Burnage
Note: It needs to be remembered that neither pilot could navigate, so they followed the railway route, which the railway companies had obligingly set out by painting the track sleepers in white.
BURNAGE: Temporary Landing Ground
NOTE: We have Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide' to thank for these illustrations. For a full account of this great Air Race, please see my article, 'The London to Manchester Air Race 1910' - which has been lavishly illustrated by Mike Holder.
MORE NOTES: It would now appear that the final staging point of the now famous 1910 Daily Mail London to Manchester ‘Air Race’ was at Burnage, near the A6 about 3.5nm SE of Manchester city centre. Only two pilots were competing, the British entrant being Claude Grahame-White, the other the French pilot Louis Paulhan, who won the £10,000 prize. (Now estimated to be worth around £1.4 million).
It would seem worthwhile to quote from C C Turner: “Even when it was known at Burnage, near Manchester, that neither aviator could finish the journey on the Wednesday night, many refused to go away, and put up at a neighbouring inn. At 4 a.m. about a hundred people were on the field, and an hour later between three and four thousand. Conflicting messages arrived, one saying that Mr. Grahame-White had started at 3 o’clock, another saying that both airmen were flying and within twenty-five miles of each other. At 5.25 when dawn was just breaking and a cold drizzle was driving along on a south-west wind a report arrived by telephone at the station that an aeroplane was approaching. Every eye was gazing at the skyline of the houses and trees to the south. The machine suddenly came into view, and cheer after cheer went up from the crowd, although they did not know whether it was the Frenchman’s or Englishman’s. It came straight in at a height of about 1,000 feet; then it turned eastwards, and sinking lower and lower it seemed about to land on the other side of the railway. It turned, rose above the railway embankment and telegraph lines, headed south, and finally landed at 5.30 a.m.”
"The crowd threw off all restraint and rushed across the field to greet a smiling but half frozen airman.” (It was the French pilot, Louis Paulhan)
“M. Paulhan had many Continental engagements, and left England on the following Saturday, immediately after the luncheon given him at the Savoy, and the presentation of the £10,000 in a golden casket. Lord Northcliffe gave Mr. Grahame-White a 100-guinea cup in recognition of his splendid effort; and certainly the greatest feat during the whole contest was the Englishman’s night ascent from ROADE, for at that time night flying was regarded as belonging to a somewhat problematical development of the future.”
Note: See also the listing for DIDSBURY as many accounts say Paulhan landed at Didsbury. BURNAGE being within the Didsbury area.
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