West Wratting
Note: This map only shows the position of West Wratting village within the UK. If anybody can kindly provide a more exact location, this will be much appreciated.
WEST WRATTING: Early experimental flying site
Operated by: Mr Edward P Frost (one of the original members of the Aeronautical Society, later President)
Location: West Wratting village is just E of the B1052, roughly 12nm SE of Cambridge
Period of operation: 1877
NOTES: It is most important to remember that until a practical flying machine was eventually designed, built and successfully operated, (to which at the time in about 1908 most aviation pioneers agreed the Wright had achieved), all sorts of ideas and theories abounded, many of which had various merits, mostly in theory it has to be said, according to the knowledge and wisdom of that time!
For example many if not most of the early pioneers sought an inherently stable design so that little if any control, (except for direction of course), would be required. I suppose they were mostly thinking in terms of aircraft being similar to boats and/or ships that ‘floated’ without any need for control except to influence direction?
It is often contended that the emergence of a fully practical aeroplane or aircraft emerged towards the end of the 19th century but this is far from the truth. Designs were built which did indeed fly, (albeit with no means of what we’d now regard as positive three-axis control), well before that. Indeed, some ‘models’ (gliders and powered), were as big if not bigger than some of the smallest single-seat modern aircraft.
I therefore find it of great interest that Mr E P Frost built and completed here in 1877, a design of aeroplane that might quite possibly have succeeded in flying were it not for the lack of a suitable engine! A very light engine of 25hp was sought, but nothing was available except a 5hp example. Many of these early experiments were not conducted in semi-secrecy, unlike the Wright brothers in the USA and, indeed, the then Prince of Wales, later to become King Edward VII apparently took much interest in these early experiments.
Oddly enough, (in most cases much against the British “Establishment” by and large), the British Royal family did then and has since, always shown a far more open-minded interest and enthusiasm for aviation, (many have become pilots of course), than the ‘establishment’ they are generally deemed to represent!
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