Cavendish Dock flying sites
CAVENDISH DOCK: Airship Construction Station
Note: This picture was obtained from Google Earth ©
Operated by: Vickers Sons & Maxim Ltd
Flying Club: HMS Hermione Flying Club
Location: Just SW of Barrow-in-Furness
Period of operation: 1909 to ?
Landing area: 142 acres
NOTES: The first British rigid dirigible airship, the R.1 or HMA.1, was ‘floated’ out here in 1911. At the time it claimed to be the first airship to be moored to a mast on water, in the UK. This whole farcical episode seems today like a staged comedy when reading contemporary accounts. Other reports state 1915 as a starting point for manufacture of the airship, a ridiculous notion surely?
When in construction CAVENDISH DOCK was the biggest single dock in the world.
THE WORK OF AN IDIOT
Today the question that really has to answered regarding airship operations, is why on earth the ‘floating’ shed was designed to be permanently moored alongside Cavendish Dock? Typically this seems to be a case of British arrogance over ignorance, but it is hard to explain such utter stupidity today. It seems certain the parties involved knew about the German floating airship hangar on Lake Constance where Count Zeppelin was flying his airships. Indeed, this was their model it seems,and Vickers engaged in lengthy correspondence with Zeppelin.
And yet, they seem to have lacked appreciation that the whole point of the German floating airship dock/hangar on Lake Constance was that it could be positioned into wind, making the docking of big airships so much safer and easier. Almost predictably reading reports about a later re-design that seemed certain to totally weaken the basic airframe, the HMA.1 Mayfly episode ended with the airship being broken in two after a subsequent launching attempt and wrecked in late 1911. As Rear-Admiral Sturdee is reputed to have remarked,“This is the work of an idiot”.
One of those 'idiots' was a fellow called Barnes-Wallis; now then - what became of him? The next airship design at CAVENDISH DOCK was, it would appear, the HMA.9, which commenced construction in 1913.
Then again, (and even today according to many people), this application of ignorance and arrogance typifies so much of British military thinking - a highly respected tradition the ‘top brass’ are extremely proud of and keen to uphold? For example I am told that even today, the ‘top brass’ are now desperately searching for a suitable enemy for the ‘Eurofighter’ which they’ve spent billions on. Or am I just being cynical?
CAVENDISH DOCK: Early seaplane water 'aerodrome'
Note: The first picture was scanned from John Fabbs generally excellent book, Flying and Ballooning - from old photographs.
The caption reads: "Commander Schwann R.N. with the experimental hydroplane built for the Royal Navy, 1911. It is here seen at Cavendish Dock, Barrow-in-Furness".
The second picture of the Avro 'D' was scanned from British Aviation - The Pioneer Years. See below. The third picture was published in Flight magazine on the 7th October 1911.
In late 2017 I was reading the excellent book, British Aviation - The Pioneer Years, by Harald Penrose, first published in 1967. And he adds more detail: "....A.V. Roe & Co, now proudly displaying the new trade name 'AVRO' in bold letters above the Brooklands hangar, had received an order from Commander Oliver Schwann, Lieut. F.L.M. Boothby and other officers of the naval airship tender H.M.S. Hermione at Barrow, acting on behalf of Captain Murray Sueter, for a 30 - 35-h.p. Avro 'D' biplane, which Schwann fitted with aluminium floats of his own design lashed directly to the skids after stripping them of wheels."
"This early example of a British hydroplane was launched at the Cavendish Dock on August 2nd, and Commander Schwann taxied it across the water, but found difficulty in turning, though this was not surprising, as he had not yet learned to fly. Lieut. Boothby then made his attempt and was considerably better, negotiating turns with ease and taxi-ing right around the dock, though no attempt was made to fly, as this was also Boothby's first attempt at manipulating an aeroplane."
This is an interesting observation, because although Harald Penrose was a most experienced test pilot when he wrote this book, he had clearly had no idea about flying from water, and these early examples were not fitted with water rudders. And indeed, as I can testify, having flown floatplanes with water rudders, it is an entirely new skill to be learnt, compared to operating land-planes.
"For the next few months they continued experiments with seven different types of float, steadily gaining experience - until at last, after fitting exhaust ports to gain another 10 h,p,, Schwann got the seaplane up to 20ft, but on touching down from another short hop he badly damaged the machine. This was taken by many as proof that for deep-sea use the hydro-aeroplane would not be of practical value, because 'no matter what type of float was fitted, it would, in any case be broken up if it came down in a heavy sea'."
The problem being that with floatplanes, in a reasonable sea swell, the C of G is so high, especially with high wing types which are obviously the best type, they will if aligned with the swell, capsize. And, if opposing the swell, the floats will 'dig-in' with a similar result, inverting the aircraft.
"Nevertheless, these essays were splendid examples of private endeavour by officers of the Royal Navy impatient of reluctant Treasury sanction for practical experiments by the Admiralty, and the lessons were duly reported in detail by Murray Sueter in R. & M.69 published later that year.
Please see my notes on water flying on Lake Windemere, not so far away.
Operated by: The Hermione Flying Club
Location: In or near to the airship hangar?
Period of operation: 1911 to ?
NOTES: Using a AVRO ‘D’ type various experiments were undertaken, but it does seem a few hops, or more specifically a 50 to 60 yard hop on the 7th December 1911, was achieved by Commander Schwann. The importance of some of the ideas born out of the Hermione Flying Club does still need to be understood today. They envisaged a sort of primitive ‘autopilot’ landing system and a wing de-icing system using a bleed system from the engine for example.
On April 2nd 1912, with the AVRO ‘D’ virtually rebuilt and fitted with another float design, Sydney Vincent Sippe did take-off properly and in the period shortly after managed to fly the ‘D’ up to 200ft. (The Times reported 50ft on the first attempt 20.04.12). Cmdr Schwann also flew the ‘D’ but the credit appears to go to Sippe for being the first British pilot to fly off seawater? It appears the flight endurance of the AVRO ‘D’ was just twenty minutes - the time taken for the water in the radiator to boil away!
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
We have Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for providing the following.
Note: Photo One was published in The Aeroplane on the 18th April 1912, as were Photos Two. The newspaper article was published in the Preston Herald on the 6th April 1912.
Note: As the Barrow paper mills feature in three of the photos, Mike Holder has kindly provided this last picture.
Bastik Stuart
This comment was written on: 2019-02-02 09:12:50Pretty sure that Barnes Wallis did n't work on HMA1 on Cavendish Dock - He worked on later airships from a new larger hanger on dry land on walney island culminating in HMA R80
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