Silver Centenary

Plans for the plane, which was named in honour of Western Australia's 1929 centenary, were drawn to scale on the floor of the Beverley powerhouse which Ford owned.

The aircraft made its inaugural flight on 1 July 1930 and was flown for the next 18 months, but after Ford proved unable to provide the authorities with blue prints and technical specifications, it was mothballed in 1933.

After Ford's death from a car accident in 1963, the people of Beverley created an aviation museum with the Silver Centenary as the featured piece.

In 2006, Ford's grandson Rod Edwards retrieved the plane from the museum to enable restoration, which caused much concern to the people of Beverley.

During the Western Australian Centenary Air Race in 1929 a competitor crashed in Baandee 120 km from Beverley, and Ford purchased the undamaged engine for £170.

The plane was towed from the powerhouse along the main street of Beverley to Benson's paddock, and most of the town turned out to watch, although the shire council voiced its disapproval at Ford for taking such a risk.

Receiving the news that Johnson had been delayed in Kalgoorlie, Ford and Nesbitt flew onto Maylands Airport where West Australian airways made hangar space available for the Silver Centenary.

Captain Nesbitt died, along with his two pupils, on 13 October 1930, whilst flying an almost-new Puss Moth on a training flight from Maylands Aerodrome and return.

Ford applied to have the aircraft licensed but without blue prints, stress charts and other design documents the CAA refused to grant an airworthy certificate.