aeroplanes, the boats,” Conroy said.

There was nobody left to tell their stories, and that was what made the wartime aircraft “so special”, Conroy said.