Old Park
Note: This map only shows the position of Hillsborough within the UK. If anybody can provide a more exact location, this advice will be most welcome.
OLD PARK: Early flying site
Location: Old Park, Hillsborough, County Down. Hillsborough is about 10nm SW of Belfast city centre, beyond Lisburn.
NOTES: It is claimed that Harry Ferguson, (of farm tractor design and manufacturing fame), designed and built an aircraft which he flew successfully from here in December 1909, thus becoming the first person to fly an aeroplane in Ireland. The machine was a conventional monoplane broadly based on the Blériot type which he flew from several locations, (see below). It is then reported he later flew modified versions, including different engines and propellers up till 1913, from various places in Northern Ireland.
According to Ron Smith in his most informative book British Built Aircraft Vol.5, the sequence of flying sites used for the original machine was: OLD PARK, Hillsborough, MASSERENE PARK, County Antrim, MAGILLIGAN STRAND, then NEWCASTLE County Down where he won a £100 prize for flying over three miles in August 1910.
Some people like to portray Ferguson as a major aviation pioneer, which he certainly was in Northern Ireland, but we really must put his achievements into an historical context.
For example the World Record distance prize won by Wilbur Wright in 1908 was 77.6 miles. By 1910 The French pilot Tabuteau, flying a H Farman type had gained the World Record for distance at 365 miles. It is said Ferguson then took his machine back to MAGILLIGAN STRAND, probably in August 1910?
SOME MORE INFO
Ron Smith claims a second machine was built in June 1910 and was flown at NEWTOWNARDS and at MAGILLIGAN STRAND. He states that: “Flight reported that splendid trial flights had been carried out from the shore of STRANGFORD LOUGH on the 17th October 1911, including the carriage of passengers.” Claiming, this machine continued to fly until 1913.
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