Hamble flying sites
Note: This map only gives the general position of these sites within the UK.
HAMBLE: Temporary flying site
Note: Google up, delscope co uk aviation hamble is recommended.
NOTES: The first mention of a flying site at HAMBLE was when I came across this account, in 2017, from the excellent book, British Aviation - The Pioneer Years, by Harald Penrose, first published in 1967. This relates to the Mortimer Singer Prize of £500 for amphibian aircraft in 1913. The conditions being announced in March, and Tom Sopwith was very interested in competing.
"The rules required five flights out and home, from a point on land to a point 5 miles at sea. At each the machine must alight, and complete the test within five hours. A passenger had to be carried, and a minimum altitude of 750ft maintained, but on one flight the machine must attain 1,500 ft." Sopwith decided to enter the Bat-boat No.1 after it had been modified.
"Both Tom Sopwith and Harry Hawker carried out highly satisfactory trials with the modified Bat-boat at Cowes towards the end of May, and in the following month landed it several times in a field they selected at Hamble as their starting pont. Tuesday, July 9th, Hawker successfully accomplished the necessary flights to win the £500 prize."
A MIKE CHARLTON GALLERY
Note: These pictures from postcards were kindly sent by Mike Charlton who has an amazing collection. See, www.aviationpostcard.co.uk
However, in this case, and most unusually, we have the information on the back of the postcard which is well worth including in this 'Guide'.
Notes: Third picture; the Avro 621 Tutor G-ABIS was registered with Air Service Training from the 21st March 1931 until the 31st October 1941. When, presumably, it was impressed? Rather quaintly, its 'Category' was "Acrobatic".
The history of the Avro 631 Club Cadet G-ACRZ appears to raise questions. It was registered to Air Service Training from the 4th May 1934 until the 10th of February 1942. This appears to show that, during WW2 the 'blanket ban' on civil operations was nowhere near as extensive as we are now led to believe?
Can anybody kindly identify the tri-motor type at the end of the line in the third picture?
Fourth picture: If the last in the line is an "Atlas", it was probably an Armstrong Whitworth Atlas II.
Regarding G-ABXW and G-ACCH mentioned in the last "message", the Avro 631 Cadet G-ABXW was registered to Air Service Training from the 16th June 1932 until the 11th of January 1942. The Avro Cadet G-ACCH was registered to Air Service Training from the 6th February 1933 until the 4th March 1942.
Clearly something was going on here, but what was it? Can anybody kindly offer an explanation?
HAMBLE: Civil aerodrome, (actually two airfields in close proximity), plus a seaplane base
Notes: We have Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for helping me make sense of all this history. (See his gallery below). Basically the history of aviation at HAMBLE can be divided into five main phases. The first being prior to WW1 when the Hamble River, Luke & Co enterprise set themselves up by the mouth of the river Hamble. The Admiralty erected hangars here, soon to be handed over to Fairey - phase Two.
Phase Three was when A V Roe set up a factory in 1916 with a small aerodrome. Phase Four was when A V Roe built a new factory after WW1, just to the north, with a much larger aerodrome. Phase Five is when Air Service Training took over the original Avro factory in the 1930s and continued their operations here until 1984
Activities: Manufacturing in WW1. Joy riding in 1919 to 1920 only? GA private and training. Civil elementary military training in the 1930s. Civil airline elementary training from 1933 to 1984 (Later including advanced training, certainly after WW2)
Military user: WW1: RAF Marine Acceptance Depot (1918 to 1919)
Operated by: WW2: Air Service Training 1975: College of Air Training (Closed 1984)
Note: In the 1957 edition of The Aeroplane directory, Air Service Training Ltd (Flying School) give their remit as being: Flying training, service, private and commercial pilots, instrument rating, instructor's endorsement, twin conversion, helicopter conversion.
The fleet is given as: Airspeed Oxford, DHC.1 Chipmunk, Aiglet, Auster, Hiller helicopters. But why I wonder, is the Auster J/5 Aiglet Trainer singled out?
Air charter: Post 1945: P M Bennett Ltd
Aero club: Pre 1940: Hampshire Aeroplane Club
Flying school: WW2: Air Service Training
No.15 ATA Ferry Pool
Post 1945: Air Service Training (NASS), College of Air Training
Gliding: A.S.T. Gliding Club
Note: In the 1957 The Aeroplane directory, the A.S.T. (Air Service Training) Gliding Club are listed a operating: One Slingsby Kirby Cadet and one Slingsby T.31. Membership was restricted to A.S.T. personnel, which I find rather interesting as student pilots with A.S.T. could have obtained many very valuable flying skills if gliding was included in their curriculum. Probably something not much considered at that time.
Pleasure flights: Pre 1940: A V Roe & Co
Manufacturing: WW1: A V Roe & Co
Pre 1940: A V Roe & Co, Armstrong Whitworth, Cierva (Autogyro types), Spartan
WW2: Armstrong Whitworth, Fairey Aviation
Location: E of the A3024, just N of Hamble-le-Rice, roughly 4nm SE of Southampton city centre
Period of operation: 1914 to 1984?
Site area: WW1: 46 acres 457 x 411
Note: This map is reproduced with the kind permission of Pooleys Flight Equipment. Copyright Robert Pooley 2014
Runways: (1965)
All grass: 03/21 911x91 06/24 695x91 14/32 960x91 17/35 1198x122
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
As mentioned above, we have Mike Holder to thank for providing all this mass of information. Maps, photos and press reports. The maps especially being of great help to me in trying to understand the geography.
PHASE ONE. Hamble River, Luke & Co (1912 to 1914)
Article One was published in The Aeroplane on the 15th January 1914. The Short article One was published, also in The Aeroplane, but on the 22nd January 1914.
The picture plus caption is from The Fighter Pilots Handbook by Gordon Thorburn. The Short article Two was published in The Aeroplane on the 26th March 1914.
Advert One was placed in the London Evening Standard on the 26th March 1914.
The Short article Three was published in The Aeroplane on the 29th July 1914. The Notice regarding the Hamble River, Luke & Co facility being offered up for sale was published in The Aeroplane on the 5th August 1914.
PHASE TWO
The Fairey Aviation Company moves in during 1915, concentrating on seaplane design and production.
The article was published in Flight magazine on the 29th May 1924.
Note: The first photo of a Fairey IIID ordered by the Australian Navy was published in Flight magazine in 1921.
Fairey Aviation also undertook work on aircraft from other manufacturers. For example the first picture of a Short floatplane on the slipway c.1916 and especially the Felixstowe F.3 flying boat arriving in Funchal, Madeira from Lisbon after being rebuilt by Fairey in 1920.
PHASE THREE AND PHASE FOUR
The Avro company built their first factory here, with a small aerodrome and slipway in 1916. In the 1920s a new factory was built with a much larger aerodrome just to the north of the old site.
The factory scene shows Avro 504 types under construction during WW1.
An early example of re-cycling perhaps? The first picture is of the Avro 533 Manchester Mk.11, F3492.
Later, on the 25th July 1939 the Avro 679 Manchester made it's first flight powered by two Rolls-Royce Vulture engines. It is often overlooked that, from time to time Rolls-Royce really did screw up, making an engine only fit to go from the factory straight into a scrap bin. The Vulture being a prime example.
So, what to do about it? Roy Chadwick and his team decided that nothing could be done, so it was back to the drawing board. Replacing the Vultures with four Rolls-Royce Merlins instead, and calling this creation - the Lancaster.
Note: The aerial photo was published in Flight magazine on the 6th September 1934.
The picture of the Avro 552 seaplane, G-EAPR, was taken in 1921. This factory scene in 1926 shows the Avro Buffalo 11 nearing completion, together with an autogyro type.
A COUPLE OF ADDITIONS
The third picture of the Avro 534 Baby, taken in April 1919, shows Roy Chadwick standing in front.
He of course has since gone down in history as being the leader of the Avro design team that created the Avro Lancaster. That team was also responsible, more or less after WW2 for the Avro Tudor airliner, which was certainly a very faulty design. He lost his life on a test flight in one when it was rigged with crossed-controls.
THE AIR PAGEANT IN 1928
This Air Pageant was held on the 28th May 1928.
The group photo is of the Suffolk Aero Club members, published in The Bystander on the 6th June. Article One was published in the Hampshire Telegraph on the 1st June 1928.
The photo and caption of the Cierva autogiro crash was published in the Illustrated London News on the 2nd June 1928.
Article Two in two parts was published in Flight magazine on the 7th June 1928. As was the picture of the RAF Gamecocks.
PHASE FIVE
Phase Five is when Air Service Training (AST) took over the old Avro factory and commenced training operations.
AND FINALLY
Air Service Training, (part of Airwork), soon became a very large concern in training pilots and aircrew for civilian operations. After WW2 for about two decades, without much doubt, the largest company involved and, it appears, highly regarded for having very high standards, They had two bases, here and at PERTH in Scotland.
NOTES: A.V. Roe factory from 1916 to 1950s?
It is said that during the first day of the Easter holiday in 1919 three pilots of the A V Roe Co carried 359 joy-riding passengers at £1 a head. Hold up – where’s that calculator? Right then, let’s say each flight only lasted fifteen minutes typically with three passengers from chocks-off to chocks on, (£1 was a huge amount of money for such a brief flip), so that makes for about thirty to forty flights for each pilot.
Please bear with me, I’m only trying to get some idea what was involved in those days, bare statistics rarely tell anything worthwhile. This alone amounts to some eight to ten hours. On top of this is the time allowed to board and disembark passengers, refuel etc. On average would ten minutes seem unreasonable? That adds at least another 6.5 hours so now were’re talking 16.5 hours without any break for the pilot.
I have heard that this was sometimes the case in those days. But, to be fair, they did throw a sandwich or similar into the cockpit, and possibly a flask containing tea for the pilot, who might have been the boss of the operation like Alan Cobham. Sounds horrendous doesn’t it? And yet, within the greater boundaries of Europe, even in 2005, I have found almost identical operations going on. But more follows, just like many smaller operations in those days, very often the aircraft need to serviced after the flying stops - by the pilots! Especially because in those days there were many individual owner/operaters trying to cash in on the enthusiasm for having a quick flight for a few quid.
AN EPIC ENDEAVOUR
In May 1922 a Russian pilot arrived to ferry AVRO 534 BABY G-EBDA to Russia. An epic flight by any standards for such a basic aircraft, but did he succeed?
EXPERIMENTAL ESTABLISHMENT
In WW1 for at least the latter period of the conflict, HAMBLE was an Experimental Station for the Fairey Aviation Co.
AN AIR PAGEANT
In 1928 HAMBLE was the venue for the Hampshire Air Pageant. Even the Suffolk and Eastern Counties Aeroplane Club attended, with one and perhaps their two Blackburn Bluebirds? Flying in from HADLEIGH in SUFFOLK.
THE BIGGEST, BUT NOT THE BEST
On the 24th January 1938 the prototype Armstrong Whitworth A.W.27 Ensign, G-ADSR, made it’s maiden flight from here and was the largest aircraft ever ordered by Imperial Airways - and also the largest ever pre-war British airliner.
Breaking with tradition two pilots, Turner-Hughes and Eric Greenwood were at the controls which proved to be a very wise decision as the rudder was over-balanced and it took the full strength of both of them to maintain control during the initial fifteen minute flight. By a bizarre coincidence, a few Ensigns were flown back here after having survived WW.2 with the aim of becoming used for charter operations but it seems BOAC had ‘lost’ most of the spares, (how on earth do you do that?!), and they were reduced to scrap.
In those days nobody it seems, (or perhaps I should say nobody of sufficient influence and foresight?), saw the future potential in preserving at least one of these huge and famous aircraft for posterity.
AIR SERVICE TRAINING
It seems well worth mentioning that in WW2 Air Service Training had a major facility repairing and modifying Spitfires here.
In 1975 the College of Air Training were operating Piper Cherokees and Beech Barons, replacing amongst others, a lot of Chipmunks once used. As I understand it, almost certainly in the early days, the training operations were dedicated to ab initio and up to instrument flight status for BEA (British European Airways) and BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation). The College closed in 1984.
HAMBLE: Private airstrip
Operated by: Mr Ron Souch
Location: ?
Period of operation: 1980s only?
NOTES: Can anybody kindly confirm this? And, if this is correct, add a bit more information.
HAMBLE WATER: Civil flying boat base (in 1934 listed in the Air Pilot as a Private Seaplane Station – Licensed and also known as AQUILAS)
Activities: Airline, air freight, charter and aerial cruises
British airline users: Pre 1940: Imperial Airways
Note: Although some say this is the case, I remain sceptical.
Post 1945: Aquila
Other users: Pre 1940: Air Pilots Training
Location: On the east or north bank of Southampton Water 5nm SE of Southampton city centre
Period of operation: 1930 to 1958
NOTES: Aquila was the last British operator to use large flying boats and used Short Sunderland and Solent types on a wide variety of operations from participating in the Berlin airlift to long range charter and scheduled services.
Examples of scheduled services are Jersey, Isle of Capri stopping off in Marseilles, plus Madeira, and Las Palmas in the Canary Isles often stopping off in Lisbon. Later scheduled services operated to Santa Margherita and Genoa in north west Italy and Montreaux on Lake Geneva in Switzerland.
FAIREY MARINE
I could well be mistaken here, but Fairey Marine, in effect an off-shoot of Fairey Aviation, certainly had their factory here, at HAMBLE. And I now think, they had probably taken over old seaplane/flying boat base? It would make sense, surely?
Terry Clark
This comment was written on: 2018-01-10 05:26:53When I first started training on Farnborough LARS in 1974, I was told if I was working a Hamble based aircraft I was never ever to tell the student pilot his position. The instructors always knew where they were and in fact. on more than one occasion, after the student had made his initial call to us giving a position, the instructor would say 'I'll just get him to unplug so I can tell you where we really are'!
Matthew Willis
This comment was written on: 2020-02-19 15:53:49Ignore my previous comment - the trimotor at Hamble is Avro 619 Five G-ABBY
David Tavendale
This comment was written on: 2020-11-29 10:58:51I remember riding my bicycle to Hamble airfield in about 1984 and stopping on the train bridge on Hamble Lane to watch a Tiger Moth (T5672 I think) doing circuits. Then we plucked up the courage to go on to the airfield and Ron Souch saw us and made us very welcome. He showed me and my mate around a hanger that had 'G-AGSH' Dragon Rapide being rebuilt & a Green Putzer Elster 'G-APVF' in there. I do miss that place but not the Beech Barons keeping me awake with their night flying in the 1970's when we lived in Thornhill.
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