Orleton Park
ORLETON PARK: Temporary Landing Ground
Operated by: Gustav Hamel
Location: Just N of the A5, just SW of Wellington town centre
Period of operation: 19th October 1912
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The second item, the advert, was published in the Wolverhampton Express and Star on the 17th October 1912.
Note: The newspaper article, divided into two parts to make it easier to read, was published in the Wolverhampton Express and Star on the 19th October 1912.
NOTES: This really was a most extraordinary period in aviation history. The aeroplane was coming of age! Largely led by the French powered aviation did not get going in the UK until 1909. But, when it did, it nigh on exploded onto the scene, capturing the public imagination by 1912 to an astonishing extent. This year being the year when public exhibitions of flying really, to coin a term, 'really took off'. Creating many heroes and indeed, as we today might call them - 'super stars'.
Gustav Hamel being one of the leaders in this band. Born in Hamburg, Germany in 1889 his family moved to England and became 'naturalised' in or around 1910. That same year Hamel learnt to fly at the Blériot School at Pau in France. Blériot himself having said he was an exemplary student - a natural. Within a very short time he was making a name for himself, and by 1912 had become a major exponent in the 'exhibitions of flying' circle.
Cutting a dashing rather glamourous figure, it appears he then had a devoted band of young ladies following him around - 'groupies' I suppose we'd call them today. Invariably, wherever a 'exhibition of flying' took place, it was a major civic event as well as being a public spectacular. Even to the extent, if held on a weekday, a public holiday being declared!
This said, as far as I can make out, Hamel rarely undertook long cross-country flights, (although clearly capable as he had proved), preferring instead to have his aircraft transported by a combination of rail and road between venues some distance apart. In this respect setting himself apart from others, notably the French aviator Henri Salmet and the British aviator Claude Grahame-White, who were regularly flying from one venue to another, (in those days), some considerable distance apart.
Seems to be an interesting difference of approach to a commitment to perform at a given place at a given time. This way at least Hamel could say he was there and ready - weather permitting. The 1912 tour schedule by Salmet, in contrast, was often thrown into disarray by delays due to en route weather.
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