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Club History Much of this material was obtained from "The Tiger Club A Tribute", a book by Lewis Benjamin which is available from Amazon as is his latest work, Tiger Club II: The Exuberant Years is available from Amazon. The Club was formed over a Royal Aero Club dinner in January 1956.
The Tiger Club originally operated from Croydon but on its closure in 1959 moved to Redhill and then onto Headcorn in 1990, when the Club was bought by some of its members. The Club rapidly expanded and gained a reputation as the premier sporting aviation club in the country. With the rapid increase in membership and new aircraft types, which included bringing the Stampe to this country, it started running its own airshows around the country. The top pilots of the day joined the Club and through the Club the present British aerobatic structure was started. Club pilots have regularly made up a part of the British Aerobatic Team at major aerobatic events over the years.
The Club introduced the Turbulent and Condor to this country, Rollasons manufactured all the Condors and around 30 Turbulents, which were used by many flying clubs during the sixties. The Club experimented with different types of Tiger Moths including the Super Tiger, which were used for both racing and aerobatics as well as Standing on the Wing. The Club is still going strong, introducing people to flying with trial lessons on the Tiger Moths as well as aerobatics and formation flying.
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The Tiger Club 1990 Ltd |
Norman Jones of Rollason Aircraft instigated the idea, the other founder members were Jimmy Denyer, Basil Maile, Bev Snook, Chris Wren and the Hon. Peter Vanneck
THe Tiger Club was also instrumental in starting formula one air racing in this country, which was promoted by the Club by holding a competition to design a new aircraft, this produced the Luton Beta. The Club also bought the Cosmic Wind aircraft over from the USA to race here, one of which was used in the World Aerobatics Championship by Neil Williams. 
