Marlborough Common
MARLBOROUGH COMMON: Temporary Landing Ground
Location: Just N to NW of Marlborough town centre
Period of operation: 17th May 1912
In 1912 the Daily Mail sponsored the then very famous French aviator Henri Salmet to undertake a tour giving 'Flying Exhibitions' at a wide range of venues. At that time the French especially were very advanced in promoting and developing fixed-wing powered aircraft, whereas the UK were way behind. But, catching up quickly it has to be said, mostly by pioneers, generally wealthy. To it's credit the Daily Mail had seen the potential of powered aircraft and sponsored air races and similar record breaking flights in the UK from as early as 1906!
Against this powered fixed-wing aviation did not arrive until 1909 in the UK. Perhaps notably was the London to Manchester air race held in 1910 with a £10,000 prize, worth around a million pounds today. Won by the French aviator Louis Paulhan. The other competitor was the prominent English aviator, Claude Graham-White, who, in a desperate attempt to catch up, made the first flight at night recorded in the U.K.
In 1912 the Daily Mail also sponsored Grahame-White to make a tour alongside Salmet, but using different venues, in a campaign called 'Wake Up England'.
Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', has researched Salmet's 1912 Tour, and the full itinerary for England and South Wales can be found in my article - 'The 1912 tour by Henri Salmet'.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The second item, a newspaper article, was published in The Scotsman on the 18th May 1912.
Note: The seventh item is an excerpt from an article published in Flight magazine on the 25th May 1912. The last item, the area view, is from my Google Earth © derived database.
A clue to just how exceptional this tour was can be gleaned from the title of the article in The Scotsman shown above - "Aviator's Long Distance Flight". A misleading title of course, as the tour consisted of a considerable number of individual flights, spread over four months. Many sectors straining Salmet's abilities as a pilot to the extreme. Or as we might say, typical English summer weather! I waited years after gaining my PPL to find a 'weather window' to fly across to the West Country from a location roughly nearish to London. And, I was not afraid to tackle pretty demanding weather conditions.
Hearing of Salmet braving some of the worst conditions, although quite typical, in 1912, certainly gains my admiration. We need to remember that in those days the majority of pilots rarely ventured far from their base aerodrome. And for good reason too. Indeed, often flying early in the morning or evening, when typically winds had subsided.
Small wonder then that when a pioneer aviator appeared, he was féted as a 'super-star' with thousands turning up and grand civic receptions arranged if the aviator was staying around. Very few people had ever seen an aeroplane in those days, and indeed, unless an aeronaut in a balloon had been seen, they had never seen a person in the sky!
Salmet's visit here was fairly brief. He had flown from WORMWOOD SCRUBBS in west London, via a brief stop in TAPLOW, to READING on the 16th May. On the 17th he travelled west, via landing here, to Bath, landing at NEWTON St LOE on the west side of the city and staying the night.
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