TAYSIDE AVIATION, one of the leading pilot training organisations in Britain, celebrates the 40th anniversary of its founding tomorrow.

A handful of members, a tiny single seat aeroplane, a temporary building and a grass landing strip were to set in motion a chain of events that led to Dundee Airport as it is today.

In no small part due to the efforts of the previous managing director, Lovat Fraser, Tayside Aviation now operates a fleet of 20 aircraft with more than 45 employees.

Present managing director Jim Watt said, “So it is in fact thanks to this little single seat Tipsy Nipper aeroplane that we have a successful and developing airport at Dundee and a tribute to our engineers that it is still flying today.”

Tayside Aviation also owns and operates Fife Airport at Glenrothes, which is very much the home of the leisure and pleasure side of flying.

The company has installed a £250,000 state of the art flight training simulator to support its commercial flight school at Riverside.

It is still the sole provider for the Air Cadet Flying Scholarship programme which delivers some 150 cadet scholarships per year completed at Dundee.