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STAINED GLASS WINDOW CELEBRATES 90-YEAR RAF HISTORY

The window, which cost £50,000, depicts a Battle of Britain pilot scrambling to get airborne and looking up to a sky filled with aircraft and events from every decade of the RAF's existence.

It measures 20ft tall and 7ft wide and will be displayed at the RAF Club in London's Piccadilly.

The window was created by Helen Whittaker, an artist more used to making images of saints and angels for churches than the RAF's version of the heavens.

Miss Whittaker, who is based at Barley Studios in York, agreed it was a 'very different' to much of her previous work.

"I tend to do ecclesiastical subjects" she said. "It's the first I have done an aviation theme.

"I took as my starting point the inspiring RAF motto Per Ardua ad Astra - Through Struggle to the Stars - but rather than the distant stars, I felt drawn more to the constancy, reliability and closeness of the moon which reflected the qualities I found in the RAF."

The window was funded with a donation from ex-City businessman and Lloyds "name" Ivan Heath, 93, who served with the RAF during WW2 and has been a club member of more than 50 years.

"Some time ago the club appealed for cash to buy suitable works of art and I offered then £50,000" said the former Squadron Leader. "They said the sort of pictures they get are more like £5,000, but they had this stained glass window in mind and would I help.

"I think they have done a good job, although it wasn't what I expected. I told them I was a Spitfire and Lancaster man, that was my era, but they pointed out that it was to be a history of the RAF and they wanted to bring everybody into it."

Read the full article here;

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/4338064/MUST-PIC-Stained-glass-window-celebrates-90-year-history-of-the-RAF.html