The Story of Wopsie the Cat Based on a true story...
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Based on a True Story: The first airship to travel across the Atlantic from east to west, left East Fortune in Scotland on 2 July 1919 and arrived in Long Island, New York four days later. While in flight, the crew found a cat called Wopsie who had been smuggled on board by one of the engineers, William Ballantyne. William was supposed to stay behind to save weight, but he somehow hid himself on board taking Wopsie with him. Wopsie tells us the story of her amazing aviation adventure. 3
One day I was taking my morning walk around the countryside, when I saw something quite strange. I stopped and hid behind a bush so I couldn t be seen. In front of me was something which looked like a huge balloon tied to a piece of string floating in the air. It hadn t been there the night before. Where had it come from and where was it going? 4
People came out and pulled the balloon out of the sky..down, down, down it came. There was my friend Billy from the workshop who I visited on my morning walks. He would often give me some milk or a scrap of bacon for my breakfast. I ran up to say hello and find out more about this balloon and where they were going. 5
Good morning Wopsie, what are you doing here? Billy said. Mew I said, which really meant I m fine thank you, where are you going? I looked up at the balloon, then back at Billy. Billy said: Haha Wopsie you are so curious! We are going to go up in this airship which is going to take us across the Atlantic Ocean it is a big adventure, as we ve never done it before. Billy smiled at me then turned to finish the packing. 6
I had so many questions in my mind. It isn t a balloon, it is an airship, but what makes it fly? How does it get up high in the sky? How will it be able to fly if they are filling it up with so many heavy things? I watched them load the airship with canisters, a compass, blankets, binoculars, apples, water and a repair kit. I put a paw on Billy s shoe and looked up at him with a curious expression. I wanted to know more. 7
Billy looked down and said: Wopsie this is an airship and it is going to take us up into the sky. The airship builds up so much energy inside that it is able to get stronger than gravity and move upwards. I said: But Billy, who told you how to do it? Billy answered: It was my teacher at school. She taught me how to read and write and then she taught me about maths and physics. She gave me a lesson about a man called Newton, who was very clever and taught us all about gravity. Your friends, the robin and the seagull, are able to build up so much energy, that they are able to become stronger than gravity and fly up in the sky, and so can this airship. It is great fun Wopsie! Once you learn how things work, you can use your imagination and invent new things yourself. Just use your imagination. 8
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I asked: What is imagination? Billy said: Imagination is where you see things first in your head..you imagine how things could be. Your imagination can take you anywhere. Up into the sky?!! I said. I was feeling very excited by this stage and started hopping around on my paws. Billy answered: Haha, yes exactly Wopsie, up into the sky, your imagination lets you fly. 10
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The adventure was about to begin. The adventurers climbed into the airship. Billy was meant to stay behind to save weight so the airship wouldn t be too heavy to fly, but I saw him jump into the airship when no-one was looking. Meowwww I said, which really meant: Take me too, I want to go on an adventure. Billy saw me start to try to climb up, but I couldn t quite reach. Billy whispered Come on Wopsie jump! I jumped up high till I reached Billy, who hid me under his jumper and helped me into the airship. I stuck my head out from under Billy s jumper and looked down. Up.. up..up into the sky we went, higher and higher. 12
This is brilliant I thought, I can see everything. I can see the sky, I can see the sea, I can see the clouds. The robins I try to play with aren t running away anymore, they re right beside me in the sky. This is the best adventure ever I can see a big ship out at sea.i can see seagulls circling around me.everything that was big looks small, the houses are dots, the trees are spots.. 13
We flew out over the Atlantic. When I woke up on the first morning we had clouds below us and clouds above us and I thought we might have floated up into space, but Billy said that wasn t possible because of gravity. The clouds cleared and we could see fifty miles in every direction.cruise liners.whales.. cargo ships.. The next day after we travelled north, I could see a huge slab of ice which Billy said was an iceberg. It had a small peak that you could see above the waves, and beneath the rest of the iceberg glowed bright green because it sat just underneath the surface of the green blue water of the Atlantic ocean. Then everything changed and we flew through a storm. It didn t matter whether we flew up or down, we couldn t escape it, so I just held on tight to Billy. We were getting closer to the end of our journey but we had to fly lower to avoid the high winds. We were so low that we flew just over the top of a pine forest I could see all the trees swish in the wind and I could hear the birds singing. We were so close I could even smell the pine trees. 14
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Soon we saw a lighthouse just before we landed in Long Island, New York. This was the best adventure I had ever been on, and I couldn t believe that it all started with the physics and maths that Billy learned at school. Physics and maths helped them fly high up into the sky. 16
Billy and I had our photo taken by the local papers and we met so many new people who wanted to know about our journey across the Atlantic. I told them that physics and maths helped us fly in the sky, but I don t think they could understand what I was saying as it came out as Meow. 17
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I had to say goodbye to Billy in New York as he wasn t allowed back on the airship because he wasn t meant to be on board, so he had to take a ship home. I was going to miss him. As we rose above the skyscrapers of New York I could see Billy getting smaller and smaller. I said Meow.meow which meant It won t be the same up here without you Billy. See you back in Scotland 19
It might have been Wopsie s first trip into the sky but it wasn t her last.. She went up in the airship with Billy, then she flew in a Spitfire, then she flew in a rescue helicopter and yesterday she got her first flight in a Typhoon jet. 20
She noticed the wings of the Spitfire had a different shape to the wings of the Typhoon. The Typhoon can go faster, because its wings have a more modern shape which lets the air move over them more quickly. 21
What next? Wopsie doesn t want her adventures to end. Where will you take her next? Why not draw or build your invention, then take a photo of it and send it into Leonardo s RAF100 competition. A joint panel of RAF and Leonardo judges will decide on the winner in October. The person who submits the most inventive design for Wopsie s next journey will be chosen as the winner of the competition. All you need is your imagination! Helpful note: When you create your design, make sure you find a way to overcome the force of gravity so your invention can fly. Gravity is a force which draws objects towards the centre of a planet. The force of gravity keeps all of the planets in orbit around the sun and it makes sure that when you jump up you land back on the ground instead of floating off into space. We can t wait to see what you ll invent! 22
How to enter To enter our competition, simply draw your invention on a piece of paper or build it with any materials you choose, take a photo of it, then send it to: Twitter: @Leonardo_UK using the hashtag #WopsiesTale Email: wopsie@leonardocompany.com The national winner will be chosen by a joint panel of Leonardo and RAF representatives. To find out more about Wopsie and her adventures, visit uk.leonardocompany.com/wopsie Entries must be received by midnight Friday 12 October, 2018 and the winner will be announced on Friday 26 October, 2018. 23