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Aviation History
1909
1909 - 0153.PDF
MARCH 20, 1909. THE FIRST BRITISH AERO SHOW. BY the time that this issue is before the eyes of our readers the doors at Olympia will have opened to admit them to the first British Aero Show, and we hope that no one who is within travelling distance of London will fail to pass through those doors, which will remain so invitingly wide until to-day week, the 27th instant. It is their duty, as well as to their interest, to do so ; their duty because England needs encouragement in flight, and to their interests because they will there obtain a concrete idea of the flyers about which they have read so much of late. This show has been organised at con- siderable trouble and expense by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders, who, with the support of the Aero Club, have done their utmost to ensure success. And, indeed, it is solely due to the high-minded action of this important body, that the new flight industry in this country is having such a good send-off. It is not every day that an institution is to be found willing to risk a matter of ^5,000—for that is about the sum the S.M.M.T. stand to lose in this matter—for the encouragement of a budding industry which, as yet, only concerns a small minority of its own members. And so the least that those interested in flight can do is to pay their shillings at the turnstile, as some small acknowledg- ment of their appreciation. It is the least the public at large can do also, and especially that section which is so very fond or crying out about the backwardness of this country in these affairs. Here is an excellent opportunity for them to show that they are at least interested in what they so freely criticise. They can go to Olympia, and there they can see what manner of flyers have already, more or less, taken root in this country. The Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders have made no charge for floor space; and, since we cannot imagine that anyone could reasonably ask for further encouragement to exhibit his wares, the doubtful visitor may dismiss any idea of farce from his mind at once. This show is quite a serious affair, and it marks the beginning in this country of a movement of which no man can foresee the end. To fly has been the ambition of human beings ever since they developed the brain-power necessary to appreciate the evolutions of birds. And flight has now been accomplished for the first time in history. It is useless to sit down and calmly say, as some people do, that this excitement about the Wrights and a few others is all very well, but that flyers are impracticable machines, and, so far as they can see, are likely to remain so. If Wilbur and Orville Wright had stopped their experiments when they first came to the conclusion that they would be unable to harbour their flyer in a bicycle shed, the world would still be ignorant of the wonderful things it is already possible to accomplish in the air; and doubtless those same pessimistic critics would still be calmly asserting that mechanical flight was impossible. Think of the innumerable developments which made the motor car possible ! Who, in the first days of engineering, could have believed that engines, which were then as big as a house, would, in such a short space of time, come to be tucked away under the diminutive bonnet of an automobile ? Pessimists may argue that they have no use for machines such as those at Olympia, but where should we be if the enthusiasts of the past had listened to the words of those who had no use for Stephenson's " Rocket" ? There is, in truth, much food for reflection to be derived from a visit to the Aero Show ; and so many are the different facets which such an exhibition presents to the mind's eye that it fairly sparkles with points on which to conjecture. Look at the collection of small scale models got together by the Aero Club, some crude and some well finished. How unpromising, not to say im- possible, most of them look as embryonic flying machines, when for a moment the mind forgets that flyers are already fledged which grew from such as these. Who knows, but in this very group there may be a secret which will guide progress ? Turn again to the adult machines and hesitate no longer to believe that our country is in a fair way to take its place in the centre of the world's flight movement. What the Aero Salon brought to light in Paris, the present Show reveals in London—an aeronautic industry already started. And besides our British-built machines, we have the advantage of the French products to learn from and improve upon. Reading through a mere list of the exhibits does not convey what it should. There were sixteen names in the preliminary list for the aeroplane section—names which we hope may become well known in the British world of flight, but concerning each of which it is only proper at the moment to point the special cause for interest. We may take them as they are printed on the preliminary list, viz., alphabetically, and at the head, therefore, is the Aero Club, who have, as already mentioned, organised the model section. Incidentally it may be remarked, however, that they have more than a small interest in the full-sized machines, for many of these, and others besides, which are not present, will make their trials, at an early date, on the Aero Club's new flight grounds at Shellbeach. Next on the list comes Esnault- Pelterie, who is one of the adherents of the monoplane principle, and who explained his reasons for being so in a paper which he read before the Areo Club only a few weeks ago. In France, at Billancourt, he has founded a factory, and in this country he has appointed Messrs. Bessler, Waechter and Co. as his agents. An all-British exhibit was to have been made by Jack Humphry, who has formed the British Aeroplane Syndicate to assist him in finding out the merits of a machine which he has designed and has had built at Wyvenhoe on novel lines, but the con- struction of the machine prevented its dismantlement for transport. Messrs. Lamplough and Sons give expression to still more radical views, for they advocate a certain system of flapping flight, as also, it may be mentioned, do the Miesse Petrol Car Syndicate, who represent the De La Hault machine, which is manufactured in France by Jules Miesse. Another well-known firm who likewise control the interests of a French-made car in this country—the Mass car—are representing an equally notable flyer, the Delagrange. M. Monnet has scratched, he cannot be ready in time, and he has patent matters to attend to, but Moore- Brabazon's flyer, which was built by Voisin in France, was one of the first machines to put in an appearance. It is, of course, the most interesting of all the flyers at the Show, for it is the actual machine with which the famous flights were accomplished, and, as such, it is probably the only machine which can claim the dis- tinction of the term " flyer " as having been earned by its achievements. Mr. Moore-Brabazon was the second 15-5
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