Stafford Common
STAFFORD COMMON: Temporary aerodrome
Operated by: 1921 Berkshire Aviation Tours
1932 Sir Alan Cobham’s National Aviation Day UK Display Tour
Location: Just N of Stafford town centre
Period of operation:
Berkshire Aviation Tours 2nd to 12th September 1921
Sir Alan Cobham 13th June 1932
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
I had the very barest of details listed for this venue - and that only for 1932. We now have Mike Holder, a great friend of this 'Guide', to thank for delving into the history of this location as a venue, and coming up with two examples of use. Did others also come here?
BERKSHIRE AVIATION TOURS
Note: The advert was published in the Staffordshire Advertiser on the 27th August 1921.
The article was published, also in the Staffordshire Advertiser, on the 17th September 1921.
NATIONAL AVIATION DAY display
The first article was published, prior to the event, in the Staffordshire Newsletter on the 4th June 1932.
The article in two parts was also published in the Staffordshire Newsletter, but after the display on the 18th June 1932.
NOTES: After making his fabulous Tour in 1929, the Municipal Aerodrome Campaign, it would appear that he was a tad slow in appreciating the potential emerging, by 1931, of the full blown 'Flying Circus' extravaganza, with a fleet of aircraft. Typically, once he decided to become involved, he blew the socks off all the competitors.
His 1932 Tour started at HANWORTH, (SW London), on the 12th April and was planned, without a rest break in between, to visit 174 venues, ending at CHINGFORD, (North London), on the 16th October. They flew around most of mainland Britain, including as far north as Inverness in Scotland. Today exact details are unknown, but it certainly does appear that they managed to arrive on time, and display, at nearly all of these venues.
Two ground teams were involved, leapfrogging each other, to prepare the venues. As an exercise in logistics it does, today, almost defy belief that anything like this could be achieved. Sir Alan Cobham was, as he admits, a manic workaholic, and he expected his teams to keep pace. Also, although mostly making sense geographically, this Tour did involve a fair amount of zig-zagging from point to point.
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