Exactly six months ago today, I posted about some aerial theatre in the time of coronavirus. That was the first time I mentioned the pandemic on Airminded, and it is, of course, still here (Victoria is -- hopefully -- nearing the end of its second wave, with 42 new cases reported today, down from a peak of 686 on 4 August, and a total of 737 deaths), but so is the aerial theatre. The Aircraft Restoration Company's NHS Spitfire Project evolved out of the Clap For Our Carers social media movement to support NHS health workers. That ended back in May, but the NHS Spitfire is still flying around the UK (and is still looking for sponsors).
We've got some COVID-19 aerial theatre happening in Australia, too, though it's a much less positive message:
The aerial message seems to be a right wing advertising channel. Something similar happened in the marriage equality survey, encouraging people to vote against. It doesn't seem to be widely used for non-political advertising nor for progressive causes https://t.co/UHM12ys2KT
— Andrew Elder (@awelder) September 13, 2020
'She' here is Queensland's Labor premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, and her supposed heartlessness is because Queensland's strict border controls are making it difficult, at best, for people to visit sick or dying loved lones from interstate. Which is obviously awful; but there are no perfect solutions in a pandemic, only bad ones and worse ones.
Anyway, to end on, here's a happier piece of political aerial theatre from 1909 -- this one organised by an Australian (sometime) Labo(u)r woman, Muriel Matters.
NHS Spitfire image: Airwolfhound.
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