Worthing
WORTHING: Temporary Landing Ground
Note: This map was kindly supplied by Mr Michael T Holder.
Field Place can be clearly seen on this map - but it isn't known which field he actually used.
Location: Field Place, which is on the SW side of West Tarring and E of Goring. Roughly 1.5nm W of Worthing town centre
Period of operation: 23rd September 1929
NOTES: WORTHING was intended to be the 83rd venue in the 1929 Sir Alan Cobham's Municipal Aerodrome Campaign. Starting in May and ending in October one hundred and seven venues were planned to be visited. Mostly in England, two were in South Wales and eight in Scotland. In the end, due to a couple of crashes and other setbacks, he managed to visit 96 venues, this being the 87th. Nevertheless, this was still a magnificent achievement.
Without any doubt this Tour resulted to help inspire several aerodromes/regional airports being created - but not in Worthing. But, with SHOREHAM being so close by, one has to question why a venue in Worthing was worth visiting? And for what reason?
The aircraft Cobham mostly used for this Tour was the ten-seater de Havilland DH61 'Giant Moth' G-AAEV named 'Youth of Britain'. The punishing schedule he set himself seems quite extraordinary today. Also highly recommended are his memoirs in 'A Time To Fly'.
In May 2020 Mr Michael T Holder sent me a copy of an advert in the Worthing Gazette offering ten free flights for his appearance on the 23rd September.
Rather quaintly it stated:
BRITAINS MOST FAMOUS PILOT
SIR ALAN COBHAM
FLYING HIS 500 H.P. ARMSTRONG-SIDDELEY GIANT DE HAVILLAND
12 SEATER AIR LINER - 11am to dusk
Today of course we can only marvel at the DH61 'Giant Moth' G-AAEV being described as an airliner. But in fact it was. Indeed, most regional 'airliners' and many employed on international routes, then carried less passengers! Why it was described as a 12-seater is not known. The DH61 Giant Moth was designed as a six to eight seat airliner, so it seems Cobham did well to squeeze ten seats in. But of course, he only intended carrying passengers on flights of very short duration.
A MICHAEL T HOLDER GALLERY
Note: The second and third items were published in the Worthing Gazette on the 25th September 1929.
Note: The sixth item, the advert, was published in the Worthing Gazette on the 18th September 1929. The last item, the area view, is from my Google Earth © derived database.
MORE NOTES
As a general rule for one day events, (and most were one-day events), Cobham would aim to arrive at around 11.00 - and he mostly managed to achieve this. The first task, having been met by a reception committee of local dignitaries, was to take them flying around the local area. He would then take groups of selected schoolchildren for flights, the costs of these being met by a then anonymous sponsor. We now know this was Lord Wakefield of Castrol Oil fame, and he had offered to pay Cobham for carrying 10,000 schoolchildren throughout this Tour. Following this Cobham would fly fare paying passengers, normally until dusk.
Quite often the local big-wigs had arranged a slap-up luncheon, at for example the town hall or a grand hotel, and invariably a sumptous dinner in the evening. This would give Cobham an ideal opportunity to extol the benefits of a town having a municipal aerodrome/regional airport. One can hardly blame the worthies of Worthing for having an excuse for an all-day party, plus free flights with Cobham, then at the height of his fame, but, surely they must have wondered what on earth Cobham was banging on about - with the long established SHOREHAM aerodrome just four miles away from Worthing town centre!
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