Chatham flying sites
Note: This map only gives a general location for Chatham within the UK.
CHATHAM: Military balloon factory and launching site
Military user: Apparently it was the Army Balloon Corps, Balloon Establishment and Factory, although others say it was The School of Ballooning which would seem unlikely because it seems this was established in 1893 after the move to ALDERSHOT
Location: Royal School of Military Engineering (the RSME has several sites in Chatham so a bit of research is needed to discover the actual site, or sites the BE & F used)
Note: In 2017 I was reading British Aviation - The Pioneer Years by Harald Penrose, published in 1967. He says that the factory was in the "roofed-over ball-court at St. Mary's Barracks". Also, it was commanded by Col. James Lethbridge Brooke Templer who had formed the first Balloon Factory at WOOLWICH (LONDON) in 1878.
Penrose tells us that when the facility at CHATHAM outgrew the site, he purchased at his own expense another site in 1886 near his home at LIDSING, five miles away, "...and erected a large shed for balloon construction."
See LIDSING for more information.
Period of operation: 1882 (some say 1883) to 1886/7? Some say it operated until 1891?
NOTES: Opened on 8th October 1883 (or was it 1882?)
CHATHAM: Temporary landing site
NOTES: A news item appeared in The Times newspaper, (09.03.1912), stating that, “M Henri Salmet, who made the “record” non-stop flight from London to Paris on Thursday, and flew back to Boulogne, recrossed the Channel yesterday morning on his Blériot monoplane. He left Berck about 11-o’clock and beat his way across through cloud, wind, and rain, and was obliged to descend at Chatham, owing to the driving rain. He will continue his flight to HENDON as soon as the weather improves. Up to the present time the Channel has been crossed 37 times by aeroplane.”
CHATHAM see also KINGSNORTH
CHATHAM see also LIDSING
CHATHAM see also St MARY'S ISLAND
CHATHAM see also STAR FARM
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