The most beautiful spot for a while - Avro Anson Mk.I OO-ANS taking off from Antwerp International Airport, Belgium (June 13 2026 13:01 LT)

An airworthy Avro Anson Mk.I operating from Antwerp International Airport (EBAW) on June 13, 2026, represents a genuinely rare sighting in contemporary European airspace. The Anson, designed by Avro and first flown in 1935, entered RAF service in 1936 as Britain's first monoplane to serve with Coastal Command and subsequently became one of the most prolific Commonwealth aircrew trainers of the Second World War, with over 11,000 examples built across multiple marks. The type was powered by a pair of Armstrong Siddeley Cheetah radial engines and featured a hand-cranked retractable undercarriage that required over 140 turns of a cockpit crank to fully raise — a detail that made it notorious among student pilots of the era. Registration OO-ANS places this aircraft on the Belgian civil register, where the playful suffix almost certainly reflects the type designation itself, a common convention among heritage operators.

The rarity of a flying example cannot be overstated. Surviving airworthy Ansons are extraordinarily scarce globally, with only a small handful documented as flying or near-airworthy at any given time. Most survivors reside in static museum displays across the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand — nations where the Anson performed the bulk of its wartime training duties under the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan. An example operating under Belgian registry and apparently based at or transiting through EBAW signals either a long-running private preservation effort or a recent restoration project that has reached airworthy status, both of which would represent significant investments of time, capital, and specialist engineering knowledge. The aircraft's presence at Antwerp, a predominantly business and general aviation facility, suggests a private owner or small foundation rather than a museum operator.

For professional pilots and aviation operators, the operational context of the Anson offers a useful historical reference point. The type was central to standardizing multi-engine instrument and navigation training across Allied air forces, and its docile handling characteristics made it a preferred advanced trainer despite its dated manual systems. The Cheetah engines, nine-cylinder air-cooled radials producing approximately 350 horsepower each, require maintenance expertise that has become increasingly scarce, making sustained airworthiness a meaningful technical achievement. Any organization keeping such an aircraft flying today must navigate a supply chain for parts and overhaul services that exists almost entirely within the global warbird community's informal network of specialists, pattern parts fabricators, and cannibalization of non-airworthy hulks.

The broader trend this sighting reflects is the continued, if fragile, vitality of European warbird and heritage aviation operations. Organizations such as the Shuttleworth Collection in the UK and various continental preservation groups have demonstrated that pre-war and early-war aircraft can be maintained in airworthy condition with sufficient institutional commitment, but the pipeline of certified mechanics capable of working on fabric-covered airframes and vintage radial powerplants is thinning with each generation. The appearance of a type as historically significant as the Anson Mk.I at a functioning commercial airport rather than a grass airfield or airshow venue suggests the aircraft is treated as a practical flying machine rather than a static exhibit — a philosophy that keeps these aircraft alive but also exposes them to the attrition risks of active flight operations. For pilots who study aviation history alongside their professional duties, a confirmed flying Anson in Belgian registry is a data point worth tracking.