Oxford flying sites
Note: This map only shows the position of Oxford city within the UK.
OXFORD AIRPORT see KIDLINGTON
OXFORD: Temporary balloon launch site
Period of operation: 1784 only?
NOTES: On Oct 4th 1784 James Sadler made a successful ascent which is generally regarded as being the first manned balloon flight in England.
Note: This picture was taken by the author, from above 3000ft, flying the Cessna 172 G-WACL from WYCOMBE AIR PARK.
OXFORD: Temporary gliding site or sites?
NOTES: In the early 1890s Otto Lillienthal produced nine examples of his 1894 model Normal-Segelapparat (Standard Soaring Apparatus), thus becoming the world’s production aircraft. It seems that four were exported, the others staying in Germany. It was therefore also the first production aircraft to be exported.
He sold two to the USA and another to a Mr Fitzgerald in Dublin which was of course in the United Kingdom in those days. Another went to Moscow. A fifth was sold to Dr T J Bennett of Oxford who in turn, (after a brief period of experimental flights), apparently gave it to Percy Pilcher. Is it known today where Dr Bennett made his gliding flights from?
OXFORD: Military aerodrome (see PORT MEADOW)
OXFORD: Temporary aerodrome?
NOTES:
OXFORD was listed as the first venue for the Sir Alan Cobham's Municipal Aerodrome Campaign. This toured the UK from May to October 1929. Can anybody kindly offer advice regarding the location of the venue? This Tour had a great effect on many towns, resulting in an aerodrome being laid out.
The Tour visited one hundred and seven towns and cities, mostly in England. Two venues were in Wales and eight in Scotland. The aircraft he used was the de Havilland DH61 Giant Moth G-AAEV, named 'Youth of Britain'.
Here again I can highly recommend reading A Time To Fly which in effect was Sir Alan Cobhams autobiography. It was far from being a guaranteed success at first. As Cobham says: "This wasn't a matter of pure dedication to the cause. It must be remembered that although I was a Knight and a celebrity and a director of two companies, I still had no assured future. I needed to think about money, for myself and my wife and two young sons, and it occurred to me that if I could persuade a number of towns and cities to establish their own aerodromes, I might be retained as an adviser in certain cases at least, and so build up my business as an aviation consultant all around the country."
"It also occurred to me that if I undertook a major campaigning tour...... careful planning might cause it to yield an immediate profit. I should be taking up the civic dignitaries in the morning of each day, and then giving them my full educational treatment; all this would be at my own expense, but in the afternoon I should be free to take up the general public, for payment which might do more than just cover my costs. So it worked out."
Another extraordinary aspect of this tour is that Lord Wakefield, (of Castrol fame), paid for some ten thousand schoolchildren to have free trips. No doubt he negotiated a keen deal with Cobham, but just think about it. What a truly magnificent gesture of kindness.
"My routine on this tour was an exhausting one. I had to be up very early each morning to wind up the previous day's affairs, while Hartman attended to the airframe and Chalker - an engineer supplied by Sir John - to the engine." My note: Cobham had the DH61 fitted with an Armstrong-Siddeley Jaguar engine instead of the original Bristol Jupiter. We would be off at something like ten, arriving at our destination at about eleven to meet the Mayor and Town Clerk and the Borough Surveyor and a horde of councillors, who were always there to meet us; they accepted our invitation without any exception at all, and we sometimes had to make two or more flights before each one had seen his home town from above."
Note the "his". This was long before women were allowed to become councillors, let alone assume higher positions in civic affairs. Even though the first woman MP was elected in 1918 - it took a long time for emancipation to occur elsewhere.
"Then it was the turn of the children who were to fly at Sir Charles Wakefield's expense, then there would be lunch with the Mayor and his people, in the course of which I was able to brief them thoroughly about the local possibiities of aviation and the importance of establishing an airport. Then, from perhaps half-past two until nine in the evening, without any interval for rest or refreshment , I had to make one seven-minute flight after another, while Hartmann and Chalker kept the crowd in order and Castlemaine issued the tickets and took the money."
There was only one mishap, at RHYL, when the aircraft had to be shipped back to STAG LANE for repair. Despite this the tour was a great success. As Cobham says, "...by the end of 1929 my company had received a flood of commissions to inspect the environs of towns and cities and choose the best sites for municipal airports; many of the site so chosen - Speke and Hurn among them - have since become well-known centres of aviation."
He omits to mention that STANLEY PARK at Blackpool was another recommendation of his. A bad mistake and, if it wasn't for WW2, probably bound for closure in the late 1930s?
ANOTHER VENUE?
A venue in/near Oxford was listed by CD Barnard Air Tours in 1931.
In 1933 Sir Alan Cobham’s No.1 Tour visited Oxford as did the initial 1935 Tour on the 18th June. Does anybody now know the site(s) where they operated from? PORT MEADOW seems a reasonable guess of course but I certainly wouldn’t bet on it
OXFORD: Civil Landing Ground
Location: Reckoned by some to be NW of Oxford city, it was actually roughly 3nm ENE, inside a fork of two minor roads from the A40 and A4142 junction leading to Stanton St John. The A4142 today forms the SE sector of the Oxford ring road
Period of operation: 1930s only?
Runway(s) : Max landing run: 567 grass
NOTES: Listed in the 1930s ‘A.A. Register of Landing Grounds’
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