Cardiff City Hall
CARDIFF CITY HALL: One off airship visit (Aka CATHAYS PARK)
Operated by: Mr Ernest Willows
Location: In the city centre
Period of operation: 4th June 1910
INTRODUCTION
Ernest Willows built his first airship at East Moors in 1907. East Moors is east of Cardiff city centre and his factory is just west of PENGHAM MOORS which later became the regional airport for Cardiff prior to WW2. By 1910 he had developed his designs to become pretty much fully controllable in fairly calm weather conditions. As far as we know, his visit to the City Hall on the 4th June was the first major public exhibition, demonstrating the by now quite refined capabilities of his then latest airship design.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
We have Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for investigating this singular event and providing the press items, map and photographs.
The first press article was published in the Cardiff Evening Express on the 26th May 1910. Although initially planned for the 1st June, the public had to wait another four days before Willows decided the conditions were nigh on ideal. Although deemed quite satisfactory for those days, it would have required calm wind conditions to be able to manouevre so close to such a large building. This photo clearly shows how close Willows flew to City Hall. The second press article was published, also in the Cardiff Evening Express, on the 1st June 1910. The local area view is from my Google Earth © derived database and shows just how dense the city centre is. This City Hall area has not much changed since 1910.
This article, in three parts, was published, once again in the Cardiff Evening Express, on the 8th June 1910.
This first photo of Ernest Willows seated in his airship was obtained from Wales On Line. The two part article was published in the South Wales Daily News on the 6th June 1910.
EAST MOORS
The first two items show how close Ernest Willows airship factory was to the later PENGHAM MOORS aerodrome/airport. The area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES
Prior to the invention of the airship all long distance flights were made in balloons. And indeed, several remarkable long distance flights were made from the UK. See the listing for ALEXANDRA PALACE which has an account of a balloon flight ending up in Russia. In 1910 powered aircraft were still in the first stages of development and had very limited range/endurance.
Ernest Willows was a young man with immense drive and ambition, and design ability. Plus, a huge desire to progress airship development, which must surely have been achieved on a rather limited budget? He almost certainly recieved no official financial assistance from the British government.
A month or so later in July he made a flight, during the night, from Cardiff to London. Far from this experience daunting his ambitions, it inspired him to even greater goals. On the 29th October 1910 he flew from Cardiff to WORMWOOD SCRUBS in west London. In those days the idea of clearing Customs for an international flight had yet to become official policy. (Or at least, I believe this was the case?). On the 4th of November he deemed the weather to be suitable and embarked, once again during the night, to fly to Paris. He succeeded and became the first airship pilot to cross the Channel from London to Paris.
HISTORY CAN BE VERY CRUEL
In researching this 'Guide' I am quite often surprised about how some names become famous, whereas others well worthy of equal fame, fade from view - often quite quickly. Ernest Willows being a fine example. I'm pretty confident that anybody searching the inter-web for famous people in British aviation will not find his name listed.
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