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Aviation History
1998
1998 - 2343.PDF
Ninety years after Cody Farnborough has been at the centre of British aviation for more than 90 years - and the home of its greatest air show for the last 50 HOWARD GETHIN AND ALLAN WINN/LONDON THE 24 OCTOBER 1908 edition of The Automotor Journal (which was shortly afterwards to spin off its "Aeronautics" pages as the world's first aeronautical weekly, Flight), was less than flattering in reporting die first true flight of a heavier-dian- air aircraft on British soil. The credit goes to Samuel Cody none die less, and die honour of being that piece of British soil belongs to Laffan's Plain, adjacent to the site of the Farnborough '98 show. Collapse of British Army Aeroplane "Patience has hardly met with its promised reward in the case of the British Army aeroplane, whose constructors have been so diligent about Exhibition hall on the cross runway, and "exhibitor hospitality caravans" where chalets now sit (1951) making haste slowly since the machine has been sufficiently complete to be taken out of doors. All the experiments hitherto have consisted of trial runs alongthe ground and on the•veryfirstoccasion that a flight was attempted a rat ha- serious accident brought the effort to a premature conclusion, and stoppedfinther progress for some little time. Early on Friday morning, the 16th of Octoba; Mr Cody took the machine out with the intention ofmakingan actual flight, and starting against a tai-mile breeze, the elevatingplane was lifted when a speed of about thirty miles an hour hadbeen attained. Immediatelythe•aeroplane rose from the ground, and flew steadily onwards through the air, but when an attempt to turn was made in order to avoid some trees in the line of flight, the machine lost equilibrium and trashed heavily to the ground upon its left wing. The cause of the mishap, according to Mr Cody, who was unhurt as the result of his 20ft • It was almost 50 years before another flying wing flew here: Armstrong Whitworth AW-52 (1948) Previous page: Cody's British Army Aeroplane No. 1 (1908); Eurofighter 2000 (1998); and main picture, RAP Black Arrows (Hawker Hunters). This mass display (1959) was of only 16 aircraft! FLIGHT INTERNATIONAL 2 - 8 September 1998 Promise unfulfilled: the Bristol Brabazon astounded the crowds, not the buyers, in 1949, '50 and '51 103
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