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Aviation History
1911
1911 - 0002.PDF
Two YEARS cor FLYING AKD OI A 1910 : IK reviewing the history of aviation during the year just passed, it must of necessity be with mixed feelings that we approach our subject. It has been a year of progress —quite phenomenal progress—in which the science of flight has emerged from what was a year ago a relatively chrysalis stage into the status of the developed butterfly. It has been a year of prodigious performances, individual and general, during which feats that were deemed impossible at its beginning have become the merest of commonplaces at its closing. Much has been learnt in the short twelve months, and for it the-toll has been paid which Nature never fails to exact from the ambitious human race which is for ever trying to conquer her secrets and evade her restrictions. Heavy as that toll has been it is in the individual, rather than the general, sense that it must be grudged ; for though the loss of all the brave pioneers who have sacrificed themselves to the cause of the infant science in 1910 must be deeply deplored, it is certain that the conquest of the air cannot be finally achieved without these sacrifices, and it is at the same time equally true that the chief regret of those who have given up their lives in the cause would have been that the final sacrifice meant the ending of their work. It is in the keen sense of personal loss, and in the heartfelt feeling of sympathy for those left behind, that the aeronautical world finds its grief for the dead, who, like soldiers on the battlefield, knew the risks they were taking, and faced them voluntarily in the service of mankind. All other events in the early part of 1910 D t Tm were utterty eclipsed in the London to Manchester flight of Louis Paulhan. Here was an event that was sensational to a degree. The mere attempt reawakened an interest in the general public on behalf of flight that had been unequalled since Bleriot's Channel flight in the preceding July ; but when the event suddenly developed into a very realistic race between the ultimate winner and Claude Grahame-White —who was then one of the most promising British pilots learning in France—public enthusiasm knew no bounds. The accomplishment of the flight itself really remains to day the high-water mark of special performances, and it is indeed doubtful whether anyone has ever put up a better all-round accomplishment of endurance and skill than Paulhan . did on • that occasion. As between the success of the Frenchman and the failure of the English man there was of course the usual element of luck; Grahame-White had troubles to which the modern flying machine was born an heir and has even yet not quite outgrown. Paulhan happened to be immune, but never theless both men surpassed themselves in the event, which is just one of those especially bright stars the light from which is a little apt to interfere with the proper perspective of subsequent progress. The Daily Mail ^10,000 was won in April, and up to that time the year had been remarkable rather for the spread of aviation among a rapidly-increasing number •of pilots of moderate ability than for any exceptional brilliancy on the part of anyone in particular. Bad weather during the early part of the year prevented much serious flying, and perhaps the best work was done at the aviation meeting held at Heliopolis in February. In March the second British Aero Show was opened at Olympia, and was characterised by the introduction of many new machines of British construction, which, for the most part, were copies of the Bleriot type monoplane that was just then so popular. Before the end of March J. T. C. Moore-Brabazon won the British Michelin Cup and a ^500 prize for a flight of 19 miles on an all- British Short biplane. The late Hon. C. S. Rolls had achieved a somewhat longer flight within the same period, but not with an all-British machine. These two performances, taken in conjunction with the great event of April, serve to show how difficult it is to compose a picture of past work with even a reasonably true rendering of its light and shade. As a flight pure and simple Moore-Brabazon's effort could scarcely be mentioned in the same breath as the London to Manchester performance, but it had a significance in England and in some respects stirred an even deeper appreciation among those who had been following the movement closely and had been anxiously watching the progress for even the least sign of British effort getting well and firmly planted in the international arena. British pilots there were who were doing well enough, but they were flying foreign machines or at any rate using foreign engines ; and though their experience was sure to make for the ultimate good of the cause, many felt that the time had more than come when the all-British product should play its part more effectively in the general scheme of things. During May the Channel was crossed for the second time, when Jacques de Lesseps flew a Bleriot monoplane from Les Barraques to the South Foreland, and thereby won the Ruinart Prize of ^500, which had been open at the time Bleriot flew the Channel, but had been left unwon because he did not officially enter his name as a competitor. It had been the Hon. C, S. Rolls' in tention to compete for this prize, but the success of de Lesseps did not abate his ambition to be the first British aviator to fly across the Channel, and early in June he flew his French Wright biplane over to Sangatte and back without alighting on French soil. At the end of June and early in July came the Wolverhampton and Bournemouth meetings, the latter of which really formed the key to the state of the art at that time. Compared with the flying at the first Black pool meeting, held about eight months previously, the advance was simply astounding. Then, not a single British competitor was even able to attempt a flight, but at Bournemouth half-a-dozen or more gave an excellent account of themselves, notably Grahame-White, Captain Dickson and Robert Loraine on Henry Farman biplanes, Cecil Grace on an all-British Short biplane and the Hon. C. S. Rolls on a French-built Wright biplane. Among the Continental visitors Morane proved himself to be one of the finest exponents of flight of the day and his performances with the Bl£riot monoplane, with which he averaged a speed of nearly 60 miles an hour for a distance of nearly nine miles, were the most remarkable of the meeting. Unfortunately the Bournemouth meeting was marred by the loss of one of Britain's very best men, the Hon. C. S. Rolls being killed while competing for the alighting prize as the result of the failure of a part of his machine while attempting a manoeuvre. Subsequent to the Bournemouth meeting, other flight meetings were held at Lanark and simultaneously at Blackpool, where
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