Hendon

*HENDON: Civilian aerodrome, (Also known as THE LONDON AERODROME before WW1). See also HENDON SOUTH

Note: This picture was obtained from Google Earth ©

The outline of the WW2 HENDON aerodrome can just about be made out, and includes HENDON SOUTH.

Also known as the GRAHAME-WHITE AERODROME and the HENDON AVIATION GROUNDS


 

PICTURE GALLERY ONE
Note: These pictures are scanned from Aeroplane Monthly, June 1987. These fabulous pictures were originally published in Flight and The Aeroplane.

 

Gallery One Captions
Picture One: Brindejonc des Moulinais about to take off from Hendon on a height record attempt , with a lady passenger , at Hendon in May 1913.
Picture Two: Part of the Aeronautical Syndicate's Valkyrie fleet at Hendon in May 1911. 
Picture Three: Claude Grahame-White, with Richard Gates as passenger, pylon racing at Hendon in October 1912. 
Picture Four: More racing at Hendon, August 1912.
Picture Five: R. J. Lillywhite in a Grahame-White Boxkite on a Hendon race day in June 1914. 
Picture Six:  Classic view of Hendon Aerodrome taken from an Avro 504K in May 1919. 

 

Shared civil/military aerodrome in WW1. RNAS Air Station

Later civil aerodrome/airport from 1919 to 1925. In WW2 listed as being an airport when under RAF command. Later RAF aerodrome



 

Operated by: Originally in 1910 by Everett Edgcumbe & Co. Ltd, later Grahame-White Aviation Co
 

Military users: WW1: RNAS Home Defence Station and Flying School (1914 to 1916)

Royal Navy Air Station (Flying School originally operated by Grahame-Wight etc and taken over by the Admiralty although retaining civilian instructors).

RFC Home Defence Night Landing Ground 1916 to 1919. RFC Flying School 1916 to

1918. RFC/RAF No.2 Aircraft Acceptance Park (1917 to 1919)

RFC/RAF Training Squadron Station, RFC/RAF School of Instruction, No.1  (Communications) Sqdn

December 1918: No.1 (Communications) Sqdn (DH.4s & Handley Page 0/400s )

March 1919: No.2 (Communications) Sqdn

 

Interwar years:

600 & 601 Sqdns Auxiliary Air Force (Westland Wapitis)

604 Sqdn (DH.9As, Wapitis & Hawker Harts later Demons, returning later flying Blenheims)

611 (West Lancashire) Sqdn   (Hawker Harts)

24 Communications Sqdn (Tiger Moths)

 

*Battle of Britain RAF Station (from 10^th July 1940)      11 Group

257 Sqdn  Hawker Hurricanes (still based here 1^st August 1940)

 

WW2: RAF Fighter Command

504 Sqdn  (Hawker Hurricanes)        

 257 Sqdn  (Initially Vickers-Supermarine Spitfires, replaced by Hurricanes)
 

Transport Command   116 Wing MCS

No.1 Delivery Flight

24 Sqdn  (DH89A Dominies, Douglas C-47 Dakotas)
 

USAAF 9^th Air Force 86^th Air Transport Sqdn

 

Post 1945: 604 Sqdn (Spitfires)          ATC glider flying

 

Civil activities: Pre 1914 to 1940: GA training, joy riding, air shows, (known as Aerial Derbys prior to WW1), manufacturing and air races. Commercial charter and limited airline use
 

Civil charter users: 1911 to 1940: Aircraft Transport & Travel, D.H. Aeroplane Hire Service (based at nearby STAG LANE), Grahame-White Aviation, The Airadvert Co
 

British airline users: 1919 RAF No.1 (Communications) Sqdn., making civil passenger and mail flights to Paris and Versailles mostly to determine the Peace Treaty terms after WW1 ended it is claimed. Using DH.4s and HP 0/400s (There are several examples of the RAF performing ‘airline/freight/air mail’ duties immediately after WW1 ended and before the civilian companies became organised). There is a strong case to made that the RAF were the first British airline operator!
 

Flying schools: Pre WW1 and in some cases during WW1: Beatty School of Flying, Blackburn Flying School, British Caudron Flying School, Chanter Flying School, Deperdussin Flying School, W H Ewen School of Flying, Grahame-White Aviation, J Laurence Hall Flying School, Hall & Temple Flying School*, London & Provincial Aviation, McArdle & Drexel Flying School, Ruffy-Baumann Flying School, Temple School, The Aeronautical Syndicate, The Bleriot School, Willows Flying School

*It now appears the Temple School was renamed the ‘Hall School of Flying” in 1913.

Between the wars: Beatty School of Flying, Grahame-White Aviation, London Flying Club, Temple Flying School (from HENDON SOUTH)

Manufacturing: Pre 1914: Blair Atholl Aeroplane Syndicate, Breguet Aeroplanes (factory in Willesden), Everett Edgcumbe, Farman, Grahame-White Co, Handley Page Co (final assembly and flight testing only?), Morane, Nieuport & General Aircraft, W.H.Ewen Aviation (later British Caudron Company), The Aeronautical Syndicate

In 1912, The Aircraft Company, later became the Aircraft Manufacturing Co – Airco. In WW1 Airco built a large factory, a couple miles away to the south in The Hyde, Hendon
 

Pleasure flights: Pre WW1: Grahame-White Aviation and others

Other uses: Early 1950s site for the major British SBAC annual air-show later transferred to Farnborough in ? Still used in 2004 by the Police Air Support Unit for requirements by the Hendon police training school.
 

Location: SE of Burnt Oak, SW of Mill Hill, NE of Colindale, NW of Hendon and 7nm NNW of the City of London. The original HENDON aerodrome was situated in the area now known as Grahame Park, (presumably after Grahame-White?), to the W of the RAF museum and the later aerodrome to the S and E of this site.

Museum: The RAF Museum. Arguably amongst the finest in the world, and one of the most prestigious in the UK.

Period of operation: Almost certainly opened in 1910 to 1957?
 

Site area: Pre 1914: The original site was quite small, just a few acres, but quickly expanded. In September 1910 listed as being 146 acres although some say 207 acres, even 220 acres. In 1911 HENDON had a circumference of 2 miles

WW1: 192 acres 1097 x 1097
 

Runways: WW2: 15/33    1212x46    grass         10/28    914x46    grass
                          01/19    933x46    grass

After WW2 according to one informed source only two grass runways existed, a NE/SW runway of 914 metres and a shorter E/W runway 732 metres long

 

NOTES: It surely must be said that today the RAF museum at this site is a credit to all involved. It really is a magnificent achievement and ranks amongst the best museums to be found anywhere.



A MIKE CHARLTON GALLERY

 

Note: These pictures from postcards were kindly sent by Mike Charlton who has an amazing collection. See,  www.aviationpostcard.co.uk

Third picture: I don't think I have seen any record of this remarkable flight. The postcard was sent on the 20th July 1911. But surely, here is proof that it occurred?

 

Eleventh picture: I wonder if anybody can kindly identify the aircraft in this line-up. I certainly have a couple of ideas, but quite frankly I'm out of my depth.

Twelfth picture: The cars look distinctly pre-WW1 but I suppose car design didn't develop much during WW1. I cannot think of any design like this emerging before WW1. Indeed, it looks to me to be a Vickers Vimy, or at least something similar. If anybody can kindly offer advice, this will be most welcome.

Thirteenth picture: Presumably Mr Brock flying the Blériot, and a Henri Farman in the foreground? 

Fourteenth picture:  Without any doubt a Blériot machine, presumably a 'XI'?

 

1910

THE VERY EARLY HISTORY
So typical of recorded history and especially personal accounts, the following quote from C C Turner in his book Old Flying Days serves to illustrate how fickle memory can be. He has the following account: “Mr Handley Page does not fly himself, but the reference reminds me of the wager he made with Mr Pemberton Billing. I do not remember which of them was the challenger, but the stakes were to be given to him who learned to fly in a day. Mr Pemberton Billing no doubt began with a practical advantage, for in about 1908 he had had a machine, and almost flown it. At any rate, he won the wager. Mr Handley Page, flying his own monoplane at Hendon certainly got off the ground, and landed again. He landed in a somewhat bouncing fashion, but without doing any damage, and on getting out asked a friend. ‘Did you see my landing?’ ‘I saw them all,’ was the reply.

Today I would like to call attention to the remark, “He certainly got off the ground” but notice, but this wasn’t credited with being a ‘flight’, even in those days! As I’ve made it clear elsewhere, neither should the short hop made by the Wright brothers in 1903 be regarded as “a flight” either. It is quite another issue to consider who was the first to ‘fly’. In this case just getting a machine barely off the ground, even for the slightest distance, is definitely not ‘flying’. Who was the first to achieve this feat I suspect we’ll never know? And, we are of course simply asking here about a powered flight of course. Ironically, after so many years research, it now appears it was the Wright brothers who first achieved a controlled circuit. But at Dayton.

Again from C C Turner, “ The late Richard Gates made Hendon aerodrome. It was from here that M Louis Pulhan started his flight to Manchester in 1910, and Gates afterwards set to work to clear the trees and drain it. Then he decided he must learn to fly.” Mr Gates went on to become the father of “crazy flying” which in the early days was called “Rag Time Flying.” Turner then goes on to say, “And in my opinion the success of Hendon as a centre of flying sport was largely due to him.” C C Turner also insists that Mr Bernard Isaac was a major figure in the creation of HENDON. Mr Isaac founded the Aeroplane Supply Company.

But, (isn’t there always a “but”), Andrew Renwick in his excellent book RAF Hendon maintains it was Mr Edgar Isaac Everett in partnership with Mr Kenelm William Edward Edgcumbe who formed Everett Edgcumbe & Co Ltd with premises in nearby Colindeep Lane and began work on a monoplane. Some say they were joined by a certain Charles Richard Fairey, (later of course to found a very famous aircraft manufacturing company), who had also, some claim, worked with Martin and Handasyde at the WELSH HARP (or OLD WELSH HARP). “In order to test their monoplane an airfield was required. The Motor published a photograph on 1 February that showed trees being felled to clear a site for flying. In February 1910 Hendon Urban District Council approved the erection of a shed in which to house the Everett-Edgcumbe monoplane and work could begin.”

ANDREW RENWICK
At the time of writing this note in early 2013 Andrew Renwick was, and had been for many years, (and possibly still is?), the Curator of Photographs at the RAF Museum so he of all people certainly should know the precise history of the site as he is also the author of the book RAF Hendon; The Birthplace of Aerial Power. He very kindly offered to answer my many questions regarding early flying history, especially in this area of NW London.

For example, in February 1910 it was reported that Claude Grahame-White had successfully flown a Bleriot monoplane at Hendon. I think we both agree this was almost certainly at THE HYDE, a nearby location.

 

THE FORMATION OF HENDON AS ‘THE LONDON AERODROME
From Andrew Renwick;  “On 30 September 1910 Kenelm Edgcumbe and his brother-in-law, Harold Arthur Arkwright, registered The London Aerodrome Company Limited to acquire the site. Leases were obtained and more ground was cleared; on 2 November 1910 Lawrence Ardern was made a shareholder in recognition of the assistance he provided in obtaining the various leases.” All rather boring perhaps, but, note the absence of the name Richard Gates so far, much vaunted by C C Turner in his book of around 1927. I make no apologies for going into such detail as HENDON in those days was soon to become the premier flying site in the UK.

 

AN ARGUMENT THAT CANNOT BE WON?
Experts can, and will, argue this point promoted by Andrew Renwick that HENDON was actually “The Birthplace of Aerial Power” ; BROOKLANDS (SURREY) and FARNBOROUGH (HAMPSHIRE) are also serious contenders of course, and I would add EASTCHURCH (KENT). But surely from the point of view of huge public acclaim and the promotion HENDON afforded British aviation, this site holds all the aces? As pointed out so often elsewhere the beauty of providing just a ‘Guide’ has manifold benefits – definitely in not professing to provide a definitive answer and, in fact, usually attempting quite the opposite. It is of course only human to try and arrive at conclusions, and opinions can be aired in a ‘Guide’. What has really intrigued if not fascinated me, is the sheer abundance of differing accounts and opinions in such a specialised subject of recent history!

THE BEGINNING
Without any doubt, the simple fact that the French pilot Louis Paulhan had elected to start from the only partially cleared HENDON ‘aerodrome’ and won the Daily Mail London to Manchester race in April 1910; this put HENDON ‘on-the-map’. Today it is quite hard to try and envisage the effect on the population but is certainly not an exaggeration to say it equalled the first landing on the moon. Indeed, it can be argued that the event had more impact because many thousands actually turned out along the route to witness the race, whereas with the moon landing it was only seen on TV. 

Getting back to Andrew Renwicks book RAF Hendon: “Sheds were erected….and although the flying ground wasn’t completely ready it opened on 1 October 1910. The Aero reported that enough ground had been cleared to allow a run of half a mile, with workmen clearing more hedges and trees to create an area of more than 200 acres and allow a circuit of 1¾ miles.” Andrew Renwick also makes the point that: “The size on an aerodrome was important…..in the early days….all flying was carried out over the airfield, pilots rarely ventured beyond the aerodrome boundary, which made cross-country flights remarkable.”


THE FIRST TO ARRIVE
It now appears the first two organisations to occupy the sheds at HENDON were The Blériot School opened with Norbert Chereau as manager and Pierre Prier as chief instructor. Frank Hedges Butler was their first student pilot. The second organisation was the Aeronautical Syndicate Ltd, originally set up at LARKHILL (WILTSHIRE) in July 1909. To quote from Andrew Renwick: “The aeroplanes of the Bleriot School and the Aeronautical Syndicate were regularly seen in the sky over Hendon at a time when few people had even seen a motor car.” He also reckons the Everett-Edgcumbe monoplane never flew properly, although it did make “a few hops”.

I do realise I’ve banged on about the subject elsewhere in this Guide, but it must be remembered that the so-called “first powered flight” by the Wright brothers at Kittykawk in the USA, in 1903, was nothing of the kind. It was just a ‘short hop’ in ground effect. In April 2013 I learnt that Jane’s World Aircraft has accepted the claim that Gustave Weisskopf (Whitehead) had made a flight of 1.5 miles at about 50 feet in Connecticut in 1901 and that the Smithsonian Institute were reviewing their decision to credit the Wright brothers made in 1948. (See: www.gustavewhitehead.com)

However, it certainly does appear the Wright brothers did achieve the first ‘proper’ flight, by flying a circuit, when they returned to experiment in Dayton, Ohio. All that can be said about the Weisskopf endeavour is that it was a bloody long hop, but certainly not a flight. The problem appears to be that the vast majority of experts and academicians are not pilots and therefore cannot differentiate between a machine becoming airborne – and a flight; which involves in its most basic form, flying a circuit and thereby exercising the machine in the basic elements required for a flight, in all three axis, climbing, turning and descending. There is no explicit requirement to even land at the same place as the take-off, but this is generally deemed preferable – even today!

This is all a great shame because the Wright brothers, who were so damned greedy, intent on getting patents for all ‘flying machines’ registered to them alone, (a ridiculous notion of course), the exact date of the first circuit flown by one the brothers seems shrouded in mystery. Or should that simply be – not recorded. After raising almost no interest in the USA for their ‘flying machine’ when they appeared in Europe to demonstrate their skills at Le Mans, all the European pilots thought they had the best ‘all-round’ aircraft, even if it couldn’t match anything in Europe for certain aspects of performance such as climb rate, speed, service ceiling etc.

It was soon realised that the ‘Wright Flyer’ design had many inherent problems and another approach was required. Without too much doubt is was the French pilots and designers discussing the subject in the Aero Club de France on the Champs Elysees in Paris who pretty much sorted it all out. Indeed, the terms they adopted are still used globally for many aircraft components, such as fuselage, empennage and aileron etc. They certainly quickly realised that, for aircraft of that period, having just a single engine, it had to be in front of the pilot. Having it positioned behind the pilot, as with the Wright designs, meant that any serious accident would invariably be fatal when the engine hit the pilot. Nevertheless, new designs with the engine behind the pilot/crew continued to be made for several years, although I believe I am correct in claiming; not too many in France and by French designers in WW1 none at all? Needless to say the British clung onto the pusher design long after designers in other countries had given the idea up, especially for a combat role.

Over one hundred years later the vast majority of new light aircraft still retain this feature.
 

EMILE PUPIN
Returning to Andrew Renwick and RAF Hendon the next person to put in an appearance was Emile Pupin with his ‘Pupin monoplane’, but no record appears to exist of it ever flying.


HENDON DEVELOPS
Again from Andrew Renwick; “Once more hangars had been built, the Grahame-White School was able to move from Brooklands and new workshops replaced those at Walham Green.”

From C C Turner, amongst the earliest personalities at HENDON in 1910 were Mr Robert Blackburn and Mr Harold Blackburn who ran a flying school here under the management of Harold. Oddly enough neither were related and Robert of course went on to form the famous Blackburn Aeroplane Company, eventually based at BROUGH, YORKSHIRE. This is all very odd because C C Turner was there, and a journalist, but Andrew Renwick makes no mention of the Blackburns being at HENDON in 1910. Indeed, he says the Blackburn School moved to HENDON in September 1912, “being one of the smallest” and makes no mention of Robert Blackburn being involved!

Originally I had noted that:  “HENDON aerodrome came about according to many supposedly highly reliable accounts when Claude Grahame-White teamed up with Louis Blériot and Sir Hiram Maxim to create an international aviation centre in 1911. This was the time when HENDON became known as ‘THE LONDON AERODROME’." As you can now see, this was not the case.

Prior to this Claude Grahame-White had set up a flying school in Pau, France in early 1910 and also set up a School at BROOKLANDS (SURREY) for a few months in 1910. According to Andrew Renwick in RAF Hendon, one of his pupils at Pau 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.”

AN ACCOUNT BY JOSHUA LEVINE
In his excellent book Fighter Heroes of WW1 Joshua Levine gives this account by Eric Furlong: “Clarence Winchester was a freelance pilot with his own aeroplane giving joyrides to people for something like £1 a time. He used to put the passenger in the aeroplane and then start frightening them by telling them that they musn’t touch this, that whatever they do, they were not to lean against that, that wire was absolute death if they got tangled up in it. By the time they took off, the passenger was jelly. When we asked him why he did this, he said, ‘Well, they think they’re getting their money’s worth if they’re really frightened…’.” I suppose that to some extent the idea that flying is inherently dangerous still pervades even today? For example take the mostly ignored and somewhat ridiculous “safety”demonstrations performed by cabin crew before each take-off in a modern airliner. The majority of passengers know deep down exactly what they will do in a serious emergency - they’ll scream and panic and thereby hinder every attempt made by the flight crew to control the situation, and prevent the cabin crew from effecting a successful evacuation, in the very rare circumstances this might occur these days.

And, this isn’t my very cynical view either; read the accident reports.

 

Joshua Levine also tells another interesting story about HENDON. “On Sundays, Frederick Handley-Page would send his aircraft, Yellow Peril, down to London Aerodrome, where its pilot would give joyrides. There was one man who refused to take a ‘flip’, however, as Charles Tye recalls:” – ‘Every Sunday, we used to take people up for trips. From Hendon, round Hyde Park and back. I don’t suppose the trip lasted more than ten minutes and we used to charge a guinea. One particular Sunday, Handley-Page was there himself and I saw him talking to the actress Gladys Cooper. We hadn’t had a customer for a while, and the pilot, a man named Whitehead, said to me, ‘I wonder if Miss Gladys Cooper wants a trip? Go and ask! And if she doesn’t want a flip, ask Mr. Page if he’d like one. I don’t think he’s ever been in the air before!’ So I went over and just stood aside Mr. Page while he was taliking to Gladys Cooper. ‘What do you want, Charlie?’ he asked. I said, ‘Mr. Whitehead is sitting up there and he’s getting fed up. Is anybody coming up?’ He said, No!’  So I said, ‘Well, he says he’d like to take you up as he doesn’t think you’ve been in the air before!’ He looked at Miss Gladys Cooper and he took me aside and whispered in my ear, ‘You go back and tell Whitehead – I build them. I don’t bloody well fly them!’

This very direct and honest statement regarding the role of designer and manufacturer still seriously affects the industry even today. There have been at least a couple of very serious accidents caused because the designers knew little, or even cared, about how pilots actually fly aircraft, or for that matter, how aircraft should be flown properly. I could cite examples of many airliners which have been certified as safe despite having very serious design flaws relating to the well understood basics of how to fly aeroplanes. Ignoring principles taught to everybody learning to fly even a basic training type. Indeed, in jaded moments I have often said, relating to light aircraft, that they are now so safe the primary role of the designer is to make them dangerous to operate! Exactly the same can be said about many modern cars of course, with many quite superfluous complexities being included.

This said, and as related, Federick Handley Page had flown.


THE HANDLEY PAGE EPISODE
Official records show that J G Weir was awarded his Pilots Certificate, (No.24), after flying a Blériot Monoplane from HENDON on the 8th of November 1910. The Handley Page concern started in 1908 and became a limited company about one year later. Later on, (probably in 1916), with a factory in Cricklewood, but,  according to Jane’s 1917 ‘All The World’s Aircraft’ their flying ground was HENDON. This was soon to change as Handley Page developed their own airfield at CRICKLEWOOD and was later, after WW1, to become the first ‘proper’ British international airport adjacent to their factory, and Handley Page operated by their own airline.

Scanned from British Aviation - The Pioneer Years by Harold Penrose, surely this must be a very interesting aeroplane. It seems that is was built by Handley Page at his Barking factory to the design of a Mr T Sonoda of Japan. I wonder if the 'Rising Sun' motif on the rudder was then a legal requirement for Japanese aircraft, akin to the 'Swiss Cross', a white cross on a red band, on the tail of all Swiss civil aircraft?  

1911

Note:  These three pictures from Flight magazine, were kindly provided by Mr Michael T Holder
 

The first picture was published on the 2nd September 1911, and in effect was a dress rehearsal for the first mail flights, to Windsor, which started on the 9th September and lasted until the 26th.  (See below for more information). The second picture is of great interest - what a contraption! There is no record, it seems, that it ever flew.

The third picture shows Gustave Hamel autographing newspapers prior to a flight intending to deliver a bundle to Southend. He didn't even get close. However, he soon became what today we'd call a super-star and thousands would turn up at venues around the country just to see him display. Indeed, in some towns, especially when a display occurred on a weekday, a public holiday was declared. I cannot recall this happening for more modern 'super-stars'?
 

THE LONDON AERODROME – HENDON, GETS GOING
On the 19^th April (others say the 12^th) 1911 it appears that Pierre Prier, CFI at the Blériot School based here, flew non-stop to Issy in France, (near Paris), taking 3hrs 56mins. Also in April 1911 it appears Gustave Hamel flew from HENDON to HOVE (Brighton) at an altitude of 3000ft in his 50hp Blériot. In July 1911 a race from Paris to London was held, sponsored by The Standard with a £2,500 prize. It was won by a French pilot, M Védrines. As many point out, the development and reliability of aircraft (especially the engines) was proceeding at an extraordinary pace, the flight to Paris by Prier in April 1911 being less than two years since Blériot had first made his hazardous first crossing of the English Channel on the 25^th July 1909.

Andrew Renwick makes the remark: “Unfortunately Prier joined the British & Colonial Aeroplane Company as a pilot and designer in June 1911, so in October Henri Salmet was appointed as his successor; he had been taught to fly by Pierre Prier at the Bleriot School.” I imagine the term “unfortunately” is used because Henri Salmet, along with Gustave Hamel, soon become incredibly famous for performing ‘exhibitions of flying’ around much of the UK. As listed elsewhere in this Guide, such was the occasion in many towns that if the ‘exhibition’ occurred on a weekday – a public holiday was declared. In every case it seems, these two were accorded ‘gala dinners’ at the Town Hall and it really was a momentous occasion in the towns history. Even the most famous rock stars and actors, or royalty for that matter, in later years wouldn’t get such a reception.

This said, there was for some reason a large degree of ‘public hysteria’ involved. Unimaginable today of course, but we have to remember that apart from balloons, nothing else had been seen in the skies and the prospect of a human being able to cavort in the air in control of a ‘machine’ was utterly fantastic, almost beyond belief.

And to think, it wasn’t too many years later that many of the public would, if aviation impinged on their domestic lives, just grumble and complain about the noise aircraft created! Especially so by WW2 when, according to my records, the UK was fighting to prevent one of the most evil regimes ever witnessed in Europe taking over. Make no mistake about it, the British people are not particularly prone to patriotism, and in WW2 there are even examples of major figures in the Church of England resisting minor inconvenience to their ‘status quo’. But, at the same time, approving of chaplains to administer to the fighting forces and wholeheartedly supporting the killing of civilians.

Note. First picture: This is undated and I believe the copyright is unknown?

Second picture: This picture was taken from a photograph in the fabulous Science Museum, London, which is well worth a visit. If anybody can kindly offer advice regarding the date this was taken, this will be most welcome.

 

FLYING DISPLAYS
Flying displays (air shows) were held here from 1911 and on 24th July that year it is said that nearly half a million people had gathered by 4AM (!) to see the first of fifteen aircraft depart competing in the Daily Mail ‘Circuit of Britain’ air race. The first major HENDON show took place on the 12^th of May 1911 with an ‘Aerial Display’ for the Parliamentary Aerial Defence Committee with the pilots Drexel, Hamel, Loraine, Cody, Prier and Grahame-White taking part. The Prime Minister, members of the Cabinet, the Leader of the Opposition and over 200 MPs attended. The public turned up in droves and the surrounding roads were said to resemble “Derby Day crowds.”

Andrew Renwick points out a most peculiar set of circumstances regarding this first ‘Air Show’ in May 1911 in that: “…the Aeronautical Syndicate was prevented from participating, despite having suitable aircraft and having been resident at Hendon since it opened. The aviation press was disgusted by the exclusion…”. So, what was going on?

GRAHAME-WHITE HISTORY
Again from RAF Hendon, in 1911 the Grahame-White company had nine sheds at HENDON: “The first three were used for the construction of components that were assembled into complete aircraft in the fourth and fifth sheds; the other four were used for the school aircraft.” Andrew Renwick also tells this bizarre story which seems to begger belief: “One of the sheds used by Grahame-White had previously been occupied by another tenant. In late February or early March 1911 the Chanter School was established at Hendon with two Bleriot XI aircraft in one of the sheds Grahame-White wanted for his school and factory.” Now then, cop this! “Not only was the owner of the school the instructor, but he was also a pupil himself! There was a disagreement between the Chanter School and its new landlord, which led to it being banned from flying on 21 September 1911 and all pupils excluded from the aerodrome. A settlement was reached, however, and the school resumed training on the 7 October, but by then Chanter had decided to relocate to Shoreham, which he did in November.”

The ‘new’ landlord of HENDON by that time was C. Grahame-White & Co. Ltd and it appears the deal was probably finalised in March 1911. By the end of 1912 Hendon had two British manufacturers in residence, Grahame-White and Airco, plus agents of six French manufacturers; Bleriot, Breguet (Louis Bréguet quickly dropped the accent over the ‘E’ even in France as did Louis Blériot, in England at least), Caudron, Deperdussin, Farman and Morane. A photograph of HENDON in 1911 clearly shows two ‘sheds’ being occupied by ‘L. BLERIOT’S SCHOOL’.

Andrew Renwick also mentions that, regarding another trip at the end of 1911: “While in the USA Claude took part in the Boston Meeting; he also planned to undertake exhibition flights….(but)…a court granted the Wright Company an injunction, preventing him from flying in the USA until the legal case was resolved.” Put very simply the Wright brothers had been trying to patent the powered aeroplane and were trying to sue everybody who appeared in the USA flying other designs. “A second action for damages was rejected by the court but the whole episode left Grahame-White depressed. He told the US media that he was considering giving up flying completely and concentrating on aircraft construction. His feelings were made stronger by the type of pilots engaged in exhibition flying and their high death rate; one of the worst offenders was the Wright Company itself.”

This all tends to put a rather different slant on the two ‘plucky bicycle makers from Dayton, Ohio’ who claimed to have made the first flight. As I understand the matter a patent can be issued for a particular design or device but, you cannot patent a concept and an aeroplane is most definitely a concept. It is often said the failure of the Wright brothers to understand this basic principle led to them ruining their lives in litigation and becoming very embittered, especially Wilber. Which is an awful shame because they really did make a huge contribution to the foundation years. It is said that Orville was invited for a flight in an early Lockheed Constellation and commented that the wing span was greater than his first flight. Thereby indicating that even after so many years he still hadn’t come to grips with the difference between a ‘flight’ and ‘a hop’.

What Orville didn’t mention was that the process of litigation he and his brother set in place hindered the development of the aeroplane so badly that when the USA decided to enter WW1 most of the US aircraft industry were consigned to produce European designs in both airframes and engines. In effect the Wright brothers did everything they could think of, to stifle every advance in aviation in the USA! And, that is, without much doubt, a fact – not an opinion.

ANOTHER ASPECT OF HENDON
Andrew Renwick puts another view on the Gates, Blériot, Maxim episode much applauded by C C Turner: “On 24 March 1911 Grahame-White and Blériot entered into an agreement with a new company that would merge their schools. In addition Richard Thomas Gates signed another agreement with Claude Grahame-White on 25 March on behalf of the new company for the acquisition of the London Aerodrome. The new company was Grahame-White, Blériot & Maxim Ltd. On 1 April 1911 a prospectus was issued for the sale of shares, but it was under-subscribed and Louis Blériot decided to have no further part in the enterprise: Sir Hiram Maxim also withdrew from the project.”

The main reason for mentioning this is to indicate how very complex and fragile the arrangements were to get powered aviation going in the UK. Given hindsight it now seems quite incredible that major people, like the two ‘foreigners’ Blériot and Maxim, lacked so much faith in the project. Especially as these two people were, without any doubt, two of the biggest supporters of the potential of powered flight. On the other hand however it seems far more probable that these two sharp businessmen quickly realised that the fat-arsed, complacent, arrogant and largely ignorant British gentry and monied classes were mostly a waste of time trying to convince, as were most of the military and naval top brass; of the future potential for powered flying machines. In this respect history now shows they were quite correct - thinking short term. But, as we now know of course – they were so wrong!
 

FIRST AIR MAIL FLIGHT
Also in 1911 Gustav Hamel* undertook the first ever official Air Mail flight to Windsor when employed by Grahame-White. In fact he flew several services over this route from the 9^th to 26^th September as part of the Coronation of King George V celebrations using a Farman type. Intriguingly a picture in RAF Hendon is captioned: “Evelyn Frederick Driver delivering the mail to Windsor.” The service carried at least 25,000 letters and 90,000 postcards!

*It is well worth researching the history of this remarkable aviator and his list of achievements.


FIRST LONG DISTANCE CHARTER FLIGHT? 
See my entry for STEYNING


THE SECOND BRITISH WOMAN TO OBTAIN HER R.Ae.C. CERTIFICATE

This picture was scanned from The History of British Aviation 1908 to 1914 by R Dallas Brett.

Mrs Hilda Hewlett was the first, gaining her R.Ae.C. certificate, No.122, at BROOKLANDS in 1911. Mrs C de Beauvoir Stocks had been under instruction at the Grahame-White school and on the 1st November gained her R.Ae.C. certificate, No.153. It appears that on the conclusion of her tests Mrs Stocks celebrated by giving a joy-ride to her friend Mrs Gates, the wife of the manager of the Grahame-White school.

 

1912

A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY

 

Note:  This six items were kindly provided by Mr Michael T Holder in April 2022. Apart from the map, the other items are all from The Aeroplane magazine. The first published on the 28th March 1912, the second and fourth, (a voucher), on the 4th April 1912. The sixth item, another advert, was published on the 16th May.

The fifth item, published in The Aeroplane on the 20th June 1912 makes for interesting reading today - to say the least! Looking back it is interesting to think that less than twenty years later after this article was published, women were making, flying solo in many cases, world record breaking very long distance flights.

HENDON SOON BECOMES A MAJOR FLYING VENUE
Within a year HENDON had quickly become, during 1912, without any doubt, the premier aerodrome in the UK. Hindsight is of course the most prized of commodities and I would like to find a sponsor to bottle the stuff, and make a million or more!

Only Claude Grahame-Wight now appears, in 1911, to be the major force in trying to get the ‘British Establishment’ interested in supporting aviation and, to jump a year forward to 1912, had a Farman floatplane, sponsored by the Daily Mail and touring around, emblazoned with ‘Wake Up England’ on the fuselage sides.

 

MANUFACTURING ASPECTS
A rather large book can be written on this aspect alone so I will only try to clear up a few issues which appear to become muddled over the years. It only took me about ten years to sift and sort and, to be honest, it is still ongoing. The main problem was having so many flying sites situated within such a small area; CRICKLEWOOD, KINGSBURY, the LONDON AERODROME at HENDON, STAG LANE at Burnt Oak, THE HYDE and the (OLD) WELSH HARP.

Oh boy, what a responsibility! And how to put it simply? Basically it appears the earliest evidence of constructing aircraft seems to be around the WELSH HARP area but the subject is confused between actually constructing aircraft and where they were assembled for flight tests. Without any doubt the serious business of making aircraft occurred at the ‘LONDON AERODROME’ (HENDON) from 1910. George Holt Thomas acquired the assets from The Aeronautical Syndicate from Frederick Handley Page in 1913 but he had already formed The Aircraft Company in 1911. In RAF Hendon Andrew Renwick informs us that: “…by 1912 [he] had acquired the exculsive license to build and sell Farman aircraft and Gnome engines in England…..and on 6 June 1912 the company was renamed the Aircraft Manufacturing Co. Ltd (Airco).

The main manufacturer at HENDON before WW1 was Grahame-White Aviation Co followed by Aircraft Manufacturing Co. I had thought that, for example, the Bleriot, Breguet, Caudron, Deperdussin, Farman and Morane concerns must have had at least a limited manufacturing capability but it appears this was not the case and these respective types were simply assembled here. Indeed, it appears that the lack of space for manufacturing caused Louis Blériot to move to BROOKLANDS (SURREY) in the latter half of 1913 although the factory was situated nearby in ADDLESTONE. The BROOKLANDS facility being for aircraft assembly, flight testing and, of course, the flying school.

Another aspect of HENDON history which came as a complete surprise, in early 2013 when reading RAF Hendon, was that another Holt Thomas company, Airships Ltd, had erected an airship shed at HENDON in 1913 with E T Willows as the chief designer. In WW1 George Holt Thomas gained huge contracts to build aircraft designed by Geoffrey de Havilland who had left employment at the Royal Aircraft Factory, FARNBOROUGH, and these had ‘DH’ designations. Pretty soon in WW1 all Airco ‘DH’ designs were regarded by RFC pilots as being deathtraps, very seriously inferior to German designs, although later on the bomber types such as the DH.9 were regarded in somewhat better terms. When WW1 erupted The Aircraft Company at ‘HENDON’ could not cope so a much larger factory at THE HYDE nearby was built, together with it seems, a flying area co-located.

 

Note: When de Havilland set up his operation at STAG LANE Burnt Oak in 1920, on the site of the WW1 EDGWARE aerodrome, it appears that initially at least, setting up a factory to design and manufacture aircraft was not a priority.

THE LONDON AERODROME HAD NOW BECOME ‘REALLY FAMOUS’

My dear friend Maurice J Wickstead found this report from The Times which I think is well worth repeating in full: “TO-DAYS MEETING AT HENDON” (20.04.12) “The first spring meeting at the London Aerodrome, Hendon, will be held today. It will begin at 3 o’clock with a monoplane handicap speed contest open to all types of monoplanes, distance 12 miles. Then will follow a relay race for all types of aeroplanes, distance six miles, after which there will be a cross-country flight – ten miles outward and the same distance inward – open to all types of aeroplane. The turning point will probably be above the Cathedral at St Albans. From 5.30 p.m. to 6.15 p.m. there will be an altitude contest for the St. Ivel Challenge Trophy. The list of entrants for the various events is as follows: Mrs C. Stocks, and Messrs. S. F. Cody, T. O. M. Sopwith, Gustav Hamel, W H. Ewan, George Prensiell, B. C. Hucks, Henri Salmet, D. L. Allen, Lewis Turner, C. Howard Pixton, Lieutenant W. Parke R.N., James Valentine, and C. Grahame-White.

Quite an impressive list – with over half of these names becoming deeply embedded in British aviation history: Bucks, Cody, Grahame-White, Hamel, Salmet and Sopwith certainly. But - hold on; this was 1912 and we also had Mrs C Stocks competing?Surely not? When I was a lad in the 1950s only blokes and heroes flew aeroplanes;
 I’d seen most of the films to prove it. Researching aviation history I quickly found that the ladies of the age, in every age of aviation history actually, where doing at least as well as the men, sometimes better – sometimes much better actually considering their starting points in the society of that time ?

From the first Easter meeting in 1912 displays of flying were held nearly weekly until November. It appears that events were planned for Thursday evenings as well as weekends. In RAF Hendon Andrew Renwick makes an important point to remember: “At that time there were no aircraft registrations except for those carried by military aircraft. In order to identify competitors, therefore, racing numbers were issued. Some were retained by the same pilots throughout their racing careers at Hendon, while others were often re-issued. ”

A FLIGHT TO CAP GRIZ NEZ
It appears that in June 1912 James Valentine flew from HENDON to "Grisnez" in France. Presumably this is the place I know today as Cap Gris Nez, and the nearest point in France to Dover. Later he flew round the Eiffel Tower with a lady passenger wearing a silk hat. Why the silk hat should be noteworthy I have no idea, but I’d like to do a low-level circuit around the Eiffel Tower. Not much chance of that happening today of course.

THE AERIAL DERBY
On the 8^th June 1912 the Daily Mail arranged an Aerial Derby. By this time HENDON was said to be one of the major social venues to attend, along with Ascot and Henly. One expert says that a crowd of 45,000 attended. The race was around London, (about 81 miles), and it is estimated half a million people watched the race especially at the turning points at Kempton Park, Esher, Purley, Purfleet, Epping and High Barnet. However, in his book RAF Hendon Andrew Renwick claims; “..an estimated 3,000,000 around London witnessed the event.”

Tommy Sopwith won in 1hour 23mins, Gustave Hamel was second and W B Rhodes-Moorhouse third. “The day was ended by Grahame-White giving a demonstration of night-flying, a feat that had helped make him famous.” His first night flight was during his second attempt at the Daily Mail London to Manchester race in April 1910. Can you imagine anything even remotely similar happening today? It appears the first entire display held at night took place on the 26^th September 1912.

On June 19^th 1912 a Ladies Air Race was held. I reckon much more needs to be explored and explained about that event.

 

SEAPLANE DEMONSTRATIONS
In July 1912 the Grahame-White company was sponsored by the Daily Mail to give seaplane demonstrations along the south coast of England. It appears Grahame-White intended to use a Curtiss Triad owned by Louis Paulhan, two Farmans and a Caudron. Frank Hucks was employed for some flights. In his book RAF Hendon Andrew Renwick states these flights; “….were supported by a yacht carrying spares and other equipment.” I have so far managed to identify some of these sites but would much appreciate advice on the others.

Several years before adding the details above, I had made these notes gleaned from a variety of sources: "For the record, seeing as this is supposed to be a Guide to British Flying Sites, this seems as good a place as any to record that shortly before WW1 it is said that Claude Grahame-Wight conducted a mammoth tour of the south coast, a hugely demanding task, visiting one hundred and twenty one towns, giving about five hundred exhibition flights and carrying about twelve hundred passengers. Flying a Farman type the nacelle or truncated fuselage was signwritten with the stark message “Wake Up England”. From my point of view it seems I have roughly the same amount of flying sites yet to discover because it appears that no records exist regarding where Grahame-White visited and flew from. Huge gaps such as this example are commonplace in our aviation history, indeed very little seems recorded of the huge amount of the very popular balloon ascent sites during the 19^th Century.

During the intervening years I have made little forward progress except that with Andrew Renwick now explaining (in 2013) Grahame-White used several aircraft and pilots the virtually impossible itinery for one man to accomplish now makes sense! However, I am still no closer to discovering most of the locations visited.

THE TOURS OF HENRI SALMET
The same goes for the sites used by Henri Salmet’s tour of the west of England flying a Blériot, also sponsored by the Daily Mail in 1912. I have traced some but it seems uncertain if he carried passengers on his first tour? He certainly did the next year. Andrew Renwick also claims the Daily Mail sponsored B C Hucks in the East Midlands and Gustav Hamel in the North East. Here again I have managed to identify a couple of sites, but surely many more were used? Renwick also adds; “Monsieur Fischer of the Farman company used one of the Farman seaplanes at Weymouth (my note: DORSET) until joined by Monsieur Hubert when they headed for Exmouth.” (my note: DEVON).

In April 2022 I have included an article regarding the 1912 Tour by Salmet, all the research being compiled by Michael T Holder.

ROBERT SLACK'S 1000 MILE TRIP
Also in July 1912 Robert Slack was engaged by International Correspondance Schools to undertake a 1000 mile round trip in a Blériot monoplane starting and finishing at HENDON. He is reported to have left HENDON on the 17th July or thereabouts and after taking off N from Bedford on the 18th reached Foxton near Market Harborough. He managed Foxton to Thurmaston on the 26th, Thurmaston to Nottingham on the 27th, Nottingham to Ravenstone on the 28th and finally reached Castle Bromwich on the 30th. It would appear the ‘circuit’ attempt ended here as no further records appear to exist of any further progress?

Note: The first picture is undated and I believe the copyright is unkown? But it does give a very good view of the venue.

The second picture was scanned from the really excellent book,  British Aviation - The Pioneer Years, by Harald Penrose - first published in 1967. The caption is: "Commandant Felix aboard the Dunne D.8 and its montrous protective undercarriage."


The Dunne designs were all intent on developing a truly stable aircraft, which were achieved. A popular 'party piece' was for the pilot to stand up during a fly past, demonstrating that it could fly straight and level unaided.

Looking back, it can be seen that this concept had great advantages for aerial reconnaissance, but, even before WW1 it was soon proved that the concept was highly flawed in aerial combat. Nevertheless, I still think that Dunne now deserves to be given a great deal of credit for developing this singular type of aircraft.

 

THE 1913 ‘SEASON’

In 1913 it appears the prototype of the Avro 504, flown by Avro’s test pilot F P ‘Freddy’ Raynham broke the lap record here at 73mph competing in the Shell Trophy Race. Later, together with his passenger, (or observer?, a Mr R J MacGeagh Hurst), the Avro broke a new officially observed altitude record for aircraft of 14,420 feet but where this flight took place from doesn’t appear recorded?

Major C C Turner, in his wonderful book ‘Old Flying Days’ claims, “The climax of its success was the series of week-end flying meetings which began on February 22, 1913, and went on continuously until the end of the year. On no single occasion during that period were the gates of the aerodrome closed to the public, and thousands of flights were made in all conditions of weather, and even at night. At midnight on December 31, 1913, two aeroplanes flew the old year out and the new year in.” He goes on to say, “Flying meetings were, however, held before 1913, and after, but the year 1913 is memorable for the fact that during it fifty one race meetings were held, two aerial fêtes and battles of flowers, (what were these I wonder?), eleven demonstrations of looping and stunt flying, and five illuminated night-flying exhibitions."

"Looking back, one may well ask what progress has been made now that the Royal Aero Club is trying to revive the sport of flying as a popular spectacle? (This book, as far as I can ascertain,was written in the late 1920s, possibly early 1930s?). “ The answer is, the War. Had it not been for that calamity Hendon would have gone on to triumphs it is impossible to realise.”


HENDON AERO SHOW - THE GRAND SPEED HANDICAP
This was held on the 22nd February. One small detail, the pilot flying the Blackburn monoplane (from the Blackburn School0 was Harold Blackburn and he reached the finals. But, he was not related to Robert Blackburn who owned the aircraft manufacturing business and the school.

Note:  This picture, of the Hendon Air Race in 1913, was scanned from The Story Of Aircraft by David Charles, published in 1974. Presumably it relates to this event? It shows Claude Grahame-White crossing the finishing line.








 

THE SECOND AERIAL DERBY
The second Aerial Derby on the 20^th Sepember 1913 attracted 65,000 visitors it is claimed. By comparison the Farnborough Air Show in 2008 claimed 140,000 visitors, but that took place over several days of course.

On the 24^th October 1913 George Lee Temple was recorded as being the first British pilot to “fly upside down”. It was not exactly a successful attempt at a loop, the aircraft, a 50hp Blériot not having enough power to complete the manoeuvre, it falling out when near the top but having sufficient height to recover – but – it was, briefly, upside down. He had learnt to fly with the Ewan School at HENDON on a Farman biplane, gaining his certificate on the 13^th February 1913. In October 1913 he is recorded as being the youngest pilot to fly from London to Paris. He died in a flying accident, (described as “an ordinary flight”), on the 25^th January 1914 at HENDON. Some reckon he had not recovered from a bout of influenza, and, turning around a pylon lost consciousness, the aeroplane “turning turtle” and diving into the ground, resulting in him breaking his neck. This could of course have simply been the result of a slow upwind turn to downwind, a manoeuvre which even today catches some pilots out, resulting in a usually fatal stall/spin. Or, possibly even more likely (?) just attempting to turn whilst flying too slowly?

 

FRAUDULENT GOINGS ON
As can be expected in aviation history, still on-going of course, highly dubious affairs in business are nothing new. To quote Andrew Renwick in RAF Hendon: “While some companies enjoyed success, others struggled in 1913. Throughout the year Brequet Aeroplanes was under financial pressure and a receiver was appointed on two occasions until debts were cleared. It was a situation that could not be sustained and led to the company being wound up in 1914. In France, of course the Breguet company became one of the most successful aircraft design and manufacturing companies until well after WW2. Presumably saved by World One?

British Deperdussin fared even worse after the founder of the French company, Armand Deperdussin, was arrested on charges of fraud. The managing director of the British company, D. Lawrence Santoni, faced similar charges in England relating to companies he had founded in his native country Italy, and both companies went into liquidation in 1913.

Another aspect of scoundrels being involved regards the very many stories of manufacturers producing aircraft they knew were defective, often in several respects. I remember reading one test pilots report on a certain military type many years ago (probably during WW2?) which basically concluded; “Entry to this aircraft is difficult, and should be made impossible.” Even in the 21^st century no pilot would ever trust a manufacturer to produce anything they could trust as being safe to fly. As a general rule even the latest designs are often not safe to enter service and it is the people designated to inspect, approve and certify we need to thank for keeping an eye out. Mind you, even all this checking and testing isn’t foolproof; at the time of making these last comments in early 2013, the entire ‘global fleet’ of Boeing 787 Dreamliners had been grounded shortly after entering service with, it is rumoured, several serious problems. In early 2019 the Boeing 737 Max 'global fleet' were also grounded. That scandal was not sorted by October.

 

THE FIRST LOOP IN THE UK FLOWN BY A BRIT
In fact it was Bentfield Hucks who was the first ‘Englishman’, (he was actually Welsh), to perform a loop in the UK and this was on the 13^th November 1913 at HENDON. To learn how to fly the manoeuvre he visited Buc in France to be taught by Celestin-Adolphe Pégoud who had performed the first ‘loop’ in the UK at BROOKLANDS on the 25^th September that year. In those days the French were way ahead of the English in every aspect of aviation and nearly a century later still are of course! In between times we Brits got way ahead for years but that lead was thrown away, certainly often given away to the USA? Another story for another book by somebody else perhaps? I will however highly recommend Empire Of The Clouds by James Hamilton-Paterson.

This advert, discovered by Mr Mike Holder, was published in The Aeroplane on the 27th November 1913. Clearly, having performed the first 'Loop' on the 13th November, B C Hucks was keen to exploit his advantage - and why not? I'll bet it was somewhat pear shaped, and it was sometime later before aircraft had sufficient power to perform a perfect circle in the air.



 

AND ANOTHER ASPECT

This picture, published in The Aeroplane magazine on the 13th November 1913 shows how passengers were being treated in those days. We've gone soft, way too soft, and clearly have no idea about how it really should be, as a passenger, being taken flying. Flight overbooked? Bloody well sit on the wing and take a scarf!



 

1914

OTHER ‘GOING’S ON’ AT HENDON
As Andrew Renwick points out in RAF Hendon: “There was no break between the 1913 and 1914 seasons. The last event of 1913 was the Christmas Meeting held on 25-28 December and the first of 1914 was the New Year Meeting of 3 January.” From other sources I have noted that on the 2^nd January 1914 Miss Trehawke Davies became the first woman to be treated to a loop in the UK. She was flying with Gustav Hamel in a Morane-Saulnier type. It was rumoured that she was an aviator in her own right but there are no records of her gaining a Pilot Certificate even though she owned two Blériot monoplanes. These were presumably the XI model as she employed James Valentine, Bentfield Hucks and Gustav Hamel to fly her around Britain and the Continent too it seems!

THE FIRST PARACHUTE JUMP IN THE UK
Another ‘first’ for HENDON was the first parachute jump from an aeroplane in England. A photograph in RAF Hendon shows a somewhat unconcerned looking William Newell sitting on an improvised ‘seat’ arrangement attached to the undercarriage of a pusher aircraft, (almost certainly a Grahame –White Type X Charabanc), clasping his voluminous parachute and with one arm around the main port undercarriage leg – for security! That jump was thankfully successful and was made on the 9^th May 1914 during the May Meeting. Some people appear to have no sense of fear, or the ability to recognise severe danger.


THE FIRST FEMALE PILOT TO FLY COMMERCIALLY

This picture was scanned from The Pageant of the Century, published around the mid 1930s, and kindly loaned to me by Mr Ed Whitaker. He found this copy in a car boot sale which proves these events can prove to be a valuable resource for aviation history research.

 

BARGAIN HUNTERS?
Everybody loves a bargain? Andrew Renwick explains: “If you did not want to pay the entrance fee, the fields near St Mary’s church provided an ideal vantage point to watch the displays. Land owners charged 3d for access, which was half the price of entry to the airfield. In addition, refreshment could be obtained from the various public houses in Hendon, the Greyhound Inn being nearest. Hendon’s management was less than happy with this arrangement, so screens were constructed near the railway embankment to obstruct the view from the top of the hill. It was impossible to stop people seeing all of the flying, but it was hoped that the screens would prevent them seeing the start and finish of the races.”

Such a concept would be out of the question today of course when a high-speed demonstration by a military jet might involves flying over two or even sometimes three Counties. Which reminds me of flying in Luxembourg when my ‘instructor’ told me about an occasion, shortly after Glasnost, when the only private airfield in Luxembourg, (a small grass strip aerodrome), managed to arrange a display by a Russian fast jet. The pilot commented that it was the only occasion when he had to get permission to perform his display from three Countries!

As pointed out before and elsewhere, most flying in those days took place either within the aerodrome area, or not far beyond. The general rule being “within gliding distance’ if the engine failed. Therefore the staging of air races with aircraft flying well beyond the aerodrome confines really was a sensational affair; in the public imagination way beyond something like a F.1 race meeting in recent years. Although very few could afford motor cars the roads leading to HENDON became choked with cars, charabancs, taxis and hired buses. Tram services around the area were totally disrupted, being virtually brought to a standstill.

Another aspect is the weather. Whilst not wanting to deny that the effect of people produced pollution might indeed affect global weather systems, the reality is that absolutely nothing has changed over the last hundred years in the UK. We still have exactly the same wild weather fluctuations, year on year, as might be expected living in an area where the north Atlantic and major European weather systems meet and conflict. Nothing has changed – not a jot. For example the day-by-day weather reports for the ‘Battle-of-Britain’ period in WW2 are identical to those I have found flying across to Europe in the same period during the end of the 20^th century. And indeed, the weather during this period and during WW1 followed the same patterns.

A GOOD STORY
This account and the picture is from the excellent book, British Aviation - The Pioneer Years, by Harald Penrose, first published in 1967.

"....Handley Page had at last found a source of finance to build an Atlantic contender for the Daily Mail prize through arranging a taxi flight for Princess Ludwig von Lowenstein-Wertheim in the H.P. biplane. Piloted by Roland Ding, a director of the Northern Aircraft Co., the new owners of the machine, the Princess, who had urgent social engagements in Paris, duly set off from Hendon at seven-thirty on May 21st, despite English haze and Channel fog."

"Impossible visibility forced them to land at Eastbourne and wait, so the machine was eventually lucky to reach Calais by 4.30 p.m. Although no time had been saved, the Princess was so delighted with the experience that she told Frederick Handley Page she intended to fly the Atlantic, and asked him to build a machine. With his usual adroit business caution, H.P. managed to extract a post-dated cheque for £1000, which he explained would give assurance to purchase materials and commencement work at once."

"His later colleague, G. V. Lachmann, describing the occasion, said: 'On the all important day H.P. cashed the cheque as soon as the bank opened. An hour later the Princess telephoned to stop payment - but was too late.' Design then started on a 60-ft, two-seater tractor biplane, the 'L' 200 - a scaled up and aerodynamically cleaner version of the H.P. Type 'G' in which the Princess had flown to France, and a Canton-Unné Salmson of 200 h.p. was selected as power plant."

"When H.P.'s designer, George Volkert, was recently asked to sketch the machine he could only recollect that it had swept-back and twisted wings, and an enclosed cabin was planned for the two side-by-side seats." It surely seems quite incredible today that before WW1 this Daily Mail trans-Atlantic challenge was being taken very seriously indeed, and, if I remember correctly, at least three possible contending aircraft manufactueres had designs under construction. (See below).

A TRULY TERRIBLE TRAGEDY
It might seem odd to younger readers, but the loss of Gustav Hamel in 1914, really was, for example, the equivalent of the Munich air disaster for the Manchester United football team in February 1958.

This account, and the picture, also came from British Aviation - The Pioneer Years. In reference to the above account: "Two days after the Princess's flight the newspaper headlines shook the nation. Gustav Hamel, the pilot who had succeeded Grahame-White in popular fame, was reported lost. This great exponent of exhibition flying, and idol of the crowd at Hendon and Brooklands, had been to Paris the previous evening to fetch his new racing Morane-Saulnier monoplane, which he was flying in the Aerial Derby the following afternoon." This of course was the Aerial Derby at HENDON.

Harald Penrose tells us that: "Fairly tall, well built, and with bright blue eyes and wavy fair hair, quietly but well dressed, he was the hero of my youth. I had seen Cody, Salmet and Raynham fly, but Hamel was well known to my mother's closest friend, and through this connection I had met him at Reading when he gave an exhibition of looping the loop with his black Morane."

"C.G. Grey described him as: 'A typical Baltic German. His father, a physician, was masseur to King Edward VII, and very well off. Gustav, London born, was very modest, considering his outstanding fame and the fact that all the girls draped themselves round his neck - nice as well as bad girls, and middle aged women by the score.' And this is the point mentioned several times elsewhere in this 'Guide' - the top exhibition pilots during this pre-WW1 period had fame and status well exceeding even the most famous film and 'rock' stars after WW2. Public holidays would often be declared in the towns being visited, just to seem them fly, followed by major civic functions in the evening. 

'But he was a born pilot, and could fly anything, though had no idea why or how it flew. He used to say that he could not change a sparking plug - but he certainly could tell where a machine felt wrong when he flew it.' Of much interest I think, Harald Penrose also tells us this: "Despite protestations of neglible technical knowledge, he was proposing to join with Grahame-White as British agents for the Morane-Saulnier productions - for which he had high regard, as he had taken his brevet, (My note: The flying test for a pilots license), with that company as far back as Fenruary 3rd, 1911."

"If the agency went well they intended establishing production of the latest Morane machines, of which the newest was a 'parasol' high-winger designed and built by Raymond Saulnier to the order of that great pioneer European flyer, Santos-Dumont."

BUT HERE IS THE 'BOMBSHELL'
According to Harald Penrose: "But for his untimely end, Gustav Hamel might well have been the first to fly the Atlantic. The Scottish-Canadian financier and sportsman, Mr. Mackay Edgar, had become attracted by the idea when the Daily Mail offered their prize of £10,000 for the first successful crossing, and offered Gustav Hamel full financial backing for an attempt planned with a landing in Scotland. An order had been placed with Martin and Handasyde Ltd., (My note: Based at BROOKLANDS), for a 65-ft.-span monoplane capable of making the flight with side-by-side crew of two."

"The result was the most outstanding big aeroplane so far designed in Britain. It was given high-lift , heavily cambered wings, and had adequate tail-plane area to afford stability despite the somewhat short lever arm." A much fuller account is in his book, but needless to say, when Gustav Hamel disappeared, presumably over the English Channel, the project foundered. The lesson to be learnt is that the project was very advanced and ahead of all British entrants. Only the Curtiss flying boats in the U.S.A. continued to be developed, and they, eventually succeeded flying across the Atlantic in several stages with massive help from the U.S. Navy.

The first non-stop flight was accomplished after WW1 in a Vickers Vimy crewed by Alcock and Brown. See my listing for DERRIGIMLAGH, usually but erroneously referred to as CLIFDEN.
 

 

THE LAST AVIATION MEETING
On the 3^rd August 1914, (the then Bank Holiday), the last pre-war aviation meeting in the UK was held. In the evening Grahame-White received an order from the Home Secretary; “I prohibit the navigation of aircraft of every class and description over the whole area of the United Kingdom and the whole area of the coastline and territorial waters thereto.” The British Government declared war against Germany the next day.

 

A TRANS-ATLANTIC FLIGHT PLANNED!
Yet another curious but sensational aspect of British Aviation history revealed by Andrew Renwick in his book RAF Hendon: “In November 1912 Grahame-Wight had told the press of his plans to fly across the Atlantic, and a British Trans-Atlantic Flight Fund was organised to raise money to cover the cost of the venture. The executive committee included Lord Lonsdale and Alfred Rothschild, while patrons included the writer Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, the explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton and the former Prime Minister Arthur Balfour. The challenge had been made even more attractive in 1913 by the offer of a £10,000 prize from the Daily Mail. The attempt had been planned for 1913 but it wasn’t until 1914 that construction began of a hangar large enough to erect the aeroplane. The hangar was 200 by 100 feet, but unfortunately Grahame-White's ambitions were ahead of their time; in June 1914 the hangar collapsed before the roof had been completed.”

The obvious question we can ask today – is why had this happened? By then much larger open space buildings such as main railway stations were commonplace, but they did cost a packet in cast iron. On the other hand very large airship sheds were in existence at FARNBOROUGH (HAMPSHIRE) and BARROW-in-FURNESS (LANCASHIRE), and indeed, in the same period an airship erection shed had been built nearby on the aerodrome! Something needs explaining here.

 

THE ‘GREAT WAR’ PERIOD

During WW1, from late 1914, the RNAS contracted their training to civil flying schools and the Beatty, Hall, Ruffy-Baumann, Grahame-Wight and London & Provincial Aviation Co schools were employed. Please, please read “To the Ends of the Air” by Group Captain G E Livock DFC, AFC to get some idea how things took place here in those days. I could easily quote his entire book and feel justified in doing so. In fact nearly every nerve in my body is straining to share his stories with you. By todays standards applying the term “a shambolic bunch of idiots” is a far too kind a description. But they were pioneering aviation of course, learning slowly as the went about it, bit by bit by bit, very often with accidents being accepted as normal, even fatal accidents. By page thirteen I’d found myself laughing aloud to myself at least six times - it really is an exceptional read.

So please excuse my indulgence in quoting how to operate a Gnome engine which powered the Grahame-White “Boxkites” used for flying instruction. “The Gnome engine itself, although a wonderful piece of ingenious engineering, might have been specially designed to make things difficult for the beginner. (I only wish I’d met Mr Livock, - we share a lot of opinions about flying training). It had no throttle control. And after its sensitive petrol fine adjustment had been fixed during the run up before flight, had only two speeds, full out and stop. If the engine was switched off and the petrol cock left on, the whole engine would flood, and, if it did not catch fire, would certainly not start again for a considerable time. Consequently the only way to reduce power for taxiing or coming down to land was to ‘blip’ the engine by turning the switch – an ordinary brass electric light switch placed on the left side of the seat – on or off. This sounds easy, but the wretched pupil, with hands and feet frozen, and senses numbed by the noise, rush of air and general pandemonium was liable either to blip too quickly, and therefore keep too much speed on, or too slowly, so that the engine choked and stopped.” I trust you’ll agree this extract was worth quoting? If you agree read his book, it keeps getting better. He recommends reading First above the Clouds by Merriam.

THE ADMIRALTY ARRIVE
There are some important aspects of the early war years at HENDON described by Andrew Renwick in his excellent book RAF Hendon from which I quote: “The Admiralty had planned a complete takeover of Hendon and the eviction of the other flying schools. In December 1914 it relented, however, and the schools could continue operation, new buildings being erected for use of the RNAS…..The last civilian school to open at Hendon, the Ruffy-Baumann School, opened in 1915.” (My note: They moved to ACTON aerodrome in 1917). I think it is interesting to learn that this school was founded by the Italian Félix Ruffy and the Swiss Ēdouard Baumann.

What seems to be something which must be now remembered is the huge influence foreign pilots, designers and manufacturers had on the formative years of ‘British’ aviation. Mostly French of course as that nation led the way in those days. And, Samuel F Cody, given the equivalent of a State funeral when he died after his aircraft fell apart in the air, was of course an American.

CONSCRIPTION
Mr Renwick also makes this point: “Conscription didn’t start in Britain until 1916, so the flying schools could continue to operate much as they had before. Most of the initial pilot training for the RNAS and RFC was undertaken at civilian schools.” (My note: Just as it still does today in the 21^st century by, for one example in 2013, Babcock Aerospace.) However, getting back to Mr Renwicks account: “There were also some individuals who still wished to to learn to fly and sought private tuition. Many of the replacement flying instructors were recruited from the best of these.”

Here again I would like you to read the account by Mr Livock regarding his initial training at Hendon with a Russian instructor barely able to speak English and, ostensibly, a watchmaker by trade. By and large the entire training enterprise appears to have been an utter fiasco. As the new RNAS aerodrome at CHINGFORD become fully operational, (roughly at the end of 1915), the RNAS school at HENDON was closed. Again, from Mr Renwick; “Once the Admiralty was finished the Grahame-Wight School opened its doors to all pupils.”

 

LANOE GEORGE HAWKER
Lanoe Hawker was the third pilot to receive a Victoria Cross for aerial operations and as Chas Bowyer points out in his excellent book For Valour, the Air VCs, “To single out one man as the prime example of the RFC’s early pilots who – literally – formed the ground rules and tactics of aerial combat would be invidious. Yet if there could be chosen such an individual then undoubtedly one man who was responsible for a high proportion of the RFCs fighting efficiency in later years was Lanoe George Hawker.”

It must of course be remembered that when the first RFC pilots departed from Dover for France the very concept of aerial warfare was still unknown. Indeed, most of the senior staff in both the Army and Navy still regarded the usefulness of employing aeroplanes in a war with considerable suspicion if not disdain. Originally the only perceived use was for reconnaissance and artillery marking duties. How quickly that concept changed!

In 1911, “Hawker had already commenced flying instruction at Hendon, (My note: Other dutes intervened), “….and it was not until 4 March 1913 that he finally passed his pilot’s tests, on a Deperdussin, gaining RAeC Certificate No 435.” Hawker was by then a Naval officer posted to the 33^rd Fortress Company at Cork Harbour, now in the Irish Republic, “….but his request for attachment to the Royal Flying Corps resulted in a move to the Central Flying School at Upavon on 1 August 1914 where, in D Flight, he underwent Service flying training. Graduating from CFS on 3 October 1914, Hawker immediately joined 6 Squadron RFC at Farnborough, one of several pilots drafted to the squadron to replenish its officer establishment following dispersal of the unit’s original pilots to other RFC units which moved to France on the outbreak of war.”

Unusually Hawker was recommended for a Victoria Cross from a continous and successful series of victories, and not just a single act of outstanding bravery. Perhaps needless to say, eventually his ‘luck’ ran out and despite some exemplary flying the ‘Red Baron’, von Richthofen, “…managed to loose off one brief burst. Hawker’s DH2 staggered slightly, stalled, and then flew straight into the mud some 250 yards east of Luisenhof Farm, a shell-shattered ruin just over two miles south of Bapaume, on the road to Flers.” See HOUNSLOW HEATH (LONDON) for some more information about Hawker.

 

THE RFC AT HENDON
From Andrew Renwick we learn: “On 12 August 1916 a letter was sent from the Director of Air Organisation (DAO) to ten schools, including all those at Hendon, laying down the conditions under which the schools would operate and be governed.” And: “The Hendon schools that accepted the contract to provide initial flying training were the Grahame-White School, London & Provincial, Rauffy-Baumann and Beatty. These were formed into the RFC School of Instruction, which came under 18 Wing on 22 September 1916.” The Hall School did not become part of the scheme and closed, probably in early 1917.

A set of quite puzzling circumstances arose in early 1917 when all the schools at HENDON were served with a notice to quit the site, despite the contract with the DAO remaining in place! London & Provincial moved to what has been referred to as their own nearby airfield. This might have been KINGSBURY for a brief period(?) but they soon settled at the military EDGWARE aerodrome, becoming known as STAG LANE aerodrome. This site became quite famous soon after WW1 when Geoffrey de Havilland set up his factory there. In RAF Hendon Andrew Renwick makes the intriguing comment that, regarding DH; “….there are published references to it using other fields in the area before this move.”

“The Ruffy-Baumann School was reorganised as the Ruffy, Arnell & Baumann Aviation Co Ltd before moving to Acton in March 1917, to a site that had been acquired from the London Aviation Ground Ltd…..The Beatty School remained at Hendon until it moved to the new airfield at Cricklewood, built on land compulsorily purchased by the Government from Clitterhouse Farm.” This raises a few interesting questions, not least the Handley Page factory being alongside who later developed the site as the first fully fledged and certified international airport in the UK complete with their own airline.

“The Grahame-White School moved across Aerodrome Road onto ‘Little Hendon’ (My note: see HENDON SOUTH) which it leased for 99 years from William Lyulph Johnson on 15 March 1917. This was far from ideal, however, and on 2 July 1917 OC RFC School of Instruction wrote to OC 18 Wing requesting the use of Hendon Aerodrome between 4.15am and 7.30am by pupils making their first few solo flights….permission was granted on 13 July.”As Andrew Renwick quite rightly points out, the scope of such operations would have quickly diminished as autumn approached.

 

 

POST WAR ACTIVITIES
No.1 (Communications) Squadron was formed here in December 1918 for the express purpose of ferrying passengers and Government officials, (using converted Handley Page 0/400 bombers), to the Versailles conference west of Paris where the terms of the Armistace with Germany were being negotiated.

According to many people, (and it seems hard to refute today), the terms were so harsh on the German people that this in turn directly led eventually to the circumstances, (like the phenomal rise and success of the Nazi Party), which created the Second World War and of course our unique aviation history and heritage of around 700 airfields and flying boat bases! So, in this small way HENDON seems to have played it’s part in the largest and most widespread war the world has ever witnessed

THE AUCTIONS
After WW1 large numbers of military aircraft were sold here at public auctions. Passing through these auctions was possibly the most unlikely type of aircraft to be used for pleasure flights in southern England, the Blackburn Kangaroo which was a sizeable bomber. The Grahame-White Co brought three which they operated from Hendon. Two separate cockpits just aft of the wings seated seven passengers but an eighth lucky passenger, (in my opinion), was put in the nose where a gunner used to be. It must have been great to ride perched way out there don’t you think? Robert Blackburns North Sea Aerial Navigation Company also used Kangaroos for pleasure flights at ROUNDHAY PARK near Leeds and BROUGH but then again his aircraft manufacturing company had built them so presumably knew how they worked! Two of the Graham-White examples crashed in fairly quick succession in 1919, badly enough to be write-offs, but it appears that thankfully nobody was hurt

THE FIRST CIVIL AIRLINE SERVICE?
Some claim that in May 1919 the first ever British commercial registered flight departed from here, employing the Airco DH.9 G-EAAA operated by AT&T, (Aircraft Transport & Travel Ltd). It crashed near Portsmouth attempting to land in fog en route to Bournemouth.

However, what does seem correct is that the first 'proving flight' to Le Bourget (Paris) did depart from here whereas it is usually claimed it took-off from HOUNSLOW HEATH. The aircraft was an Airco DH.9 piloted by Lt H Shaw and it took place on the 15^th July 1919. Many years later I discovered that in his fabulous book British Commercial Aircraft Arthur W J G Ord-Hume gives us a full account. This when the Department of Civil Aviation announced that restrictions covering the flying between London and the Continent were temporarily withdrawn.

"This was duly reported in the national press where an item in the The Evening News was spotted by a well-known Lancashire industrialist , Col. William Norman Pilkington, director of the family glass works at St Helens that remains famous to this day. Apparently 42-year-old Colonel Pilkington had frequent business in Paris and the journey was both awkward and time-consuming. Without giving too much thought to it, his next move would put his name into the aviation history books."

"He telephoned Hendon and spoke to AT&Rs flight manager, the tennis-star Capt Donald Greig. He had an important meeting in Paris at 10.30 the next day and wanted to charter an aeroplane to tae him there. Greig, thinking on his feet, quoted a quite enormous fee of £42 and Pilkington at once accepted. With no precedent, he was ill-equipped to question the cost of this new form of transport."

"He asked for the aeroplane to be ready next morning. A 7.00am start was essential if he was to get to Paris at his stipulated time."

"Pilkington motored to London and, at the appointed hour of the first day of the new freedom - July 15th - he boarded an Airco DH.9, K-109 (later re-registered G-EAAC) piloted by the 27-year-old ginger-moustached Capt 'Jerry' Shaw. They flew to Hounslow to clear Customs but the pilot saw no signs of activity on the ground. Concluding that the Customs man had not bothered to arrive and, concerned about coping with bad weather and a tight schedule, he decided to press on regardless. They arrived at Le Bourget at 10 o'cock having averaged 100 mph."           

 "The weather for this very first charter flight was dreadful with heavy rain and low cloud. Flying lower and lower to keep visual contact, they got to a mere 200 feet near Beauvais."  Presumably Capt Shaw knew the ground ahead would be lower, allowing a hopefully better prospect.

"So elated was the Lancastrian businessman that he at once struck a fresh deal for his return trip, also by air. It is reported that the pilot, given the chance of a night in Paris, was as overjoyed as his passenger! The following day, Wednesday, Pilkington returned to England in the machine. Civilian flying with fare-paying passengers had begun."       



FIRST 'AIRLINE' SERVICES
It is said the RAF undertook the first ‘airline’ duties from here in January 1919 with passenger and mail services to Paris and possibly a few other destinations too.  See HAWKINGE and LYMPNE (KENT) and KENLY (SURREY) for other examples.

THE FIRST MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY

 

Notes:  The first RAF Pageant at Hendon was held in 1920 and organised by the Grahame-White Company. It was such a success that it was decided to make it an annual event, and soon turned out to be the premier air show in the U.K. In effect becoming the precursor to the air shows held at FARNBOROUGH after WW2.

The Vickers Vimy Commercial, (second item above), made an appearence here in 1920, and, typically for that time was an airliner developed from a bomber design, basically with a new fuselage. The third item was published in Flight magazine 30th June 1921 and illustrates the technique of using overlapping aerial photographs to create a larger picture of an area.

 

The fourth item is the DH9B G-EAVK shown operating from HENDON. (Note passenger/s). Some sources say it was built by Airco, but this may not be correct. The sign writing says - 'DE HAVILLAND AIRCRAFT COMPANY' and it is quite likely, seeing as it was first registered 20.09.20, (and had no previous military serial assigned), that it was built by de Havilland? De Havilland established his factory at STAG LANE in the latter half of 1920. It became registered to de Havilland from 02.03.21 until 08.03.22 and was sold abroad in March 1922.

 

Note:  The sixth picture was published in Flight magazine on the 7th July 1921 and shows three views of Bristol F2B Fighters taking part in the Pageant, in the top two together with the airship R33. What is interesting is that in those days, and the sixth and eighth pictures clearly show, the art and discipline of close formation flying had still to be perfected. But, it didn't take the RAF long to realise just how impressive this would look to the crowds, and indeed, within a few years they had created close formation aerobatic teams.

 










 

Notes:  The ninth picture is of five Nieuport-Delage NiD 29 C.1 aircraft taking part in the RAF Pageant in June 1924. A contingent from the Aéronautique Militaire, or as we would probably have called it - the French Air Force.   

The tenth and eleventh pictures were published in Flight magazine on the 3rd July 1924. Can you imagine anything like this today? Two full scale replicas of pretty large ships had been built on the airfield to replicate an aerial attack. Interesting perhaps to see that the organisers decided to use a German armed-merchantman ship, the 'Slevic' rather than a warship. The tenth picture shows Blackburn Dart torpedo bombers homing in, and the eleventh picture a most impressive display of explosives. 

1920

On the 2^nd February 1920 the Airco DH14A G-EAPY departed for first ever London to Cape Town flight but was damaged when force-landed at Messina in Italy. The aeroplane was shipped back and restored.

RAF TOURNAMENT
In July 1920, on the 3^rd, the first RAF ‘Tournament’ was held with the proceeds going to the RAF Memorial Fund, raising £7,261. A huge success with a crowd of 60,000 attending. It was then decided to make this an annual event which, barring WW2, went on into the early 1950s? I feel pretty certain I was taken to one of these displays as a sprog.


1921
THE DEATH OF HARRY HAWKER
Hawker formed H.G.Hawker Engineering Ltd to take over the assets of the Sopwith company after Tommy Sopwith had decided to enter voluntary liquidation when it proved impossible to rapidly adjust to the huge fall in orders after WW1 ended. To quote from Leo McKinstry in his excellent book Hurricane: "One of the most dashing airmen in the early years of flying, Hawker was renowned both for his risk-taking and his apparent good luck. His survival from a series of accidents, including one when he fell from an aircraft at more than a 1,000ft over Brooklands, led to his nickname among the sporting public: 'the Man Who Won't Be Killed'. During his association with Sopwith, Hawker established several records for altitude and endurance flying, though his ywo attempts to cross the Atlantic in 1919 both ended with him coming down in the ocean and having to be rescued by passing ships. Sadly, contrary to his reputation, Hawker's luck ran out on 12 July 1921 when he crashed at the Hendon aerodrome in London while ptractising for an airshow. Hawker was thrown about a hundred yards from the aircraft as it ploughed into the earth, and, despite immediate medical attention, he never regained consciousness."

The name of Hawker is still of course associated with a very long line of aircraft designs, culminating in the Hawker P. VTOL jet that eventually developed into the Harrier.

1922

During 1922 and 1923 Major J C Savage operated a number of modified S.E.5As from HENDON for ‘Sky-writing’ duties which became very popular especially for corporate/commercial promotions. Of which one, G-EBDT, later operated in Germany as D-1636 later to become PH-ATA in the Netherlands and later still D-EATA back in Germany. Another G-EBDU was named ‘The Sweep’ . His fleet of S.E.5A’s were registered, G-EBDX, G-EBDY ‘Smokestream’, G-EBDZ, G-EBFF, G-EBFG, G-EBFH, G-EBFI, G-EBGJ, G-EBGK, and G-EBGL. G-EBGM was shipped and used as a source for spares, into the USA for the Skywriting Corporation of America. This seems to be a fascinating story - has anybody told it?

1923

HENDON was the second venue for the King’s Cup Air Race which was held here on the 14^th July 1923. (The very first King’s Cup was held at CROYDON the previous year). Seventeen aircraft started the 794 mile course and the winner was Mr Frank T Courtney flying the Armstrong-Whitworth Siskin II (G-EBEU) averaging 149mph. The Siskin was, at that time a front-line fighter type. This race would almost certainly have taken place over two days.

1924

On the 28^th June 1924 the 5^th RAF pageant took place drawing crowds of 83,000.


1925

In 1925 and 1926 No.41 squadron displayed their Armstrong Whitworth Siskin IIIs. The Siskin was an excellent aerobatic aircraft and perhaps the most notable display of this type was performed by Sqn. Ldr. C.N.Lowe in 1930 in a ‘tied-together’ demonstration. Who was the other exceptional pilot taking part? These shows drew crowds of about 100,000

 

1926
On the 10^th July 1926 the King’s Cup Air Race was held here for a second time. On this occasion fourteen aircraft started and the course was over 1,464 miles. Mr Hubert S Broad won in the de Havilland DH.60 Moth G-EBMO with an average speed of 90.4mph clearly demonstrating the effectiveness of the handicap methods applied to this race.


1927

This picture was scanned from The Pageant of the Century published in around the mid 1930s. This book was kindly loaned to me by Mr Ed Whitaker.
 

1929

The RAF display on the 13^th July 1929 had 132,000 spectators. The following week the King’s Cup Air Races were held here, won by Flying Officer ‘Batchy’ Atcherley in a Gloster Grebe II, averaging 150mph. Quite slow compared to the speeds he flew at in the next month or two from CALSHOT in a Supermarine S.5.
 

1931

On the 24^th June 1931 a Vickers 146 Vivid departed from HENDON for WARSAW returning the same day. The first time such a flight was accomplished from the UK. When the RAF display was held this year 170,000 spectators arrived.

1932

Note:  This picture was kindly provided by Mr Michael T Holder







 

In June 1932 (possibly on the 29^th?) the first SBAC (Society of British Aircraft Constructors) held their first show here - the precursor to FARNBOROUGHof course, but it was a closed affair and not open to the public. And, nor was photographly allowed. It appears four SBAC airshows were held here, in 1932, 1933, 1934 and 1935. In 1936 the SBAC airshow transferred to the de Havilland aerodrome at HATFIELD, (HERTFORDSHIRE) for 1936 and 1937.

Interesting is it not, that after 1937 the SBAC didn’t hold another air show until 1946. Perhaps because the organisers already knew, WW2 was on the cards? When obviously any public display of military aircraft was a definite ‘no go’ area. After WW2 the show transferred initially to RADLETT (HERTFORDSHIRE) for two years.


1930s PICTURE GALLERY TWO
Note: These pictures were scanned from Aeroplane Monthly, the June 1987 edition.  The pictures were originally published in Flight and The Aeroplane.

 

Picture Gallery Two Captions
Picture Seven: 13 Sqn Hectors at the 1937 RAF Display. 
Picture Eight:  11 Sqn Horsleys flying over busloads of RAF Halton apprentices.
Picture Nine: Line-up of about 130 1936 RAF Display participants - all biplanes except for the Ansons and Saro Cloud amphibians.

 

1936

The Hawker Hurricane made its public debut here at the Hendon Air Display in June and it is reported that the exceptional aerobatic display by Squadron Leader D F Anderson was very impressive and fully exploited the new aircraft's manoeuvrability and speed. The public had of course never seen an aircraft quite like this - the first monoplane fighter and a type which, if any single aeroplane type can be said to have won the 'Battle of Britain' - can claim that distinction.


1937

In his excellent book Taking to the Skies Graham Smith says, “Perhaps it could be said that the pre-war RAF was epitomised at the Coronation Display held at Hendon on 26^th June under clear blue skies. The King (in the uniform of a Marshall of the RAF) and the Queen attended along with 200,000 of their subjects. Over six hundred aircraft took part in the various spectacular displays and nearly two hundred and sixty in five columns flew in the ceremonial fly-past. As one spectator commented, ‘…the sound of the engines seemed to beat the brain…..that shows what to expect in the next war. Fancy raids of that size coming over all day long!’ (Little did commentator realise what was in store in 1940?) Once again a display of basically WW1 aeroplanes enthralled the crowds and some journalists suggested that little progress had been made since those days!” (I think this is rather unjust?)
 

THE SECOND MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY

 

Note: The Avro 504K in this second picture is probably J8332. The diminutive fighter J8073 in the foreground is a Gloster Gamecock 1. The hangars in the top of the third 1926 picture, are now part of the RAF Museum. 

 

The seventh picture shows Westland Wapiti MkIIA of 601 Squadron practicing formation flying.      

  

THE WW2 PERIOD

After Belgium had been invaded on the 11^th May 1940, three escaping Sabena airliners landed at HENDON it is claimed. Why here and not CROYDON or HESTON?

 

According to the memoirs of Joan Rice in her book ‘Sand in my Shoes’, (based on her personal dairies kept up against official regulations), which I’d strongly recommend anybody to read, in early 1940 when she was serving here as a WAAF, there were Ensigns, Hurricanes, Lockheeds and Spitfires on this station. The Hurricanes and Spitfires were I suppose obviously of Fighter Command, either training and/or operational. The Ensigns pose a bit of a problem as the only Ensign type I know of was the Armstrong Whitworth pre-war airliner, possibly being operated by RAF Transport Command? As for the Lockheeds I have no idea. Early Hudsons perhaps?

She also mentions that 24 Squadron were based here, so I decided to look up their history, the results of which beggared my imagination. Surely the most extraordinary squadron in the entire history of the RAF? The variety of types operated by 24 Squadron are a delight for any aircraft spotter. And I must admit, even though fifty years have passed since I was indulging, that yearning still exists.

According to records which I have good reason to be correct in WW1 24 Squadron operated all these types: Curtiss JN.4, Caudron G.III, Avro 504, RAF BE.2C, Blériot IX, Bristol Scout, Maurice Farman Longhorns and Shorthorns, Vickers FB.5, Airco DH.2s and DH.5s and finally Royal Aircraft Factory SE.5As

Between the two World Wars the squadron entered an unique phase? I’d certainly like to hear of any similar examples. Part hostile, part communications so to speak. Operating hopefully more or less chronologically the: Bristol Fighter, DH.9A, Avro 504N, DH Moth, Westland Wapiti, Fairey IIIF, Hawker Tomtit, Avro Tutor, Hawker Hart, DH Tiger Moth, Hawker Audax, and incredibly the Miles Nighthawk. But is seems it didn’t stop there. Even the four engine DH.86 Express was operated alongside the Miles Magister and Mentor, Avro Anson and Percival Vega Gull. I trust you’ll agree, quite an unique mix of types.

However, once WW2 kicked off 24 Squadron soon eclipsed such lowly ambitions and really set unforeseen targets for the number of disparate types operated. A task thrust upon them I feel pretty certain about? Certainly not an aim the squadron dreamed up? Also, possibly record breaking in the sheer size and range of types flown never since achieved elsewhere in the world by any military squadron or commercial enterprise? Right then, here we go in alphabetical order:

Single engine types; Beech 17 Traveller, DH Fox Moth, DH Hornet Moth, DH Leopard Moth, DH Puss Moth, Foster Wickner Wicko, General Aircraft Cygnet, Hawker Hart, Heston Pheonix, Messerschmitt Bf.108, Miles Magister, Miles Mentor, Miles Whitney Straight, Parnall Heck III, Percival Proctor, Percival Vega Gull and the Stinson Reliant.

Twin engine types: Airspeed Envoy, Airspeed Oxford, Avro Anson, Blackburn Botha, DH Dominie (Military Dragon Rapide), DH Dragon, DH Dragon Rapide, DH Flamingo, Douglas C-47 Dakota and Douglas DC-3, Grumman Goose (amphibian), Lockheed 10 Electra, Lockheed 12, Lockheed Hudsons (Types III, IV & VI), Percival Q6 and the Vickers Wellington XVI,

Three engine type: Savoia-Marchetti SM.73

Four engine types: Armstrong Whitworth Ensign, Avro York I, DH Express, Douglas C-54 Skymaster and Fokker XXII.

What a staggering range of aircraft to be flown by any squadron. They were split up to some extent during WW2, making up 510 Sqdn in 1942 and then 512 Sqdn but I’ll bet 24 Squadron has an unique history within the manic, often chaotic and for some us at least, incomprehensible squadron structure of RAF High Command.

After WW2 the squadron settled down somewhat, flying Dakotas and Skymasters, then Avro Lancastrians and Avro Yorks, ending up for some odd reason for this phase on the twin engine Vickers Valetta. Their next duties were on C.1, C.2 and C.4 Hastings suffering these most appalling ‘heaps of shit’ as best described until 1968. They then went onto C-130 Hercules and, it seems, have stayed loyal to the type with its modifications ever since?

WIDE RANGING DUTIES
Just to give some idea of the sorts of wide ranging requirements needed by the RAF in WW2 is well illustrated at this aerodrome in late 1944. No.116 (Transport) Wing were flying Dakotas but also based here was the RAF Intelligence School, the RAF School of Discussion Method, (what was this exactly?), 26 Group Book Production & Distribution Centre and 6224 Bomb Disposal Flt!


THE POST WW2 PERIOD

Note: The picture was scanned from the June 1987 edition of Aeroplane Monthly.  

AN INTERESTING ANECDOTE
There is an interesting story told in the autobiography by Lettice Curtiss regarding a Sptifire XI being “donated” by the Air Ministry for use by Livingstone (Tony) Satterthwaite, the American Civil Air Attaché in January 1948 and based here. You’ll need to read the book to get the fascinating details but this Spitfire was on the American register as N74138 and never left our shores!


A COUPLE OF PERSONAL MEMORIES
My grandparents lived just up the road from Hendon in Burnt Oak. I can just about remember being taken to see the big post WW2 SBAC airshows before they moved to FARNBOROUGH, (after a couple of years at RADLETT), and certainly remember seeing RAF/ATC gliders flying around later on.

On the 16th February 2010 I was tasked with delivering the Bristol Bulldog K2227 from the RAF Museum to FILTON for the centenary celebrations of the Bristol Company. Having moved the thick end of two hundred aeroplanes before retiring in August 2014 I am quite sure this was the tightest aeroplane load I had attempted to move.

On December 17^th 2003, (deciding to join in and celebrate the ‘official’ and pretended history of powered flight), I sat for at least ten minutes at the hold for runway 26, in a Cessna 172, first in line to take-off at ELSTREE, waiting for the Red Arrows to pass through and “display” over HENDON. I think it was just a 'fly-past' rather than a display?


A PICTURE PAGE

One of the most rewarding aspects of producing this 'Guide' is the sheer amount of people who have over the years, been so kind to add information, pictures and maps etc.  It has been a most humbling experience. For this example we need to thank Mr Ed Whitaker who kindly loaned me his copy of 'The Pageant of the Century' published in the mid 1930s, which he acquired at a car boot sale.
 

Out of interest, this page of the book includes a picture of an aeroplane, stating it is typical of the types of that period. I am no expert by any means, but do not recognise this aeroplane, and would regard it as not being typical. Could anybody kindly identify it?


 

 

 
 

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Eunice Hearne

This comment was written on: 2018-04-28 10:31:23
 
I recall that in the early 1950's Hendon Aerodrome was also home to some of the U.S. Navy I am wondering why?

 
 

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Richard Britton

This comment was written on: 2018-08-10 14:38:44
 
Hi, I note from one of my early logbooks that on 23rd December 1968 at 12:25 I took off from Hendon in a Piper Cherokee G- AVWD for Blackbushe. The said aircraft had made a precautionary landing there the previous day when one of our students had become "uncertain of his position". I remember talking to one of the contractors working on the airfield who said we were lucky as he was putting a trench across the runway the next morning. I have often wondered if this might have been the last fixed wing movement. Regards Richard Britton

 
 

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John Crawford

This comment was written on: 2019-11-05 13:43:37
 
While at the Met Driving School in the 60's I saw an American Super Constellation which had landed - mistaking it for Northolt !! - had to be stripped out to get the weight off before leaving.

 
 

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Clive Kerr.

This comment was written on: 2020-05-20 17:48:22
 
I went to school at Hendon Technical College,(Now Middlesex University),in the late fifties.There was a fly past by an Anson, leading a couple of DH Devons which marked the closing of the airfield. Living a few miles away I often cycled there to watch the aircraft movements.Ones that stand out are Brown Beechcraft Barons, US ARMY, US Navy R4D8s 'Super' DC3s , a Mosquito, lots of Ansons.We recognised most of them from the sound of their engines.Oh for that hearing now !
 

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