Norbury Golf Links
Note: This map only shows the position of Norbury within the UK. If anybody can kindly provide a more exact location for the golf links, this will be much appreciated.
NORBURY GOLF LINKS: Temporary flight testing ground
Location: Norbury sits astride the A23 NNW of Croydon and it seems the ‘Golf Links’ disappeared many years ago, probably before WW2 (?) as developers sought to cover every inch of the area in bricks and mortar.
NOTES: Once again I’d like to quote C C Turner from his book Old Flying Years published circa 1927: “ Few people are probably aware that the British aeroplane industry at one time had its principal home in a railway arch at Battersea, (My note: Presumably fairly near the arches used by the Short Bros when they produced mostly balloons?), which Mr Howard T. Wright tenanted."
"In 1907 he started his aeroplane workshop under the railway arch and received an order to build a helicopter with two big propellers driven by a 30 h.p. Antoinette engine. The machine was actually tested on Norbury Golf Links in 1908, and lifted itself two feet, but without the pilot. The weight raised was 1,250 lbs. It was taken to Naples, and it’s inventor, Signor Capone (not to be confused with Caproni), ordered two more machines, a helicopter and an ornithopter."
"One of Mr. Howard Wright’s first machines was a pusher biplane built for Mr. Seton-Karr; it was the first enclosed-nacelle biplane ever built, all previous types seating the pilot 'out on the scaffolding' so to speak. It was largely of metal construction. It had a 35 h.p. Metallurgique engine, and two concentric propellers running in opposite directions. This machine was tested at FAMBRIDGE, ESSEX, but I have no record that it ever flew.”
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