Fambridge
FAMBRIDGE: Balloon descent
NOTES: In their very worthy and interesting book ESSEX, A Hidden Aviation History, Paul Bingley and Richard E. Flagg tell us that two weeks after Jean-Pierre Blanchard made a balloon flight from Chelsea in London to LANGDON HILLS (west of Basildon), in the early autumn of 1785, another balloon landed in or near Fambridge.
This time the aeronaut was Major John Money, a member of the British 'Balloon Club'. Sadly, it does not appear recorded where he made his ascent from.
FAMBRIDGE: Early aerodrome (also known as SOUTH FAMBRIDGE)
Note: These three pictures were obtained from Google Earth ©
I have the Airfields of Britain Conservation Trust to thank for pinpointing this site.
Operated by: The Colony of British Aerocraft - Noel Pemberton-Billing
Location: On the southern banks of the river Crouch, the main facility being based around a disused factory.
Period of operation: 1909 to 1910.
Note: Some say from 1908 which seems highly unlikely? But, according to Paul Bingley and Richard E. Flagg in their book ESSEX: A Hidden Aviation History, they say that in 1908 Pemberton-Billing, "....started work on the construction of an experimental flying machine." And, "He found a new site for its testing on flat marshland at South Fambridge, which he soon called the 'Colony of British Aerocraft'."
Possibly much later use around 1964 only?
Runways: In those days the concept of runways was unknown. Usually they selected a suitably smooth area of roughly circular shape so that take-offs and landings could be into wind. Although, having said this, the majority of flying was done in the early morning and evening on days when the wind was calm. The entire site is reported to have been some 3000 acres and what we need to remember is that this constituted the flying area. Hence the adoption of the French term 'aerodrome' - an area within which flying activities took place. The majority of pilots would not venture to fly outside the aerodrome confines, especially because engine failure was a constant hazard.
NOTES:
Philip Jarrett has informed me that the trials of Howard Wright were postponed by a broken propeller. Weiss tested 'week later', during April or May 1909. It appears that the purchase of FAMBRIDGE was announced in Flight for the 20th February 1909.
In his excellent book ‘Taking To The Skies’ Graham Smith describes Pemberton-Billing as being, “…a yacht salesman, sometime gun-runner and entrepreneur of some style, (who) had experimented with kites as well as designing a few monoplanes. He acquired a considerable stretch of marshland at FAMBRIDGE with the intention of offering facilities to aeroplane experimenters; two large sheds were erected and plans were in hand to establish a flying school with a row of cottages, (actually twenty four-room cottages according to Ron Smith), to house the airmen.”
Perhaps we should also remember that Noel Pemberton-Billing designed many flying-boats and was a major force in establishing Supermarine at WOOLSTON in Southampton
Graham Smith states that this development took place in 1909, therefore around the same time as DAGENHAM (in ESSEX) and SHELLBEACH (in KENT) came into being. It appears it probably failed due to its relatively remote location? Another principal reason I later learnt was that due to the site being reclaimed marshland, drainage proved to be a massive problem. However, Graham Smith states that the three main personages who took to using this aerodrome, were Howard Wright, José Weiss and especially Robert F Macfie. No mention of Handley Page! See below.
However, since then I discovered in Ron Smiths equally excellent British Built Aircraft Vol.3 that he reckons Noel Pemberton-Billing joined forces with E C Gordon England to create this ‘Air Park’ and that puts an altogether different perspective on the project. Other sources, (see below), state that E C Gordon England was the aerodrome manager. There is of course usually a huge amount of difference between being a financial backer and aerodrome manager these days but I suspect the situation was very different then?
KNOBS AND SNOBS
I suppose we now need to take into account the incredible importance of the ‘Class’ system existing in England at this time. At LEYSDOWN in KENT it was mostly “knobs and snobs?” Without any doubt it was only the very ‘well-off’ who could afford to fly at LEYSDOWN as they needed to buy at least one aeroplane. Alongside this were ‘middle-class’ personages like de Havilland, Handley-Page, Macfie, Weiss and Wright building and ‘flying’ their own designs at other sites they found more affordable to use.
I read ‘Taking To The Skies’ in 2009 and a few years before I’d made the following notes; Yet another maddening episode so far. It seems beyond doubt that FAMBRIDGE aerodrome existed as Frederick Handley Page apparently built or at very least assembled and test flew some aircraft here which he financed. It would appear that some of these were also made and flown from BARKING CREEK (ESSEX) and before that in Woolwich around this time.
As mentioned before I had discovered a record stating that Mr E C Gordon England, (a well known pilot in those days), was involoved. Indeed some state he was the aerodrome manager from 1908 to 1909 at least! This of course opens up a real can of worms. Why did this aerodrome apparently have a manager in 1908 when the official first powered flight in the UK, (by the American Samuel F Cody, who never made any claim to being the first to fly a powered aircraft in the UK), took place the following year? It is now my opinion that many aviators were probably achieving short hops in those early pioneering days, and, we shall probably never know who was the first to achieve a 'proper flight' or circuit, as short hops such as the Wright Brothers first achieved at Kittyhawk in the USA were quite rightly being disregarded by those early pioneers as being legitimate ‘flights’.
WHAT CONSTITUTES A FLIGHT?
Today, after many years of research and enquiry it is now my opinion that the easiest distinction to make is the difference between flying and performing a flight. If a machine leaves the ground, (whether powered or not or even having no means of positive control), it is FLYING. Even if it only travelled a short distance. The only criteria is - did it leave the ground? Today we have stunt motor-cyclists for example travelling longer distances through the air than many of the earliest aeroplanes achieved. It seems senseless to argue if these airborne individuals are jumping or flying as either term fits. Indeed the early pioneers themselves didn’t agree on any one term, using ‘hops’, ‘skips’ and ‘jumps’ etc.
Making a flight on the other hand is I think equally simple to define. It is when a flying machine is exercised through all three axis. Climbing, turning and descending, typically flying a circuit - still today the criteria for a first solo flight.
A MATTER FOR DISCUSSION?
It is of course now surely without any question that the Wright brothers were certainly not the first to perform a controlled flight in any meaningful sense of the term in 1903 - all they had was photographic proof of a short hop, (not under any form of positive control as recognised by pilots, even from the early years), flying in ground effect. Which it now appears many other aspiring aviators were performing in those early pioneering decades. (1880 to 1910?). With, or indeed without any means of actually aerodynamically controlling their creations!
A small increase in wind speed alone could easily extend the hop, (or even get airborne), so any claim to fame in this regard is utterly meaningless - unless PR and marketing was the real aim of course and this appears to be the main objective for the Wright brothers who hoped to gain a worldwide patent for their machine. There can be no doubt that the Wright brothers were excellent early pioneers in developing a truly practical aeroplane, although their plans to dominate aviation marketing exclusively in the USA, if not globally, by trying to establish patents didn’t exactly pan out as expected. They were of course to quickly become extremely able aviators. It would seem that a very convincing argument can be made for the Wright brothers developing the first practical aircraft.
In his most excellent book ‘Taking Flight’ the very highly respected Richard P Hallion insists, (being American probably motivated by patriotic ideals?), on trying to make the case that the Wright brothers invented the ‘aeroplane’ or ‘aircraft’. Oddly enough his own testimony proves this was most certainly not the case! Any such claim is immediately flawed when you ask, for example,who invented the house, or car, or hotel, or ship etc, etc? It is surely a nonsense and meaningless to even think in such terms?
BACK TO FAMBRIDGE
An important design to appear at FAMBRIDGE was the Howard-Wright ‘Biplane’ built for Malcolm Deton-Karr and exhibited at the 1909 Olympia Aero Show. This design did apparently achieve a few straight-line hops? According to Ron Smith in British Built Aircraft Vol.3; “….the unsuccessful 1908 Howard-Wright biplane was tested at Fambridge before further attempts to fly at Camber Sands.” (see KENT)
It is also reported that José Weiss was at FAMBRIDGE with his No.1 Tractor Monoplane but it seems this machine failed to leave the ground? He subsequently took it to LITTLEHAMPTON in SUSSEX and later to BROOKLANDS in SURREY but appears to have fared no better? He also brought his 1909 glider here for fitment with an engine, (in fact it seems two types; a J.A.P. and an Anzani), but it seems this also failed to get airborne. This must have surely been basically a weight and/or power or thrust issue as the glider was previously successfully flown in the hands of E.C. Gordon England and Graham Wood at AMBERLEY in SUSSEX.
ROBERT F MACFIE
It is generally held that Mr Robert F Macfie, (some spell his name McFee or MacFee ), an American, also conducted flight experiments here also in 1909, with a machine of his own design built here, eventually with some success. But he regarded FAMBRIDGE as unsuitable and moved to MAPLIN SANDS also in ESSEX. As another example I found this report: “In 1909 Mr Robert F Macfie set about building an aeroplane here fitted with a 35hp J.A.P. engine and, “completed in six weeks made a short flight. After about a month, during which he had four smashes, Mr Macfie left FAMBRIDGE and looked about for another flying ground.”
In his excellent book British Built Aircraft Vol.3 Ron Smith opens up another can of worms regarding Mr Macfie because his account certainly seems to indicate he used a separate site? To quote; “The Macfie monoplane of 1909 was tested by R. F. Macfie, an American who had recently moved to Britain, on an unsuitable field at Fambridge, and then at Maplin sands. Tested with limited success during September and October 1909, the monoplane was moved to Maplin in November, but did not fly again.” It seems hard to reconcile the ‘Air Park’ site as being, “an unsuitable field”….?
“Success came with the Empress biplane, which was flown in 1910 at PORTHOLME (HUNTINGDONSHIRE) and at BROOKLANDS (SURREY). If nothing else this report proves that much of early aviation history was usually reported in far from exact terms. Which is entirely understandable of course but a bitch of a problem when trying to identify the sites used. It does seem that after 1910 activity at FAMBRIDGE had pretty much ceased?
A CLAIM TO FAME?
From the evidence, small though it is, I believe it is now rather a disgrace that FAMBRIDGE is not listed alongside, for example, LEYSDOWN (KENT), BROOKLANDS (SURREY), HENDON (LONDON) and FARNBOROUGH (HAMPSHIRE) as being the equal ‘birthplace’ of British aviation. The very concept of creating an ‘Air Park’ in those days was beyond equal anywhere else in the world?
John Morgan
This comment was written on: 2017-07-21 10:52:49Very interesting, I understand the house Mr Noel Pemberton-Billing occupied still exists in South Fambridge.( Aero House). Correction Aero Lodge.
Reply from Dick Flute:
Hi John, Many thanks, I shall keep this comment posted. Best regards, Dick
Roger Brash
This comment was written on: 2019-10-21 18:11:13I grew up in North Fambridge as a boy my father was speaking with local farmer Jack Friedline. Jack recalled the launch of a flying plane at south fambridge. He stated that on the boat launch a German engineer was sadly killed. The planes wing design was a biplane however the wings were joined as an oval design. He also stated that the plane would roar up and down the river however it never took off.
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