The Robin Goch (the name means Robin Readbreast in Welsh) is a monoplane now in the National Waterfornt Museum’s collection. It was built by a man called Charles Horace Wakins in his workship in Cardiff about 1907-08, and is made from wood and piano wire and the pilot’s cockpit seat is actually a kitchen chair! Mr Watkins said he had flown the plane on a number of occasions in and around Cardiff before 1914. Engineers from RAF St Athan examined the monoplane during the 1960s and concluded that it was certainly airworthy. It is one of the few amateur airplanes built before World War 1 to survive, and one of the earliest examples of aircraft from the United Kingdom.

Now, we don’t suggest you set out to make a full scale plane, but you could colour in a picture of our Robin Goch. See the bottom of this page for a colouring sheet to download and print.

Or how about making your own paper airplane?

For this you’ll need:

• A few sheets of plain, A4 paper
• Colouring pencils or pens to decorate

This short video will show you how to make five different airplane shape

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Once you’ve made them, how about trying them out and see which one fly’s furthest? And please post photos of your planes on our Facebook site: www.facebook.com/waterfrontmuseum/