Caterpillar Club - 1999 Biggin Hill International Air Fair cover the Falcons Signed

JS(CC)63 RAF cover produced for the Biggin Hill International Air Fair on the 26/27 June 1999. The cover artwork by Tony Theobald depicts Caterpillar Club logo and airmen baling out of aircraft including the first ever British member of the Caterpillar Club when the pilot baled out of his AVRO 504 while lost in the fog. The artwork also shows a pilot of No 56 Squadron baling out of his blazing Hawker Hurricane during the Battle of Britain in 1940, while underneath the crew of No 582 Squadron Avro Lancaster bale out of their stricten bomber (the chap baling out of the rear turret is my grandfather) after a raid on the German Ruhr in late 1944. The lower part of the artwork shows a pilot of No 1 Squadron ejected from his Harrier jet during the Falklands War in 1982 and below a Tornado crew of No 20 Squadron eject after engine failure during the 1991 Gulf War.

The Caterpillar badge was awarded to aircrew whose lives had been saved by the use of an Irvin parachute and came into being in 1922. The cover bears the RAF Falcons logo as it was carried and dropped by the RAF Falcons parachute team prior to the Biggin Hill Air Show.

The cover bears 26p brown definitive cancelled with Biggin Hill Westerham postmark depicting the Falcons display team dated 26th June 1999.

Cover has been signed by The Falcons 1999 Display Team

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