Coventry flying sites
Note: This map only shows the position of Coventry city within the UK.
COVENTRY see also BRANDON HALL HOTEL
COVENTRY see also GREENS FARM
COVENTRY see also RADFORD
COVENTRY see also WESTWOOD HEATH
COVENTRY see also WHITEFIELDS HOTEL
COVENTRY: Balloon launching venue
Location: ?
Period of operation: Early 1800s
NOTES: Balloon launches were usually held as major public events, (the first air shows in fact), and arranged to draw in paying audiences. Several attempts failed commercially because ‘visitors’ often got a good view from ‘outside’. Towards the end of the nineteenth century and into the early twentieth century mass balloon ascents were staged - including balloon races to specific destinations.
In 1889 a Miss De Voy made a parachute drop, (apparently successful and a really big event in those days), but allowing the balloon to fly on untended to an uncertain fate.
COVENTRY: Temporary flying ground
Operated by: Mr A J Weaver
Location: Exact location unknown?
Period of operation: 1905 only?
NOTES: It would appear Mr Weaver first built an ornithopter which was later modified into a fixed wing design. Rumours seem to exist, (confirmed somewhere?), that it did fly.
COVENTRY: Balloon ascent and parachute descent site
NOTES: In his excellent book RAF Hendon Andrew Renwick has this to say regarding the flying school that Claude Grahame-White established at Pau, in France during 1910: “Another pupil was Edith Maud Cook (also known as Miss Spencer Kavanagh). She could have been the first British woman pilot if she had not been killed in an accident before passing her test; a parachute jump from a balloon in Coventry went wrong on 9 July and she died the next day.” It is still not generally recognised that several women made a major contribution to flying throughout the early years of aviation history up to WW2.
COVENTRY: Early airfield?
NOTES: In early 1910 a Mr Ballin Hinde is mentioned as operating a Blériot monoplane from Coventry. Is anything now known about where and for how long this operation lasted?
COVENTRY: Temporary aerodrome
NOTES: On the 4th and 5th April 1931 CD Barnard Air Tours operated from a venue in/near Coventry and on the 22nd September Sir Alan Cobham’s 1934 Tour also displayed in/near this city. Are the locations for both these venues known today? On the 4th June 1935 the Cobham Tour visited Coventry again, presumably using the same site?
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