David Lowy isn’t your ordinary son of a billionaire. Not that aviation doesn’t involve some creativity as well – you might have to be creative. So I went to Noel Kruse at the Sydney Aerobatic Club and he introduced me to Allan Hannah, who was a RAAF F/A-18 Hornet pilot.

Talk to any of the military guys – I’m sure they’ve lost quite a few friends in all different circumstances.There but for the grace of God go I. Some difference but same application to aviation in general.© 2020 - Momentum Media Holdings Pty Ltd. All Right Reserved.‘Oh, I really want to do aerobatics, that’s like military-type flying’. Look at how creative they were. We were in the right industry at the right time, and my dad had the right background; myself and my brothers, we worked collectively together and it worked for us.But it was never a grand plan, and neither was the museum a grand plan.It struck me when we rolled the Spitfire out of the hangar. It’s a very collaborative community.So we’ll continue to do what we do. And I run checklists in my investment business. David Lowy is known to have been a member of 1 band. But Lowy is also the founder of The Dead Daisies, a very successful hard rock band. But you have a vision somewhere out there and you go for it, and you change course all the time as things come along.Anybody who’s very successful at anything and doesn’t admit they’re lucky is just fooling themselves.

But he is also a former Australian aerobatic champion and Spitfire display pilot, the founder and primary benefactor of the much-loved Temora Aviation Museum (which in mid-October hosted its semi-regular Warbirds Downunder Airshow), flies his own Gulfstream G550 business jet, and is the founder and a guitarist in the heavy rock band The Dead Daisies.DL: I had wanted to fly since the age of five. Unrivaled coverage - Critical research - Top quality journalism David Lowy. Often I’ve thought: are these things too valuable to fly, not in a dollar value, but in an historical sense? It’s an investment in our culture.David Lowy acquired Spitfire Mk VIII VH-HET in May 2000 and donated it to the Temora Aviation Museum in July 2002. There are some very passionate people out there who are restoring aircraft. No doubt about that.But whenever you lose a friend, or someone you know, it’s really, really hard. I got a ride in a British Aerospace Hawk, and after that ride I thought, that’s it. I wanted to join the Air Force once I got a little bit older. Very risk averse, even though I did many years of competition in aerobatics and won the unlimited championship in 1998. You’ve got everything from wood and fabric through to World War II pistons, through to early model jets, through to later model jets.DL: Without a doubt.

We’ve got an unbelievable engineering team there with, I think, one of the most complex aviation engineering operations in the world. Part of the entrepreneurial Lowy family – his father Frank founded the Westfield Group – he has led a life less ordinary.A successful business career sees Lowy in charge of the Lowy Family Group, the family’s private investment company. Allows users to subscribe to our Bi-Weekly Newsletter

He is the eldest son of Westfield Corporation co-founder Frank Lowy and CEO of Lowy Family Group (LFG), the Family Office and private investment group of the Lowy family. We had a very good business. We know the risk at the museum, and life is not risk free.So, there may come a time, but I don’t see that now.The investment business I run for my family is basically a risk management business. Bobby was in tears; Ted Sly was there with him in tears.I realised there’s more to this than the aircraft, and I thought, okay, this place is going to be a tribute to the veterans as well as the aircraft. If anything I’ve learned from my fellow musicians (it) is that you’ve got to leave more to chance in music and you can’t be so regimented. We do our best to mitigate the risks and we’ve got very good systems and procedures in place. And the site for the museum is very historic. The pilots know the risk. That then generates theBut at the same time, business is a risk. We struck up a friendship very quickly.DL: That’s a really good question.

My father was keen for me to come into business. More power to his plectrum as well!It’s interesting article, thanks!