Hasler Recreation Ground
HASLER RECREATION GROUND: Temporary Landing Ground
Operated by: Mr Graham Gilmour
Location: Just SW of Portsmouth city centre, on the west side of the entrance to Portsmouth harbour
Period of operation: 8th May 1911
A SMALL GALLERY COMPILED BY MYSELF AND MIKE HOLDER
The area view is from my Google Earth © derived database, but the story is that Gilmour was a competitor, one four, competing in the BROOKLANDS to BRIGHTON air race which took place on the 6th May 1911. Gustav Hamel won the race but Gilmour decided to stay for the remainder of the weekend, and departing on the 8th May decided to bomb the submarine depôt at Portsmouth with oranges, before landing here. Just a teeny note, but I think oranges in those days were a luxury item. They certainly were when I was just a lad, being born in 1947.
AND FINALLY?
Later Mike Holder found this article published in the Illustrated London News on the 20th May 1911. This article confirms that the aeroplane seen in the picture above was a Bristol Boxkite, this being the first aircraft to go into production in the U.K. and 78 were built. The first flight was on the 29th July 1910 but, it appears, did not enter service until 1911.
I find the development of different designs of great interest, especially as the basic concept of how an aeroplane should be configured dates back to the Wright Flyer - elevator up front, rudder(s) behind, demonstrated in France during 1908. The French Farman III of 1909 being in this configuration and the Bristol Aeroplane Company also adopting it in 1910, by which time the French designers had already, (pretty much), dismissed this layout and progressed to what became a much better concept, having the elevator(s) and rudder(s) mounted at the rear. Including developing ailerons rather than wing-warping and providing the pilot, (and passenger), seated in a nacelle which soon developed into a fuselage.
I was interested to learn when in Paris many years ago, working in the casino on the Champs Elysee for a TV production, that it was once the HQ of the Aero Club de France where these newer ideas were being evolved. Which is why, for example, the terms still used today such as aileron, nacelle and fuselage are French terms.
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