It was an exciting day today at The Helicopter Museum as the aviation attraction and local charity launched the first issue of it’s new children’s comic.

‘Weston Heli-Heroes’ is the brain child of Museum Educational Assistant, Thomas Kousiounis who not only wrote the story but designed all the artwork and drafted the comic from scratch. Thomas, who is working at the museum and is employed by Scout Enterprises (Western) Ltd through the Future Jobs Fund programme, aims to produce a bi-monthly publication that is free for any children visiting the museum. A free digital copy is also being launched on the museum’s website for local schools, educational groups to download.

“A lot of hard work has gone into making our Museum more child friendly over the last couple of years and school bookings are continually increasing” said Museum Manager Lee Mills “we wanted to produce something for the visiting children to take away that was not only a good read but educational as well. Thomas had the perfect answer.”

“I wanted to engage the children’s imaginations with a compelling story that would bring the helicopters in the museum to life” Thomas explained “each one of our helicopters has his own pilot character in the comic and in the first issue we see them all flying off to help with a local emergency.” “By showing the helicopters ‘in action’ and not as statutory exhibits we hope to teach the children the various roles these incredible aircraft play in the world today and have some fun with them at the same time!”