Falmouth flying sites
Note: This map only shows the position of Falmouth within the UK.
FALMOUTH see also BOSKENSO FARM
FALMOUTH see also BUDOCK VEAN
FALMOUTH see also GYLLYNGVASE BEACH
FALMOUTH see also MR DALE'S MEADOW
Note: Used by Henri Salmet in June 1912.
FALMOUTH: Temporary water landing site
NOTES: In 1913 Falmouth was planned as the penultimate stage in a 1,540 mile course around the UK sponsored by the Daily Mail. Southampton was the finishing point. Four aircraft were entered but by the start only one was available. Two had serious mechanical problems and the third was to have been flown by Samuel Cody – but he had been killed flying his entry at Farnborough on the 7th August.
This left one entrant, the amazing Australian H G ‘Harry’ Hawker flying a Sopwith Bat Boat with his mechanic - whose name isn’t mentioned, (how very British), and yet that poor sod probably contributed at least as much to the flight. Hawker joined Sopwith as a test pilot in 1912 and quickly established thirty flying records.
It was he who later formed the famous Hawker company, (taking over the Sopwith company in Kingston-upon-Thames), who employed the brilliant designer Sydney Camm. Oddly enough perhaps, and although Hawker died in 1921, it wasn’t until around 1925 that the company found a footing, more or less when Camm arrived on the scene.
Whilst with the Hawker company, Mr Camm, (later Sir Sydney), had a major influence on the design and development of the famous Fury, Hart, Demon, Hurricane, Typhoon, Tempest, Sea Hawk and Hunter - and - even the Hawker Siddeley P.1127. The P.1127 concept was of a VTOL fighter/bomber which eventually emerged as the Kestrel, and then of course, famously as the Harrier. What an incredible career. The P.1127 first flew in 1960 and Camm died in 1966.
Anyway, back to the story; Hawker, and his mechanic don’t forget, got as far as Dublin where they badly crashed. Hawker said his foot slipped off the rudder bar at a critical moment. So, Falmouth failed to get a visit from this project. Here again my familiar cry goes up. Where did Hawker, (and his mechanic!), put down around the UK before they arrived at Dublin? Any advice will be much appreciated.
SALMET TALES
A contemporary report in The Times is full of apparent contradictions? Published on 10.04.1914 it states that, “The airman Salmet, accompanied by a passenger , flew in a waterplane yesterday from Paris to London.” The report goes on to say, “He left Buc aerodrome, near Paris at 9.50 in the morning with the intention of flying to Hendon.” But, is this really a nonsense. Clearly there was no way a 'waterplane' could land at HENDON aerodrome. So, perhaps he intended landing on the Welsh Harp?
In the event he diverted to land on a farm in ADDINGTON near Croydon due to bad weather. This would be a perfectly safe decision to make as it is not often realised that a floatplane can be landed on dry land in a grass field or one with low-lying crops. Indeed, in Canada especially, floatplanes are still regularly landed on grass strips at airfields before being fitted with wheels and skis for the winter. Presumably his ground crew then fitted wheels to enable him to continue?
Henri Salmet had toured the West Country before and I suspect that for this tour in 1914 he often decided that a ‘waterplane’ was usually the most practical type to visit several of the later venues after Paignton, when the aircraft was on wheels? Many years ago I made a note that; "I seem to recall reading somewhere that Salmet’s (?) first visit to Falmouth was with a wheeled type, and landing on a beach with soft sand the aircraft nosed over? If this is true it helps to explain why he wanted a floatplane for a second visit?
See GYLLYNVASE BEACH near Falmouth town centre for a picture of Salmet's aircraft standing on its nose. It was sensibly fitted with floats the very next day.
The same reasoning for using a float-plane possibly applied to his later visits to Penzance, Barnstable and Ilfracombe too? At this point, presumably with a more powerful engine in his Blériot (?), to cope with floats, he was still intent on taking passengers at each destination despite the extra weight and drag of being on floats. Since writing this a photograph of Salmet’s Blériot on floats has been discovered showing it at Penzance.
On the other hand it seems Salmet arrived on wheels at BARNSTABLE. Whereas the ILFRACOMBE visit probably favoured being on floats?
THE THREE GREAT CONTESTS
Perhaps this might be as good a point as any to quote from ‘The Mastery of the Air’ by William J Claxton, Chapter XXXII – “Three Historic Flights”
“When the complete history of aviation comes to be written, there will be three epoch-making events which will doubtless be duly appreciated by the historian, and which may well be described as landmarks in the history of flight. These are the three great contests organised by the proprietors of the Daily Mail, respectively known as the “London to Manchester” flight, the “Round Britain flight in an aeroplane”, and the “Water-plane flight round Great Britain.”
Surely there can be no doubt at all that these events were seminal mile-posts in early fixed-wing aviation history? I certainly haven’t found anything even remotely comparable taking place elsewhere in the world, even in France – where many of the major developments in aviation were taking place in that era.
My small self-imposed task being to hopefully find out, “Where did they actually land along the way?” There seems to be a general lesson here regarding how history is recorded which hopefully historians might pay attention to? Records are often flawed and lost. All that often remains are a few accounts by and large, which seems surprising as these flights were major public events at the time with often thousands of people turning up to witness them.
FALMOUTH: Military and later civil seaplane base
Military users: RNAS WW1 later RAF WW2 In WW2 described as being: Seaplane Harbour
British airline users: Post 1945: Aquila
Location: Piers immediately east and north of town centre plus esturary
Period of operation: 1917/18, WW2 and 1949 to ?
Alighting area: A line from Pendennis Point to Penarrow Point passes through centre
NOTES: Aquila used Short Sunderland flying boats on services to the Scilly Isles. I assume that these 'Sunderlands' were actually the civilianised Sandringham version?
Shown on Admiralty chart 32 in the 1930s as a seaplane ‘Alighting Area’.
FALMOUTH DOCKS: MoD or private/company helipads?
Notes: These four pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
Location: In the docks area, close to and roughly E/ENE of town centre
Landing area: 1998: ‘H’ on circular concrete pad, alongside car park near water’s edge, 200m E of round fuel tanks. The second helipad, opened circa 2017, is on the end of a quay just W to NW of the original helipad.
NOTES: I have Mr Graham Frost to thank for pointing out that there are two helipads in the Falmouth docks area. Would it be safe to assume that the later helipad, so much closer to naval vessels being maintained, refurbished etc, will replace the original helipad?
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