Masserene Park
MASSEREENE PARK: Early flying site
Operated by: J B Ferguson
Location: In/near the centre of Antrim
Period of operation: 1909 to 1910 only?
NOTES: See OLD PARK, Hillsborough for a bit more info.
J.B. Ferguson later became both famous and successful, (wealthy too no doubt), when he designed a simple, reliable and thoroughly practical farm tractor.
It is a common theme that parks were often used by the early experimenters in aviation. But we must remember that the population of the U.K. was much smaller, as were the towns of course. Plus, these experimenters invariably chose to operate in the calmest of conditions, normally after dawn and close to dusk, when few people if any were likely to be around.
And, in those days there were no Health & Safety considerations, this would come many decades later. For those who were aware and interested, such experiments, mostly just short hops, were I suspect viewed as something of a novelty.
This said, even this early on, aerodromes were being created, and as the name suggests it was intended that the flying took place within the confines of the aerodrome. More or less.
We'd love to hear from you, so please scroll down to leave a comment!
Leave a comment ...
Copyright (c) UK Airfield Guide
