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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1380.PDF
PLIGHT, 20 July 1951 FIFTY YEARS OF FLYING An Outline of British Aviation History, 1901-1951 Illustrated mainly with " Flight" photographs WHEN the Aero Club of the United King-dom was founded 50 years ago, flyingwas little more than an expensive and rather hazardous sport. A few balloons had been used in war for observation duties and even as pilotless aerial bomb-carriers; but, obviously, they could never be made into satisfactory vehicles for getting from A to B, and the long-awaited successful flight of a piloted, powered aircraft seemed as far off as ever. There had been no lack of would-be aviators in Britain during the nineteenth century, but theory had outstripped practice, largely through lack of a suitable power-plant. This prevented the more adventurous characters from taking advantage of the aerodynamic discoveries of Sir George Cayley, Francis Wenham, and Horatio Phillips. Neverthe- less, some progress was made. Cayley flew the world's first proper aircraft, a model glider, in 1804. Henson designed his remarkable Aerial Steam Carriage 38 years later, and this in turn led to Stringfellow's steam-driven model, which made the first flight by a powered aircraft. Sir Hiram Maxim came even nearer to success in 1894, when his giant 3£-ton steel-tube aircraft, driven by two 180 h.p. steam engines broke free from its retaining rails during tests at Bexley, in Kent, and made a brief but uncontrolled flight before crashing. Sir Hiram decided that he could not afford to carry his experiments further. Thus, at the turn of the century the balloon still dominated the aeronautical scene, and the Aero Club was founded primarily "to grant certificates of com- petency to Members who, having made a sufficiency of ascents, are recognised as competent to take control of a balloon; and to organize Congresses, Exhibitions, Races and Contests." But, with an eye on the future, the founders of the Club—Frank Hedges Butler, his daughter Vera, and the Hon. C. S. Rolls—were careful to ensure that membership was open also to any scientist or enthusiast interested in "the science of aerial navigation in all its forms and applications," a definition which covered a multitude of interests. This was just as well, for within a couple of years of the Club's formation, two bicycle-makers of Dayton, Ohio, knocked the first nail into the balloon's coffin by making a flight of 12 seconds in a powered stick-and-string biplane at Kitty Hawk. The aeroplane had arrived, but it was three years before Europe, or even America, realized the significance of the Wright Brothers' achievement, and during that time interest still centred chiefly on the balloon and airship. The hero of By J. W. R. TAYLOR the hour was the great Brazilian pioneer, Alberto Santos-Dumont, who achieved fame and a prize of 125,000 (1901-type) francs by flying his air- ship from St. Cloud, round the Eiffel Tower in Paris and back to his starting point. Quite naturally, the Balloon Section of the Royal Engineers, which had been formed in 1890, was interested in these developments, and the Superintendent of the Balloon Factory at Aldershot, Lt.-Col. J. L. B. Templer, went to Paris to find out all about Santos-Dumont's airships. On his return, he extracted £6,000 from the Treasury to conduct similar experiments in Britain. This covered the cost of the envelopes for two airships, but no engines, so work came to a temporary halt in 1904. In that year, Col. J. E. Capper (who was, in 1906, to succeed Col. Templer as Superintendent) went to the States The original A. V. Roe biplane in its shed at Brooklands, with the great "A. V." himself. (Below) "Moore-Brab" in the Short No. 2 gets away to complete the first British circular mile at Shellbeach in 1909 1
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