Ulting
Note: This map only gives the position of Ulting village within the U.K.
ULTING: Notable balloon ascents
Location: Champion Lodge, about 3nm NW of Maldon, 6nm NE of Chelmsford
Period of operation: 1882
NOTES: In their most interesting book ESSEX, A Hidden Aviation History Paul Bingley and Richard E. Flagg they tell us this: "Another pioneering British 'aeronaut', Joseph Simmons, was commissioned by Sir Claude Champion de Crespigny of Champion Lodge, Ulting, to fly him across the North Sea. In June 1992 both men landed in Arras, France."
So, a failure. This flight taking them south across the English Channel. But notable nontheless in those days. Presumably with a balloon using hydrogen as the 'lifting agent'.
"This was followed two months later by another crossing to Flushing in Belgium. Both flights had taken off from the same field in Maldon." Presumably, actually, from Champion Lodge? I am not aware of a 'Flushing' in Belgium, but suspect this was just across the border in The Netherlands, known by the Dutch as Vlissingen, but in English as Flushing.
"Five years later, though, the intrepid Simmons was killed in an accident on the de Crespigny's estate while preparing for a long-distance flight to Vienna."
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