John Bright Street
JOHN BRIGHT STREET: Balloon launching site
Operated by: Mr Ernest Willows
Location: Heath’s Garage, John Bright Street, just SW of Birmingham city centre
Period of operation: Late 1911 only?
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The photograph and article above were both published in The Aeroplane on the 19th October 1911.
Note: This article, in four parts, was published in the Birmingham Mail on the 9th September 1911.
Note: The local area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES: Willows’ used to launch two of his balloons from the flat roof of the garage carrying advertising for the garage. An idea that has of course re-emerged in recent years and I cannot help but wonder what those aeronauts would make of the quite extraordinary shapes now produced, let alone the thousands of mini-unmanned blimps tethered around the country - which one aircraft engineer friend of mine has described as visual aerial pollution!
This said, since making that last comment several years ago, I notice that most of them, in 2023 have disappeared.
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