Maidstone flying sites
Note: This map only shows the position of Maidstone town within the UK.
MAIDSTONE: Temporary aerodrome?
NOTES: MAIDSTONE was the 49th venue for Sir Alan Cobham’s 1929 Municipal Aerodrome Campaign Tour. Starting in May and ending in October, one hundred and seven venues were visited. Mostly in England but with two venues in Wales and eight in Scotland.
The aircraft Cobham used for this Tour was the DH61 'Giant Moth' G-AAEV, named 'Youth of Britain'. The punishing schedule he set seems astonishing today, see STOCKTON-on-TEES for more information. Or better still read his memoirs in 'A Time to Fly'.
Possibly using the WW1 KINGSHILL site? This was later to become MAIDSTONE AIRPORT and, in WW2, RAF WEST MALLING. However, experience has taught me to be very wary of jumping to easy conclusions. As a general rule the 'Flying Circus' operators shied away from using established airfields, preferring to be independent and managing their own affairs.
An airfield guide published in 1939 by the Reading Aero Club refers to a civil aerodrome called MAIDSTONE - but was this actually WEST MALLING? Today I’d say this was certainly the case and Ron Smith in British Built Aircraft Vol.3 confirms this.
On the 3rd July 1935 Cobham’s No.1 Tour visited Maidstone once again. But, did they use MAIDSTONE AIRPORT/WEST MALLING? Or do you know better?
MAIDSTONE: Temporary aerodrome?
NOTES: During the 11th and 12th of April 1931 CD Barnard Air Tours operated from a site in/near Maidstone. It is not known if they used the same site used by the Cobham Tour in 1929 but there is no particular reason to suppose they did. It was common practise for these ‘Tours’ to negotiate with local farmers the best deal going for use of a field for a day or two. They often shied away from official aerodromes and airports to reduce the operating costs usually imposed.
MAIDSTONE: Aircraft factory
NOTES: When first starting work on this 'Guide' I had imagined the B.A.C. company would probably have been based on a airfield near here, but it now seems they occupied an old brewery in Lower Stone Street in Maidstone. How wrong can you be!
Nevertheless it is surely well worth a mention. Please ‘Google’ the company to see more. They built a variety of over thirty gliders and in 1932 stuck an engine on one, the type was called the Planette, and this was developed into the Drone. Robert Kronfeld took over the design, moving the production to HANWORTH (LONDON) and if certain stories are to be believed most subsequent development concentrated on making it even noisier!
There is a school of thought, which I sympathise with to some extent, especially regarding helicopter designs; that if aerodynamics can't help to make it fly - increase the noise levels until the planet and the laws of physics cannot stand it any longer, and ejects them skywards.
MAIDSTONE see also GREAT DANES HOTEL
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