Upavon
UPAVON: Military aerodrome (divided even before WW1 into the North and South Aerodromes)
Also known it seems, when formed, as UPAVON DOWNS
Note: All four of these pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
Note: The first picture is I believe free of copyright, but the source is unknown. Other pictures by the author unless specified.
Military users: RFC/RAF 1912 to 1919
WW1: Central Flying School on North & South aerodromes (RFC Military & Naval Wings)
85 & 87 Sqdns (Avro 504Ks, SE.5a's and Sopwith Pups & Dolphins)
Testing Squadron
Note: This was established here certainly by 1917, and quite possibly in 1916. Another Testing Squadron was at MARTLESHAM HEATH (SUFFOLK). These would eventually develop into the famous RAE (Royal Aircraft Establishment) testing centres at, for example, BEDFORD, BOSCOMBE DOWN and FARNBOROUGH.
Inter war years: RAF CFS (Avro 504Ks & 504Ns)
3 Sqdn (Bristol Bulldogs)
9 (IX) Squadron (Vickers Vimys)
WW2: RAF Flying Training Command 23 Group
7 FIS (Airspeed Oxfords)
1537 BAT Flt (Oxfords)
Gliding: Army 622 Volunteer Gliding School
1975: RAF (Listed as being open to communications aircraft plus gliding)
1981: Wyvern Gliding Club
Location: S & N and adjacent to A342, E of the A345, SE of Upavon, 5nm NW of Tidworth, 8nm ESE of Devizes, 8.5nm SSW of Marlborough
Note: The north site is now known as 'Trenchard Lines' and has no airfield.
Period of operation: 1912 to -
Site area: In WW1 UPAVON was the biggest airfield in the UK with an area of 3324 acres, comprising the North and South Aerodromes, and not that much smaller than HEATHROW today!
The dimensions were given as: 3658 x 3383
Runways: WW2: Sommerfeld track 06/24 1143
Remainder grass: E/W 1033 N/S 571 NE/SW 1189
2001: 05/23 1066 grass 08/26 975 grass
NOTES: Generally considered to be the birthplace of the Royal Flying Corps along with FARNBOROUGH (HAMPSHIRE) it appears that UPAVON opened in, (June?), 1912. It seems that in April 1912 Lord Haldane, the War Minister, and Winston Churchill, First Lord of the Admiralty, announced the formation of the Royal Flying Corps with separate military and Naval wings confirming that UPAVON would be the location for the Central Flying School.
What appears to be of great interest, is that the very first Commandant of UPAVON was Capt. Godfrey Payne, R.N. (See EASTCHURCH, KENT for more background)
It appears that when the facility became operational in June 1912 it had seven aeroplanes with twelve officers and sixty-six other ranks to operate it. According to Patrick Bishop in his book Wings, regarding the formation of the Royal Flying Corps: “The military wing aimed at an establishment of 160 officers and 1,000 men. The naval wing target was only 50 officers and 500 men. The technical demands of modern warships meant there was a pool of skilled other ranks. The army had to struggle to find technicians and an appeal went out inviting civilians working as blacksmiths, carpenters and joiners, clerks, coppersmiths, draughtsmen, electricians, fitters, harness-makers, instrument repairers, metal turners, painters, pattern makers, photographers and other trades to join up.”
He also makes this observation: “Before starting instruction at the Central Flying School, would-be pilots had to learn the basics and obtain a civilian certificate from the Royal Aero Club at their own expense, though the £75 outlay was refunded later. Only officers were likely to have the money to do so. To qualify, candidates were required to carry out two flights, making five figures of eight, landing each time within fifty yards of a specified point. They also had to climb to 150 feet, cut the engine, then drift down to a controlled landing.”
ANOTHER ACCOUNT
In 2017 I discovered the excellent book British Aviation - The Pioneer Years by Harald Penrose, first published in 1967. As this presents another view, I think it is also well worth quoting from regarding the situation in 1912
"When the Army Estimates were debated in the House of Commons it transpired that 36 new aircraft, of which 18 were British, had already been ordered to supplement the 16 machines currently owned by the Army. The British and Colonial, A.V. Roe, and Howard Flanders were the lucky contractors. Mr. Churchill, as First Sea Lord, was much more reticent about the Navy's purchases, and gave no details of the amount to be expended. He had good reason, for on April 12th a White Paper was published which provided for the inclusion of the Military and Naval Aeronautical Services in one organisation which, by special permission of H.M. The King 'in consideration of the specially difficult and arduous nature of the flying service', was to be known as the Royal Flying Corps."
"This was to be divided into five sections, comprising Military Wing, Naval Wing, Reserve, the Central Flying School on the rolling downs near Upavon on Salisbury Plain, and the Army Aircraft Factory at Farnborough , which henceforth was to be known as the Royal Aircraft Factory. Lest the many civilian flying schools were deprived of paying pupils, it was arranged that military or naval officers and civilians wishing to take commissions in the R.F.C. should first learn the rudiments at one of these schools, taking their R.Ae.C. certificates, and then join the C.F.S. for advanced training."
"If accepted they would be awarded £75 towards the cost of their tuition at the civil school. Provision was made for 91 military, 40 naval and 15 civilian pilots to pass through the C.F.S. every year, and the Government placed an initial order for 25 training aeroplanes for this purpose. Three courses a year were planned." I suppose this does raise the question as to when, in our aviation history, the distinction was made to divide aviation into just two basic categories - military and civil.
"The Military Wing of the R.F.C. was scheduled to provide early establishment of seven squadrons of 12 aeroplanes, and each squadron was to have 13 officer pilots and 13 non-commissioned pilots on its strength. Suspiciously, no details were given of the Naval Wing, except that the existing establishment at Eastchurch would be maintained as an elementary Flying Training School." Oh boy, the more you look into this history, the sheer complexity seems to multiply in such a way, that if portrayed on a graph, it seems to go vertical from around 1912.
"Officers of the First Reserve of the R.F.C. were restricted to civilian pilots and officers of the Army or Navy who kept their own aircraft or hired school machines, and evidence was required each quarter to show that nine hours flying had been attained, including a cross-country flight of more than one hour. Officers of the Second Reserve were to be pilots not under obligation to maintain their flying but instantly available in case of war. Those of the First Reserve received a retaining fee, but the Second was on a voluntary basis. One of the earliest to join the First Reserve was Geoffrey de Havilland."
FIRST UPAVON 'ACCOUNTS' or 'RECORDS'
As for only officers being able to afford to fly, the following information seems to indicate a rather different situation existed.
The first records for UPAVON I found were the granting of Pilots Certificates to three pilots on 3rd September 1912. These were William Thomas (Staff Sergeant) No.276, Capt. Robert Harry Lucas Cordner (RAMC) No.276 and Thomas O’Connor (Engine Room Articifer 2nd Class RN) No.286. Originally a Pilot Certificate was dated with the date of issue but in 1913 this practise was stopped and the date given applied to the end of the training period, probably with some form of flying skills test similar, (but much less comprehensive of course), to the GFT or General Flying Test we have today. The first pilot to get this ‘new’ form of certificate was G R Ashton (Leading Seaman) on 11/4/13 who was awarded Pilot Certicate No.455 flying a Short Biplane here. I wonder how long his training actually lasted?
AN INITIO TRAINING
Prior to WW1 and perhaps during the war, initial training meant avoiding high winds which meant that ab initio students had to up before dawn and then hang around until the evening when hopefully calm conditions once more prevailed. Even so, accidents, often fatal, were plentiful. It was of course the case that most of the instructors had very little flying experience worth talking about by modern standards and usually virtually no skills in the arts of teaching.
THE POST WW1 PERIOD NOTES
No. 17 squadron operated Armstrong Whitworth Siskin fighters here in the late 1920s and early 1930s.
In 1926 F/O Henry R.D. Waghorn based his privately owned S.E.5a G-EBPD here, and also crashed it here in April 1927.
ACCIDENT STATISTICS
In 1927 it was revealed that during 1926 there had been 51 fatal accidents in RAF aircraft. This, please remember, was during peacetime operations. By comparison the four airlines who were merged to become Imperial Airways had, between April 1919 and early 1924, lost just five passengers and six aircrew. This situation didn’t improve, in fact during WW2 the loss of lives during training in the early stages became uncomfortably close to those lost in combat. Indeed, some say it was twice as dangerous in training as opposed to operational combat missions with 6351 fatal training accidents resulting in about 15,500 aircrew killed? Just how this has been calculated is not known but if for example based on flying hours logged, or deaths per hundred flight hours, or something similar - it makes for grim reading.
As far as I can ascertain, (by 2013), the RAF had during WW2, 70,253 fatalities of which 47,268 were in Bomber Command on active combat plus 8,305 on non-combat and/or training duties. Which ever way the figures are interpreted, having an overall fatality rate amounting to over 20% in non-combat and training roles must surely be a most disgraceful state of affairs and should now be, not only fully exposed – but the terrible price paid officially recognised? As said elsewhere I believe it is a national disgrace that a suitable monument has not been erected to those who lost their lives performing these training duties.
A TRANSATLANTIC ATTEMPT
1927. On the 31st August the Fokker F.VIIA G-EBTQ took off from UPAVON, (with three on board), to cross the Atlantic, never to be seen again.
In 2020, when reading the most excellent book British Commercial Aircraft by Arthur W.J.G Ord-Hume, I came across a picture of this aircraft taken just after it had lifted off, and the caption seems well worth repeating here:
"This picture shows the last image of the former KLM airliner, Fokker F.VIIA G-EBTQ, in which Her Serene Highness the Princess Alice of Löwenstein-Wertheim attempted to cross the Atlantic - the first ever attempt by a woman. The aircraft, formerly H-NAEC, was re-registered on August 24th 1927 and was the last British civil registration to include the letter 'Q'."
"Powered by a single 450hp Gnome-Rhône Jupiter 9AB radial and built in Amsterdam by Fokker, the rugged and safe aircraft was converted for the long flight with huge fuselage fuel tanks. At 7.30 on the morning of Wednesday August 31st, piloted by Lt-Col Frederick Frank Reilly Minchin, a freelance pilot from Brooklands, and accompanied by his friend, Leslie Hamilton, the trio set off for Ottawa from RAF Upavon. In this picture the news photographer has captured the moment when, right at the end of the available field, the aircraft staggered into the air and cleared the road by six feet."
"Shortly before 10.00 pm that same evening ,having crossed the coast of Connemara at mid-day, the steamship Josiah Mason caught sight of the Fokker. That was the last ever seen of the machine or its crew. Many months later, however, a wheel was washed ashore on Iceland that was believed to be from the ill-fated Fokker."
THE BRISTOL BULLDOG
1929. The first deliveries of Bristol Bulldog Mk.II fighters were made to No.3 Squadron based here. At that time of course it was arguably the most potent and capable fighter the RAF possessed. Having had the privilege of transporting one of these types, the Bulldog from the RAF Museum in HENDON to FILTON, (and back), for the 100th Bristol anniversary, I was astonished at how incredibly strong, but also very heavy, the airframe was. It made me wonder how far lighter and agile modern light aerobatic aircraft might compare, if capable of carrying machine guns and the amount of ammunition needed. The answer I suspect is very well indeed for a few hours but the demands of years of a military service and maintenance regime would put paid to them within a week or so. It is exactly this problem I now realise that is so important in comparing most military and commercial civilian aircraft designs.
In his book Britain’s Greatest Aircraft Robert Jackson makes some interesting comments. “When the Bulldog first entered service with the Royal Air Force the latter’s air and ground crews were without doubt the most professional and best trained in the world.” A contentious statement at best - I wonder how the French, Germans and Italians actually compared at that time? Quite favourably I suspect? “Fighter pilots completed some 150 hours’ flying training before they were awarded their wings and posted to an operational squadron, where – weather permitting – they would fly at least once a day, or more usually two or three times, carrying out a great deal of formation practice, cross-country flying, battle climbs and so on. After completing 200 hours’ flying a fighter pilot would make his first night flights, which involved two or three circuits and landings. Night flying became more frequent after that, but not routine, and was accompanied by radiotelephony (R/T) practice. R/T equipment was progressively being fitted to all RAF fighter aircraft assigned to the Air Defence of Great Britain, and high priority was given to developing operational tactics with its aid.”
A SMALL CLAIM TO FAME
In his now classic autobiography published in 1936, Sagittarius Rising, Cecil Lewis tells us this story: "Then, partly for publicity and propaganda, but more I suspect, to satisfy that peculiar, but innate, desire to break records - one of the few outlets for the pioneering spirit in modern days - long distance flying began. (My note: This was shortly after WW1). The most spectacular and daring to attempt was obviously the Atlantic. John Alcock and Whitten Brown, the former a splendid pilot and the latter an observer with knowledge of navigation and wireless, came forward to make the attempt."
"The Vimy was a good choice for such a flight. She was fast, as such machines went then, compact, could carry the necessary petrol, and was fitted with Rolls-Royce engines. Probably she was the only machine in existence at that time fit to make the crossing. That particular Vimy, the first aeroplane to cross the Atlantic, now stands in the Science Museum at South Kensington, and I am proud to state that if you ask the Curator to show you the logbooks, you will find my name on the front page, for I flew that Vimy from Upavon to Brooklands before she was converted for the great flight."
From what I can see, this Vimy was still on display in 2019. An excuse for a visit of course, but could they be kind enough to rid the place of the throngs of young tourists - please. This said, most of them don't seem to make it up to the aviation gallery, which is superb.
SPOTTERS NOTES
1977. The Thruxton Jackaroo G-APAP and Slingsby T.61C Falke G-AZPC were based here.
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