Leigh-on-Sea
Note: This map only gives the position of Leigh-on-Sea within the UK.
LEIGH-on-SEA: Early experimental flying site
Location: Roughly 3nm W of Southend town centre
NOTES: It seems that Mr V F Forbes and Mr A J Arnold constructed an unconventional single-seat tractor monoplane here in 1909. Successful tests were conducted with models but to date it appears that no accounts exist to prove that the ‘full-scale’ version actually flew.
I find it very interesting to reflect that as the overall performance of many of these early machines was so marginal a machine that resolutely refused to get airborne early in the morning in the summer might well have become airborne in the winter on one of those calm, often hazy, high pressure days when the increase in air density would provide more lift to the wings, the engine with more power and the propeller more thrust.
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