The journey began at Leonardo's manufacturing facility in Vergiate, just outside Milan — where the AW109 Trekker is built. After test flights, technical acceptance, final checks and handover formalities, Thunder 1 departed, with Denham Aerodrome as the ultimate destination.
Due to the winter weather to the north of Milan, the only workable routing took us via Albenga on the Italian Riviera coast, before crossing into France, flying along the coast past Monaco, Nice and Cannes and on to Grenoble. From there, the flight continued northwest to Chalons-Vatry, a general aviation airport east of Paris where we checked out of Europe and picked up a last refuel. The final leg brought Thunder 1 across the Channel, touching down at Lydd Airport on the Kent coast to import the aircraft, before the short hop north to Denham.
It is a route that covered the best part of 850 nautical miles, passing over some remarkable European scenery along the way.
Thunder 1 arrived at Denham on 16th February 2026 and went straight to work. Cheltenham Festival was just weeks away.
Andrew Devoy, Head of Sales, Thunder Aviation
