FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1911
1911 - 0003.PDF
JANUARY 7, 1911. Chavez with a Bleriot attained an altitude of 5,887 feet, which was then a world's record. The most important Continental event in August was the Circuit de l'Est, a kind of aerial tour organised by the Parisian journal, Le Matin, comprising a series of cross-country flights, forming a circuit from Paris, via Troyes, Nancy, Mezieres, Douai, and Amiens. Eight -competitors started, and two finished, Leblanc and Aubrun. Both used Bleriot monoplanes fitted with Gnome engines; and Leblanc, the winner, who secured the ,£4,000 prize, with, in addition, several special prizes for flights made at the various stopping places, occupied I2h. im. is. for the journey of 500 miles. Aubrun's time was 13b. 31m. 9s. A sensational event which took place in August was a flight from Paris to London by Moisant, who after a phenomenally short apprenticeship set out for the journey accom panied by bis mechanic. He left Paris on August 16th and crossed the Channel on the following day. From the moment of his descent on British soil, however, misfortune overtook him and he did not reach London until September 6th. On the following Sunday Loraine flew across the Irish Channel and missed landing in Ireland by a few yards ; neither he nor his machine were much the worse for the experience of a descent on the water. It was also during September that the army manoeuvres in France afforded the military authorities an excellent •opportunity of demonstrating an aspect of the utility of flight that has always been regarded as one of the most important of its probable fields of definite development. The aeroplane in war is an unknown quantity that officials abroad at any rate appear to regard with grave •concern. In England, our own army manoeuvres might well have afforded a similar opportunity, which was characteristically ignored almost completely. Late in the same month, September, another milestone in the history of flight was erected by Chavez, who flew across the Alps over the Simplon Pass and unfortunately lost his life when landing at the end of the achievement. In October a new aerodrome was opened at Hendon, near London, and became the headquarters of the Bleriot School in England and also of the Aeronautical Syndicate, who commenced on the commercial manu facture of an original design of all-British monoplane known as the Valkyrie. During the year Brooklands, which was first used as an aerodrome by Paulhan for demonstration flights subsequent to the Blackpool meeting of 1909, has been developed into a well-equipped flight-ground and is the scene of constant practice on the part of many newcomers in the aviation world; and indeed it has been the activity at Brooklands—perhaps more than anywhere else—that has shown the true spirit of the movement in this country. Towards the end of October three British pilots, Grahame-White, Radley, and Ogilvie, left for America in -order to compete for the Gordon-Bennett Cup, which had been won by Curtiss in the previous year, and in •this event Grahame-White scored a victory for Great Britain. On the return of these competitors to England the principal activity centred round the competitions for the British Michelin Cup and the Baron de Forest ,£4,000 Prize for the longest flight from England across to and on the Continent. These events brought forward with startling suddenness a new English pilot in T. Sopwith, who, after a very short pupilage, obtained his certificate and put up a flight of over 100 miles for the British Michelin Cup, thereby improving upon S. F. Cody's flight of 97 miles, which had previously stood (/ycFf] first. Almost immediately afterwards he seized a favour able opportunity to fly his Howard Wright biplane, which was fitted with a British-built E.N.V. engine, into Belgium. His Michelin flight took place at Brooklands and his Baron de Forest flight from Eastchurch. Bad weather delayed other competitors, but on December 22nd Cecil Grace flew over to Calais, and there descended as the result of increasing wind. Attempting to fly back in the afternoon, in order to make another start, he appears to have lost his way in the fog which prevailed in the Channel, and though a prolonged search was made in the Channel and the North Sea it proved fruitless, and hope being abandoned, aviation in England thereby lost the services of another of her most valued and capable exponents of the movement. In many respects this closing month of the year proved the most notable, not only in point of performances in the air, but by reason of the deplorable number of deaths among leading aviators. Grace, Moisant, the hero of the Paris-London flight, Hoxsey, Piccolo, Laffont, Pola and Caumont all met their deaths in December flights. The list is appalling; but it can be explained in, firstly, the general unsuitability of the weather for flying, and the fact that the closing days of the year were the last during which many valuable prizes remained open for competition. The question has been raised as to whether the closing dates for prizes of the first magni tude, like that of the Baron de Forest Prize for the cross- Channel flight, cannot usefully be altered; and since there does not seem to be any good reason why the closing date for an event of this kind should not just as well be fixed for, say, the 30th September as the 31st December, such a change is to be advocated. In the ultimate result the year 1910 saw the winning of the De Forest Prize by Sopwith, with the performance already referred to, while Cody, on his own machine fitted with a Green engine, was victorious in the competition for the British Michelin Prize, after an exciting contest with Sopwith on the Howard Wright biplane and Alec Ogilvie on his N.E.C.-engined Wright biplane. Cody's winning flight was 185-46 miles in 4 hrs. 47 mins.; while, in France, the International Michelin Cup was finally secured by Tabuteau with a flight of 365 miles in 7 hrs. 48 mins. • • • Events have progressed so rapidly in the Advancement world °f practical aviation that to label ' the year one of " progress " seems utterly inadequate to describe the forward movement that 1910 has marked. That forward movement is one which requires a far more expansive term than any single word in the English language can properly convey, adequate as it is in most cases. Exponents of the art have gone ahead prodigiously—far and away more than the most sanguine of prophets would have dared to forecast a year ago. The word " aviation " has to a great extent acquired a new meaning in 1910, for whereas it has hitherto been taken to apply indifferently to the naviga tion of the air by all or any type of machine, whether heavier or lighter than air, it has now come to be associated chiefly with the former. This has come about through the triumph of the aeroplane as compared with the dirigible balloon which the year has witnessed. Not that the latter has not forged ahead during the year, though its notable achievements have been few and far between. There have been several notable flights per formed by " gas-bags," as witness the cross-Channel flights of the Clement-Bayard and Lebaudy, the Cardiff- 3 C 2
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
