Aviation Landmarks

© 2005 Jean Gardner

A granite silhouette of Louis Blériot's frail monoplane lies on a hillside in the shadow of Dover Castle. Twenty three miles away on the other side of the Channel at Blériot Plage, two kilometres from Calais, stands another unique monument to his remarkable flight at the point where it started on July 25th 1909.

This is only one aviation landmark which is permanently recorded. Much of the history of flight can be deduced from the numerous memorials marking events in aviation. Over the last sixteen years my husband Cliff and I have discovered an amazing variety of memorials in all shapes, sizes and materials. Some were very difficult to find as they are hidden in spots known only to local people, but frequent contact with other aviation enthusiasts has produced a steady flow of information leading to new discoveries throughout the country. We have uncovered almost four hundred so far. Although some of them are crash sites this figure excludes the thousands of gravestones of airmen in cemeteries.

The audacious feats of the early balloonists' inspired the first memorials, which were followed by those to motorised flight. Many 'firsts' are recorded such as Blériot's cross Channel flight and the crossing of the Atlantic by Alcock and Brown. Daily papers sponsored air races all over the world. In the lead was the Daily Mail, founded by Lord Northcliffe, who was fascinated by aviation. He offered large amounts of prize money for new achievements. Huge crowds mobbed pilots as each challenge was met.

Both world wars produced individual heroes remembered by tributes taking many different forms. The events of the Second World War gave rise to an enormous number of memorials. Aircraft of every shape and size are depicted on them and they incorporate two, three and four bladed propellers. Most are of unique design with the exception of those to Royal Air Force squadrons in Lincolnshire. United States airmen were responsible for many which tend to be more flamboyant than the British ones. Quite often, the announcement that an airfield is to be closed or a squadron disbanded triggers the plans for a memorial.

Aviation pioneers are often immortalised. The types of memorial vary from pillars, plaques and propellers to stained glass and statues. One of the most unusual must surely be that to Frank Halford - designer of de Havilland engines - at Salisbury hall, Hertfordshire. It is a mask of his face cast in metal from the engine cylinder heads of the Comet racer aeroplane which won the England to Australia race in 1934.

Another which is unique is also one of the earliest. This is a stone pillar surmounted by a triangular brass plate with a hinged cover, marking the spot where the Italian aeronaut, Vincenzo Lunardi, finished his remarkable voyage by balloon in 1784. Contemporary accounts give the full story of his flight. It was the wonder of the age when steam engines in industry would still be considered revolutionary.

He was accompanied on his ascent from the grounds of the Honourable Artillery Company in London by a dog, a cat and a pigeon. He rose to about three thousand feet and stayed in sight of the large crowd of onlookers for about an hour. Then the wind carried him northwards. Icicles formed on the balloon when he reached seven thousand feet over Barnet. At North Mymms, near Welham Green, he touched down briefly and disembarked the animals which were suffering from the cold. He ascended again rapidly and stayed airborne for another forty minutes before landing in a meadow at Standon Green End, near Ware, Hertfordshire.

The most difficult part of the landing was getting somebody to catch the rope he threw out. Farm labourers working in the meadow ran off in terror as the 'flying monster' approached them, and declared 'they would have nothing to do with one who came on the Devil's horse.' Luckily Elizabeth Brett, a servant girl, encouraged by the promise of five guineas seized the rope. She made the following affidavit next day. 'that upon going to the door of the house, I perceived a strange large body in the air; and on approaching it in a meadow near the house called Long Mead, I perceived a man in it: that person in the machine, whom I knew not what to make of, but which the person in it called an Air Balloon, called to me to take hold of the rope, which I did accordingly. That John Mills and George Phillips, labourers with Mr Thomas Reid, came up soon after, and being likewise requested to assist in holding the rope, both made their excuses, one of them, George Phillips, saying Òhe was too short,Ó and John Mills saying Òthat he did not like it,Ó that I continued to hold the rope till some other harvest men of Mr Benjamin Robinson, of High Cross, came up by whose assistance the machine was held down till the person got out of the machine.'

On the brass plate is an engraving of the balloon and an inscription which reads:

Let posterity Know
And Knowing be Astonished
That
On the 15th day of September 1784
Vincent Lunardi of Lucca in Tuscany
The first Aerial Traveller in Britain
Mounting from the Artillery Ground
In London
and
Traversing the region of the Air
for two hours and fifteen minutes
In this spot
Revisited the earth
On this rude Monument
For ages be recorded
That Wonderous enterprise
successfully achieved
by the powers of chemistry
and fortitude of man
That improvement in science
Which
The great Author of all Knowledge
Patronising in his providence
The invention of mankind
Hath graciously permitted
To that benefit
and
his own eternal glory

Another stone, placed at a road junction in Welham Green is near the spot where he touched down briefly. It is known as Balloon Corner.

The following year aviation arrived in Manchester. An advertisement in the Manchester Mercury in May 1785 offered tickets for half a guinea or five shillings to see a Mr.Sadler ascend in a Grand Air Balloon from a place near John Howarth's house. The report of the flight said,

'Mr Sadler, from Oxford ascended from this town in a neat and elegant car, affixed to a grand superb air balloon. Everything being prepared with the utmost care and attention, the balloon filled gradually, without being impeded by any untoward accident or mistake. At about twenty minutes past one, the car being properly affixed and he himself seated in it, about half-a-dozen gentlemen held it down, and brought it forwards about two yards from between the poles on which it had been suspended; when, everything being properly adjusted, he ascended in a slow and majestic manner amid a vast concourse of spectators who saluted him with a grateful cheer, for the pleasure he afforded in so magnificent a sight, which he returned by politely waving his hat and flag.'

He landed about eight miles away and returned by post chaise to John Howarth's house on Long Millgate. Howarth's field has long been built over but a road running across it is named Balloon Street. A plaque on the wall of the corner of Corporation Street marks the event.

A plaque on an old workshop in the village of Brompton, near Scarborough states that it was here that Sir George Caley conducted many of his experiments. Another on Paradise House until recently the Graham Sea Training School, almost due west of Scarborough Castle, affirms Scarborough as his birth place.

Readers of Sir George Caley's papers On Aerial Navigation, published in 1810 doubted if heavier-than-air machines had any future. At a time when Napoleon was rampaging around Europe the British people were more concerned with keeping him across the water than flying through the air. But in 1909 Wilbur Wright wrote 'About a hundred years ago an Englishman, Sir George Caley, carried the science of flying to a point which it had never reached before and which it scarcely reached again during the last century.'

As aviation developed in the early years of this century Caley was acknowledged world wide as the inventor of the aeroplane, with over twenty aeronautical 'firsts' to his name. They included designing the first successful glider to fly - without a pilot - but incorporating the essential features of an aeroplane. By 1803 Trevithick's first steam carriage had been a success and Caley knew that he too needed a means of forward propulsion. If only the internal combustion engine had been invented he'd have been soaring through the air while Napoleon was still charging around on horseback.

It was not until the end of the 19th century that Percy Pilcher made his first brief controlled flight in a heavier than air machine at Stanford park, near Rugby. He built his 'Bat' Glider in 1895 this was rapidly followed by the 'Gull' and the 'Hawk' in which he made flights of up to two hundred and fifty yards. He was fatally injured on 30th September 1899 due to a structural failure in the Hawk tail boom. A tall Ionic style pillar erected by the Aeronautical Society of Great Britain marks the spot. It is inscribed:

PERCY PILCHER
PIONEER OF
AVIATION
FELL HERE
SEPTEMBER 30th
1899

And on the back ICARO ALTERI - another Icarus. A replica of his Hawk built by apprentices from the Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft Company is on display at Stanford Hall.

At the Royal Aircraft Establishment, Farnborough, a stark leafless tree known as Cody's tree bears the following inscription at its base:

Samuel Franklin Cody measured the thrust of his first aeroplane in 1908/9 by tying it to this tree and his flight of 1390 feet on 16th October 1908 was the first powered sustained flight in Great Britain.

Cody was an American. He was not related to Buffalo Bill Cody of Wild West fame but affected his style of dress and long flowing hair under a wide-brimmed cowboy hat. He arrived in England with a theatrical show in 1896 but his great interest was the balloons and kites which he experimented with in his spare time. While Britons were celebrating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee on the ground, Cody was flying high on his kites.

The Admiralty were very impressed by a demonstration at Portsmouth and recommended him to the Army. By 1904 Cody was established at the Military Balloon Factory at Farnborough, Hampshire. Not only did he teach the Royal Engineers what he knew about kites but was able to show the cavalry a few tricks of horsemanship and shooting.

In 1903 Cody wrote in Pearson's Magazine 'I have invented an aerial machine, which although not perfect, has many successful attributes. I do not wish to assert that I have produced a flying machine in the full sense of the term, but I must confess that I have ambitions in that direction. I hope at no distant date to play an important part in the complete "Conquest of the Air."

The public marvelled at the news of his flight in 1908, a time when many people had never seen a motor car. Aviation had arrived in Britain. The press went flying mad. Composer Ezra Read wrote Aeroplane Waltzes with Cody to celebrate his great achievement. The pinnacle of his career came when he won the Military Trials with his biplane on Salisbury Plain in 1912. He died shortly afterwards while flying at Farnborough. In September 1964 a model of Cody's biplane was mounted on a pillar outside the officers' mess at Farnborough. The inscription reads:

The first aeroplane flight in Great Britain was made from this hillock by S.F.Cody on the morning of 16th October 1908. He took off in a westerly direction and flew for a distance of 1390 feet. This model was made in the workshops of the Royal Aircraft Establishment and presented by the Society of British Aerospace Companies to the Royal Air Force Officers Mess, Farnborough 6th September 1964.

The model, made of brass and showing the smallest details is now inside the officers' mess for safe keeping, but the plinth with its inscription remains in place.

The book goes on through the pioneers and military flying through the record breakers on the interwar years to the second world war and into the jet age. Over a hundred illustrations show the gradual development of aeroplanes as depicted on the memorials and something of the history of the Royal Air Force and the United States Army Air Force.

Published by After The Battle at £14.95 ISBN 0 900913