Locking Road
LOCKING ROAD: Temporary Landing Ground
Operated by: Bentfield (Benny) Hucks
Location: Just N of Locking Road, roughly about 0.5nm NNW of the RAF WESTON-super-MARE aerodrome, just E of Weston-super-Mare town centre
Period of operation: From the 31st August, perhaps for another three days?
NOTES: This was an astonishing period. Considering that powered aviation did not get going in the U.K. until 1909, the French were already quite advanced, the rate of progress was remarkable. Indeed, such a rate of progress normally seems to need a major war! By just the following year, 1910, for example, the Daily Mail had sponsored the London to Manchester air race. Then, in 1911, the Daily Mail sponsored prizes for the Circuit of Britain Air Race, which continued each year until 1914.
Such events created a select group of pioneer aviators, who, in their rather flimsy and underpowered machines, quickly became major national heroes - at least equal in the public eye to what we call 'super-stars' today. The public would mass in their thousands at major venues, just to see one aviator and his machine giving an 'exhibition of flying'. Bentfield 'Benny' Hucks was one such, and indeed, he was the first British aviator to perform a loop, at HENDON on his Blériot monoplane, in September 1913.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The second item was published in the Westminster Gazette on the 1st September 1911. The fourth item was published in the Gloucester Journal on the 2nd September 1911.
Note: This newspaper article, divided into two parts to make it easier to read, was published in the Western Daily Press on the 2nd September 1911. The area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
A NOTABLE FIRST
On Friday the 1st September 1911, Hucks was the first pilot to make a non-stop return crossing across the Bristol Channel - from Weston-super-Mare to Cardiff and back. This flight created a lot of interest in the press, (see above), but it is of interest to note that the direct distance over water was, around 20 miles in total. When Blériot flew across the English Channel in July 1909, he covered at least 24 miles.
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