A Record of the BAGE Family History
An Aviation Pioneer
The following is taken from The Chronicle and Echo, Wed, June 17, 1987;-
Record plane's creator has died.
Aircraft designer Arthur Bage, creator of the record-breaking Mew Gull aeroplane, has died aged 85 at his Sywell home.
Mew Gull Plane and Test Pilot
Mr. Bage was chief designer at Aero Controls Ltd in Northampton from 1950 to 1963, but he made his name before the Second World War when he helped design the famous Gull series of single-engined monoplanes.
His influence improved the aerodynamic efficiency of the series, and it was in the Mew Gull that Alex Henshaw flew in record time to the Cape and back - a record that is still unbeaten.
Aviation writer Don Middleton, a close friend of Mr. Bage, said the designer had a remarkable memory for events and aircraft.
''He was one of the last of that select band of pre-war aircraft designers who had complete design responsibility for a whole aeroplane as distant from part of an international project,'' he said.
Mr. Middleton said he had taken Mr. Bage to see Henshaw Mew Gull being reconstructed near Old Warden just a month before he died.
''His delight in seeing again the supreme craftsmanship of the work being carried out was so evident, '' said Mr. Middleton.
''It seems fitting that his last contact with an aeroplane should be with one of the most famous of them all and which came from his own drawing board.''
Mr. Bage, of St. Brelades, Sywell, leaves two sons.
His funeral was due to take place at Sywell Church today.
(Ed;- Arthur is located in the London & Kent Family Tree)