Park Farm
PARK FARM: Temporary aerodrome
Operated by: Sir Alan Cobham’s 1933 No.1 Tour of the UK
Location: Just NW of West Buckland village, S of the A.38, just NE of junction 26 on the M5, 1.5nm E of Wellington
Period of operation: 3rd September 1933
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The newspaper article was published in the Taunton Courier and Western Advertiser on the 30th August 1933.
Note: The area view is from my Google Earth © derived database.
NOTES: Although the term 'Cobham's Flying Circus' has largely become generic, rather like 'hoover' for a vacuum cleaner, Sir Alan Cobham's National Aviation Day tours did not start until 1932, and ended in 1935. There had been 'flying circus' operations taking place in the U.K. since 1919, notably by the Berkshire Aviation Company. Looking back it seems remarkable that the hey-days of the flying circus era took place between 1931 and 1936/7, at the time of the Great Depression, popularly known as the Great Slump, which hit the UK in 1930 and lasted until WW2 - and indeed, many might argue, due to WW2 - into the 1950s.
However, once Cobham got involved, he and his organisation took the concept to an unprecedented level. Nothing remotely like it had been seen before or since. For example, his first 1932 tour was planned to visit 174 venues. His 1933 tour consisted of two tours, the first planned for 116 venues, the second for 161 venues. The main difference being that the first tour had many more two-day events.
Incredibly, given our general weather situation, usually dominated by systems occuring in the north Atlantic, with plenty of low pressure and associated winds, rain and low cloud, it does appear that the vast majority of displays did take place on time. This said, there was very little in the way of controlled airspace, few regulations regarding flying over built-up areas and so on. And certainly no radar. Apart from military aircraft, (and not all of them), it was in civilian aircraft that mostly only long haul airliners were equipped with radio facilities.
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