Those magnificent men in grandad's machine
Two brothers have spent 12 years painstakingly rebuilding a plane flown by their grandfather during World War One - after finding parts of the aircraft in his garden shed.
David and Rick Bremner travelled the globe finding parts to reconstruct the historic war plane once piloted by their hero grandad Francis Donald Holden Bremner.
The pair have splashed out over £100,000 on their labour of love since they found three small parts of the Bristol Scout plane in his shed following his death in 1983.
Fl Sub Lt "Bunnie" Bremner had flown the plane between 1914 and 1918 while serving with the Royal Naval Air Service during the Gallipoli campaign.
On his return from battle the war hero had always told his family he would like to see the aircraft take to the skies once again.
So David, 63, and Rick, 61, along with pal Theo Willford, 66, set about honouring their late grandfather's wish in 2002.
Starting with just a joystick, rudder bar and magneto found in the shed the trio have since spent a staggering 10,000 hours building the plane from scratch.
As many of the parts were no longer in existence they had to scour the globe looking for components - including the engine- which was purchased in New Zealand.
And this week they were celebrating completing the remaining touches to the Bristol Scout Type-C plane - which has a wingspan of 24ft (7m) and is 20ft (6m) in length.
The aircraft is due to take the skies in spring next year and the trio plan to fly it over the River Somme on July 1, 2016 in a fitting tribute.
It will mark exactly 100 years since the fateful day in 1916 when almost 20,000 British soldiers lost their lives in France.
Yesterday (Fri) David, who works as a mechanical engineer and is chairman of the British Microlight Aircraft Association, said he believed his grandad would be proud.
The grandfather-of-two said: "We grew up less than 10 miles from my grandfather in Kent so we heard all his war stories.
