Northampton Race Course
NORTHAMPTON RACE COURSE: Temporary Landing Ground
Location: Just N to NE of Northampton town centre
Period of operation: 30th July to the 1st August
In 1912 the then very famous French aviator Henri Salmet was sponsored by the Daily Mail to conduct a tour around much of the UK. Departing from west London in May, he first flew across, via several venues, to South Wales, as far as Llanelly (now Llanelli), before heading back to cross the Bristol Channel to embark on a tour of the West Country - reaching as far west as Falmouth.
He then retraced his route back up to Cardiff where he fell very ill - needing to go to London for major surgery. Making a remarkable recovery, but no doubt commencing far too soon, he then set off for the southern parts of the West Midlands. Skirting back south as far as Swindon, he then flew to Northampton and then across to Colchester.
Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide' has researched this Tour and the full schedule can be found in my article - "The 1912 tour by Henri Salmet".
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The second item, the picture, was published in the Northampton Mercury on the 2nd August 1912.
Note: The fourth item was published in the Northampton Chronicle and Echo on the 30th July 1912.
Note: The eighth item was published, also in the Northampton Chronicle and Echo, on the 31st July 1912.
This Tour by Salmet really was truly sensational - nothing like it had been seen before. The Daily Mail that year, had also sponsored another tour by Claude Grahame-White - that one called 'Wake Up England!" We need to remember that these two Tours were taking place when fixed-wing powered aviation was still in its infancy, especially in the UK when it started appearing in 1909. Indeed, very few people in the UK had ever seen an aeroplane, let alone flying across, for those days, quite extraordinary distances.
It is all rather odd, considering that it is really quite recent history, just how vague and difficult it can be to determine just with who, where and when, the first powered flights actually took place. One of the main problems being just how a flight can be defined? The popular notion being quite incorrect in so many ways. Take the famous photograph of the Wright brothers in 1903. That was not a flight - it was a short 'hop' in ground effect, and many early experimenters, as far afield as New Zealand, were achieving similar 'hops'. However, understanding more about the subject than the Wright brothers, they did not attach too much importance to a 'hop', as these brief airborne excursions were generally called in English speaking countries.
Being briefly airborne does not constitute a flight!
To my knowledge, (so far!), not one claimed that a short 'hop' in ground effect could be considered as being a 'flight'. After many years of detailed research, my conclusion is that a 'flight' is one in which the aircraft climbs out of ground effect and the controls exercised in all three axis enabling climbing, turning and descending. Indeed, a first solo flight, even today, invariably involves just that - by flying a circuit.
The irony being, that the Wright brothers could well have been the first to achieve this, but they conducted these experiments near Dayton, Ohio, in such secrecy that we will probably never know.
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