Wolverhampton, UK, June 27th - July 2nd, 1910
The first all-British aviation meeting
Wolverhampton is an industrial town in central
England, in Staffordshire's "Black
Country". In 1910 it had around 90,000 inhabitants,
many of them working in the ironworks and foundries for
which the area was known. The total number of
manufacturing companies in the area was around 300. On
September 3rd, 1909 the Midland Aero Club, the fourth
British aero club, was formed there. During the spring of
1910 the club started planning an aviation meeting, the
third competitive meeting in Britain. The two previous
meetings, which were held in Doncaster and Blackpool,
both in October of 1909, had been dominated by French
flyers. In order to encourage British aviation it was
therefore decided that this would be a national meeting,
for British flyers only. It was estimated that it would
cost £ 5,000 to organize the meeting, and in mid-May,
when £ 3,200 had been raised, it was decided to go ahead.
It was decided to hold the meeting at the Dunstall Park
race course, around two kilometres northwest of the city
centre, at the junction of the Staffordshire and
Worcestershire Canal and the Birmingham Canal. Several
flyers soon indicated that they would participate, and in
early June a provisional program was published. It
included contests for nine different prizes, with a total
prize fund of more than £ 5,000, during five days.
Several contractors started preparing for the meeting,
building six permanent and several temporary hangars, a
timing pavilion and other necessary installations.
In the end more than twenty flyers entered, a mixture of
experienced flyers, such as Samuel Cody, A. V. Roe,
Charles Rolls, George Cockburn, Claude Grahame-White and
Alfred Rawlinson, and complete novices in untested
machines. Four of the pilots had not qualified for the
necessary pilot's license and hoped to do so before
the deadline of June 24th, three days before the meeting.
Only one of them, Captain George Dawes, actually managed
to make the necessary qualification flights, which meant
that the potential starting field was reduced by three.
It was further reduced when Cody and Roe dropped out, but
in the end a dozen pilots would fly during the meeting.
The rule about only British participants caused some
controversy at the start of the meeting. A couple of the
competitors questioned whether Cecil Grace, who was born
in Chile by American/Irish parents who lived in America,
would be allowed to participate, but in the end he was
accepted. According to the Royal Aero Club's ruling,
a national meeting was only confined to aviators of that
particular nationality if an international meeting was
held on the same date elsewhere, and since this was not
the case foreign competitors of any kind could actually
have participated. Grace eventually did become a
naturalised British citizen on 18 October 1910.
Further controversy was caused when some of the
competitors had gathered that their hotel expenses were
not to be paid because they didn't have a signed
agreement with the promoters. They threatened to let
their machines remain in the hangars, but eventually
things were set right when the organizers guaranteed that
all expenses would be paid.
Monday 27 June
The weather was very windy and gusty in the morning, with
wind speeds of at least 13 m/s. The meeting was
officially opened by a luncheon, at which the Earl of
Plymouth, the president of the meeting, presided. In his
speech he, with some foresight considering the kind of
weather that the week would offer, encouraged patience
from the spactators and stated that it was "nothing
less than criminal folly and criminal selfishness to urge
those who had by their experience the only knowledge of
what they could do, to fly when the conditions were
unfavourable".
It was intended that flying would start at half past one,
but the several thousand visitors had to wait for the
first flight. The organizers arranged for the machines to
be paraded in front of the grandstands to offer something
to look at, but the wind even made even that difficult.
When they were all lined up the wind suddenly calmed
down, and at 15:20 Grahame-White started his Farman, with
a passenger on board, and took off. His machine pitched
and rolled in the turbulence that was set up by the
railway bank and the woods and hills that bordered the
airfield and the clump of trees in its middle. He landed
after a straight flight, turned the machine on the ground
and flew back. After his flight the red flag, signalling
the start of official flights, was flown.
George Barnes was first in his Humber monoplane, but he
only made a short hop before taxying back. Alan Boyle in
the Avis monoplane also made a short flight, as also did
Launcelot Gibbs on his Sommer. Gibbs landed on some rough
ground in the centre of the field and damaged his landing
gear. Then Grace, in his Short biplane, made the best
flight of the day. He climbed above the tree-tops at the
western end of the course and came back to make a safe
landing. Grahame-White made a short and low flight, as
did James Radley, whose light Blériot pitched badly in
the turbulence, forcing him to land at the farm in the
western end of the airfield and return on the ground.
While he was still on the ground, Grace made a second
flight, bravely fighting the wind, which was again
increasing. While approaching Barnes he was caught by the
turbulence, pitched down, and passed only some two meters
above Barnes and his machine. After a long period without
any flights Grahame-White made two short flights in the
evening, followed by Rawlinson, and that was the end of
the day's flying.
Tuesday 28 June
The only pilot to make any flight at all was Alec
Ogilvie, who took his Short/Wright biplane out already at
half past four in the morning. He landed with strong
tailwind after a short flight, and broke a landing skid
and one of the tension wires inside the wing. His
mechanics managed to remove the wing covering, replace
the wire, recover the wing and reassemble the machine
already by lunchtime, but to no avail.
When official flights should have started half a gale
blew, 11-14 m/s, making flying absolutely impossible. The
flyers didn't even open their hangars. One of the
canvas hangars, housing Lionel Mander's Blériot, was
demolished by the wind. In the afternoon, the gusts
reached 17-18 m/s. The visitors were admitted into the
hangar are to see the planes, but there would be no
flying. Several of the flyers spent the afternoon in
automobiles, exploring the four potential courses for the
cross-country contest scheduled for the Thursday.
Wednesday 29 June
The strong winds continued into the morning, but towards
the afternoon the winds calmed down. It was decided that
conditions were good enough to run the "get-off
competition" for the shortest take-of distance, but
the rules were somewhat relaxed. It was originally
intended that the flyers would have to complete a lap of
the course after their take-off, but the requirement was
reduced to a flight of more than 200 yards.
When the contest opened at three o'clock Radley was
the first to try, but he touched down too soon. Gibbs on
his Farman was second, with the same result. These two
failed efforts didn't matter, since the committee
decided that since they had been made during a rainstorm
the pilots would still be allowed three chances to win
the price. After some time they were followed by
Cockburn, Grahame-White, Rawlinson, Barnes and Boyle, the
former two completing all their three efforts. It was a
close-run contest, with Cockburn's third and best
result of 100 feet 5 inches beating Grahame-White's
best by only 14 inches (36 centimetres). After his third
flight, Cockburn was caught by a gust and landed heavily,
breaking a landing skid. His propeller hit the ground and
disintegrated completely, and a wing was lightly damaged.
Then proceedings were interrupted by another rain shower,
and flights only started again soon before half past
seven, when the flyers started flying for the total time
contest. Rawlinson and Grahame-White were first to take
off, the former rising to the "considerable
height" of 30 metres, but only staying in the air
for some seven minutes. When landing, his machine was
rolled over to the right by a gust, crashed heavily, and
was considerably damaged. Grahame-White took over the
lead, with an even higher flight of 15:38. While they
were in the air Grace took off, turning in ever larger
circles and eventually reaching well over 150 metres.
After leaving the airfield on the north side and flying
beyond the railway he landed after 27:45, after a fine
vol plané, to the congratulations of the crowds and the
press.
Rolls, Radley, Dawes and Barnes also made short flights,
none of them much longer than two minutes. Rolls had
carefully inspected the grounds before to find out where
he could land his Wright safely. His machine was equipped
with wheels, but they were small and had no springs or
shock-absorbers and in his words "only suited for
landing on tennis lawns", so he was uneasy about the
cart ruts that criss-crossed the field and the
differences in level between the racecourse and the
surrounding areas.
Thursday 30 June
The day again opened cold and stormy, and at twelve
o'clock rain was falling heavily in the gusty wind.
There were indications that the stormy weather would
improve, and at noon the white flag was flown, indicating
that flights were likely. At intervals the sun did shine,
but the high winds continued and the afternoon passed
without any attempts to fly. At half past four the rain
was pouring in torrents. A crowd of some 10,000 people
had waited for hours in the miserable weather and it
wasn't until a quarter to eight that the first signs
of activity on the part of the aviators rewarded them.
Then Boyle brought out his Avis monoplane and flew around
the course in the pouring rain. Soon afterwards Radley,
Grahame-White and Gilmour each made flights of one or two
laps. The crowd had increased in the evening, and there
were thousands of spectators when Gibbs wheeled his
Farman out of its shed. Amid the cheers of the crowd he
took off and was soon flying round the course to improve
his position in the total distance contest. He flew for
30 minutes, which according to the rules for the contest
was the longest time to be counted for a single flight.
The maximum counted time had been reduced from one hour
after a petition from the monoplane flyers. Then Grace
took off and flew for 24 minutes, and Grahame-White for
30 minutes, all being in the air at once. Ogilvie tried
to start, but didn't manage to leave the ground,
while Rolls and Boyle each were up for a little over a
minute.
Friday 1 July
The penultimate day of the meeting was another miserable
day with gusty winds and persistent rain showers. During
the morning the public was admitted to the hangar
enclosure to view the machines, and as a result the
ground in the front of the hangars was trodden into a
quagmire "through which the various cars acting as
tenders to the aviators ploughed their way at about two
miles an hour, while the driving wheels were doing about
forty, and most of the aviators were going about in sea
boots", according to the reporter from "The
Aero".
At two o'clock the red flag was hoisted, and Boyle
brought out his machine and made a pretty test flight
around the course. Then followed the competition for the
greatest total flight time for monoplanes. Radley
completed two rounds of the course, flying a few feet
from the ground, in 3:40. Captain Dawes retired to the
hangar after a hop of a few yards. Gilmour made a steady
flight around the course and came to earth after a little
more than one minute. Barnes also attempted a flight, but
the wind was difficult, and he had considerable trouble
controlling his machine at the turning points. Then a
sharp shower drove all the aviators back again to the
hangars again. When flying was resumed, half an hour
later, Gibbs flew a lap, as did Ogilvie, but because of
engine troubles neither was able to remain in the air for
long. This concluded the afternoon's flying.
In the evening the red flag was hoisted at a quarter past
seven, when the wind had dropped enough for the total
flying time flights to be resumed. Both monoplanes and
biplanes engaged in their respective competitions, in
front of almost 10,000 spectators. Ogilvie was first up
in his Wright, but only flew a short circle in the
infield and landed after 43 seconds. Radley landed after
an erratic flight of 38 seconds. The next flyer was
Boyle, who was only up for 46 seconds. Grahame-White then
appeared on his Farman, and the spectators gave him a
hearty cheer as a send-off. His performance was
disappointing, however, since the turbulence was still
difficult. His machine pitched and rolled badly, and he
had to land at the far end of the course near the
farmhouse. It was obvious that it was still too windy, so
the judges decided to call off the competition.
In order to give the spectators something for their money
an improvised "get-off" competition was
arranged. In the course of this, Grahame-White got off
the ground in 23.7 metres and Rolls in a little over 27
metres. Despite the lack of flying and the miserable
weather the promoters had some reason to cheer, because
the attendance in the evening was nearly 20,000. Just
before nine o'clock the red flag was taken down,
signalling the end of the day's proceedings.
Saturday 2 July
The strong south-westerly wind kept blowing all the
afternoon, but in the evening the wind dropped. At four
o'clock the first machine came out, Barnes'
Humber. Barnes was at last, after repeatedly requesting
permission, allowed to start for the special prize put up
for Midland-built machines. He flew half a mile and was
then brought down by the wind, but since no other Midland
aviator flew at all it was sufficient for him to qualify
for the prize.
Shortly after Barnes' landing Grahame-White made a
test flight, and then there was a thunderstorm, lasting
almost until five o'clock. When it had finished Gibbs
brought out his Farman and started a flight for the
totalisation prize. Gibbs flew the first lap at a height
of 12-15 metres, and then climbed to around 30 metres and
stayed at that altitude for the rest of his half-hour.
Meanwhile, Boyle brought out his machine and flew almost
three laps under perfect control, until forced down by
his overheating Anzani engine.
During the afternoon the wind changed, coming from the
northeast rather than the southwest. This set up
turbulence patterns around the course that were different
from those that the flyers had got used to earlier in the
week. In particular, a gap in the trees lining the field
suddenly exposed the planes to the wind from behind as
they were turning at the western end of the course. The
first to be surprised by this was Grace, who had taken
off while Gibbs was flying. After a first lap in calmer
weather he was blown completely off the course on the
second lap, disappearing out of sight south of the field,
close to Dunstall Hall. He was forced to land as best he
could, and broke the left landing skid and the propeller
in the process.
Shortly afterwards the same thing happened to Boyle, but
he was blown off the course in different place, where he
had to dodge several trees and eventually landed
practically in the middle of a group of school children.
Fortunately no one was hurt, and his machine wasn't
damaged, so he simply turned it round, started the engine
again, and flew back over the fence to the starting
place.
Grahame-White had taken off almost immediately after
Grace. For one lap the two Farmans and the Short were all
in the air together, and quite close to each other, but
soon after Grace's accident Gibbs was signalled to
come down as his half-hour was up. This left
Grahame-White alone on the course for a while, and he too
would go on to finish his thirty minutes. Gilmour took
off, but was forced down by the wind, the heavy landing
breaking the back of his already patched and repaired
Blériot. The next to try was Radley, who didn't fare
any better. While making the first turn after crossing
the starting line he was caught from the side by a gust
that tipped the machine over until the left wing touched
the ground. The wing crumpled, so the crash was
fortunately less heavy than if the machine had nosed
over. Radley climbed out of the machine, which was lying
on side. After inspecting the damages he calmly walked
over to the hangars to try and borrow N. F. Holder's
Humber and have another attempt for the prize. However,
that machine wasn't working, so he did not appear
again except to disassemble his machine and bring it back
to the hangar. The fuselage was broken just aft the
engine, so the simplest way of getting the machine back
was to remove the wings and cut the fuselage in two where
it was already broken. The rear part was carried home by
four or five men, "quite a sad little
procession" according to "The Aero".
Around seven o'clock Ogilvie made "an
exceptionally pretty flight" for about four laps,
but his machine was obviously underpowered and he had to
coax every bit of altitude out of it during the straights
to cope with the loss of altitude during the turns. After
flying like this for a few minutes the machine suddenly
dropped when practically over the wreck of Radley's
machine. Ogilvie almost managed to save it, but lacked
the last bit of altitude to recover. The machine hit the
ground a hundred meters after the initial drop, breaking
both skids and one the propellers. The pilot was
fortunately completely unhurt.
Soon after eight o'clock the spectators were again
treated to the spectacle of three biplanes flying in the
air together. Gibbs started first and was closely
followed by Grahame-White and Rolls, all trying to
improve their results in the totalisation prize. After
about a quarter of an hour Gibbs' machine dropped
suddenly and the left landing skid touched the ground.
This spun the machine around and wiped out the entire
landing gear, leaving it resting on its lower wing, with
a broken propeller. Gibbs crawled out of the wreckage and
made his way back to the hangars, where he filed a
protest against Grahame-White, claimed that he had caused
the accident by flying too close. Soon afterwards both
Grahame-White and Rolls landed safely. Gibbs' protest
was later withdrawn, but since he was the only pilot who
could have matched Grahame-White's result it meant
the latter won the total flight time prize, having flown
a total of 1 h 33:20.
Since so much flying time had been lost during the week,
it was decided that there would be no separate speed
contest and that the results would instead be decided by
the fastest three consecutive laps during the Saturday
evening. Rolls was the winner, taking 4:13.0 to complete
his best three laps. The difference between the top
speeds of the machines was actually not big, but his
manoeuvrable Wright enabled Rolls to make much sharper
turns than Gibbs and Grahame-White in their Farmans and
win by a broad margin. Late in the evening Grahame-White
took Lady Scott (the wife of the Arctic explorer), Lady
Muriel Paget and several of the officials for short trips
on his machine.
Conclusion
The total flying time during the six days of the meeting
was less than five hours, and only three of the pilots
(Grahame-White, Gibbs and Grace) made any flights longer
than ten minutes, but despite the bad weather, the long
periods without flying and the numerous accidents the
meeting was considered a success. The efforts of the
organizers of the meeting were highly praised by the
press, as were the pluck, endurance, and skill of the
aviators who braved the difficult wind conditions around
the tightly confined airfield.
"The Aero" also praised the behaviour of the
audience. They noted "the almost entire absence of
the rougher element from the audience at Wolverhampton;
even in the cheapest enclosure it seemed to consist on
Saturday evening of the better class mechanics and
comparatively well-to-do people generally, and there
seemed to be practically none of the roughs and rowdies
who undoubtedly exist in the
district".
Back to the top of
the page