Orpington
Note: This map only shows the general location of Orpington within the UK.
ORPINGTON: Private early flying ground
Operated by: Malcolm Campbell
Picture: Courtesy of Philip Jarrett.
Location: Not known but near Orpington
Period of operation: 1909 to 1910?
NOTES: In the Spring 2012 edition of Prop-Swing magazine, an article appeared by Andy Jones which included an excerpt from Sir Malcolm Campbell's autobiography, My Thirty Years of Speed. This relates to his one and only attempt to get involved in aviation, by designing and building his own aeroplane in collaboration with " a friend" who, as far as I can see, is not named. The whole account makes for fascinating reading, but for the purposes of this 'Guide' I shall include a few quotes relating to this site.
Note: In January 2022 I was kindly contacted by Mr Wayne Scoble. He is fairly certain that the "friend" mentioned was his great, great uncle Jack Milroy.
One interesting aspect is that Campbell did not see an actual aeroplane until after deciding to get involved in aviation! This was Louis Blériot's No.XI which was being exhibited in Selfridges department store in Oxford Street, London, shortly after Blériot had made the first flight across the English Channel. It is very clear that Campbell was heavily influenced by this desgn, and his aeroplane shows a close resemblance.
"I had a friend who was as enthusiastic as myself, and we engaged a carpenter, then rented a barn on the edge of a strawberry field near Orpington [Kent]."
"Gradually the machine began to take shape, and I often remained all night, returning home sleepless, with just enough time to wash and catch a train to the City. This continued for months on end and, looking back on those days, I often wonder how I managed to stand the strain and why my health did not fail."
NEEDING HELP
"Our only visitors during those nights in the barn were occasional policemen who came to warm themselves by our brazier, and to comment on the slow construction of the 'plane. I encouraged their visits , because I knew that we should need their help when we actually began to fly. In those days , would-be aviators roused as much hostility and ridicule amongst the public as the first motorists had done ten years earlier, and friendly police would be useful to keep the crowd in hand."
What an interesting observation. In later years we have been fed propoganda that these earliest of aviators were treated as heroes. This said, it only took a year or so before the attitude of the public had completely swung around.
"News of what we were doing soon spread in the locality. People used to gather near the barn on the chance of seeing something, long before we were ready to attempt our first flight. Their interest was derisive, and this attitude became intensified as time went on. I began to see that, when we did push the 'plane out, we should need the police to maintain order."
THE 'AIRFIELD'
"The strawberry field was dangerous as a potential flying ground. It sloped badly, the earth was full of furrows and a deep ditch lay right across the centre. When the machine was nearly complete we selected a stretch for the take-off and boarded over the ditch, filling the furrows, and making the ground as smooth as possible."
"We decided upon a Sunday morning for our first effort, and I sent a message to the police to let them know our intentions, but the message went astray, because no constables appeared."
""We made everything ready, and only when we were pushing the 'plane clear of the barn did I discover that a big crowd had gathered. The people gathered right across the field, blocking the line of the take-off. When we asked them to move, we found that a public footpath traversed the field, and they reminded us that they had as much right to be there as ourselves, and refused to go."
"The crowd was very obstinate, and would not make way even after I had explained that it would be dangerous to remain in the path of the machine. The only thing to do was to start the engine and hope that they would run when they saw the 'plane coming towards them."
GOING FLYING?
"It was my intention to try and take the 'plane off the ground without preliminary tests of any sort, although I had never flown before. I knew that when one pulled the control stick back, the machin woud ascend, and that when one pushed the stick forward, the nose dipped. I knew, also, that it was necessary to gather flying speed before trying to take the 'plane into the air, and that lateral control was maintained by ailerons. But that was the sum total of my knowledge."
"The whole ventur was, I suppose, very foolhardy, yet other experimenters were in exactly the same situation. The only thing a man could do, if he wanted to fly, was to build a machine and learn how to control it when he was off the ground, if he had the luck to make the 'plane rise. In any case, my enthusiasm was such that I would have given everything I had - as so many others actually did - for one real flight in the machine which I had designed and helped to build."
TAKING-OFF
"After various delays, I climbed aboard, the engine was started and, when the right moment had come, I waved to friends holding the wings. The 'plane was released and it began to run forward across the field, heading for the crowd, wobbling from side to side as it gathered speed. I was very thrilled at actually being under way, while I struggled to keep the machine as straight as possible, and I judged that I was travelling fast enough to get off the ground when I found myself almost up to the staring crowd."
"I pulled back on the control stick at once. The 'plane lifted a few feet into the air, hesitated, then flopped back with a crash, pitching half on to its nose before it came to an even kel, with the propeller damaged and the engine dead. A wing was broken, a wheel was smashed from the undercarriage and my first effort to fly was a failure." Almost certainly it stalled and entered an incipient spin?
BACK TO THE BARN
"There was nothing for it but to get the machine back to the barn, rebuild it and try again, but the damaged 'plane was too difficult for us to move alone, since it had to be lifted and balanced on the remaining landing wheel. I asked some of the crowd to help, but they were laughing and jeering and did not repond. They simply did not understand the months of work which we had put into the machine, nor could they appreciate the hopes we had entertained only a few miutes before, otherwise the attitude of the spectators would have been very different."
I think that Campbell was being far too generous here, but eventually a few men did volunteer to help. As he goes on to say, "It would be an exaggeration to say the 'plane had flown, but it had certainly gone into the air under its own impetus and power." Whilst this was going on they later discovered that thieves, "....had rifled the clothes we had left hanging on the walls". In the barn of course - doesn't it make you feel proud to be English?
IT NEVER HAPPENED
Campbell did not succeed in raising enough funds to rebuild the aircraft and the remains were put up at auction. It is also pointed out that this account differs in some respects from a biography published around the same time; Speed: The Authentic Life of Sir Malcolm Campbell. However, for the purposes of this 'Guide' this is of no importance of course. But, I do now wonder if anybody today knows the exact location of this 'strawberry field'?
On a more positive note, what a cracking story; surely ideal for a future production of 'Ripping Yarns'.
terry
This comment was written on: 2018-02-02 18:36:05the airfield was broom hill part of the perry hall farm
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