Twyford
This 1912/13 map shows the probable site of the intended TWYFORD aerodrome. As far as I can ascertain, situated pretty much where the last "RD" part of West Twyford is printed?
As seen below it appears inconclusive that any flying took place here?
THE TWYFORD PART IN THE PARK ROYAL and ACTON STORY
Here is an excerpt from a letter sent by Mr E W Twining of the Twining aircraft manufacturer in Hanwell to Mr T O B Hubard of the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain discussing the potential suitability of this site as an aerodrome. The “flying area (is) about one mile long and two miles around, nearly flat, rough and very bumpy, perhaps a rail should be used for launching”. The first question I asked myself on reading this was why on earth did they need somewhere so large? Then the penny dropped, and of course the French term aerodrome itself explains it too.
In those days an aerodrome was actually the ‘local’ flying area, not just the place where you took off and landed.
The possibility that a powered aircraft could be used to fly from one place to another, (at least as a practicable proposition), was still in it’s infancy and attempts to do so received tremendous publicity by and large and were quite comparable with the very long distance and often trans-oceanic flights undertaken just a few years later after WW1.
Indeed, equal in many ways to the manned space flights of just over half a century later if you think about the potential risk involved. It seems you can only die once when indulging in such adventures! Another aspect is that, just as in the 19th century when many thousands of people would gather to see a balloon launch, just to witness a human being in the sky, the advent of the powered aeroplane attracted huge crowds. It was not uncommon for towns to declare a public holiday to witness just one brave aviator giving a display of flying in the years leading up to WW1!
See nearby ACTON aerodrome for some accounts of potential aviators attempting to get airborne.
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