Aviation Landmarks

by Peter B. Gunn

Overview

Norfolk and Suffolk are bursting with aviation heritage, having played key roles in military aviation through the two world wars and beyond. This new edition of Aviation Landmarks– Norfolk and Suffolk presents an updated and revised account of aviation heritage and history through the two world wars right up to the present day. Nearly 70 airfields are covered, along with many lesser-known landmarks including decoy airfields, former radar stations, country houses, buildings, local heritage collections, pubs, village signs and much else. With illustrations, OS grid references and an index this reference guide to the two counties, both in the air and on the ground, will delight interested locals and aviation enthusiasts alike.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780750986557
Publisher:	The History Press
Publication date:	11/02/2017
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	304
File size:	37 MB
Note:	This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

PETER B. GUNN has been a lifelong aviation enthusiast and historian. He has written several books on aviation history and local airfields including Sculthorpe: Secrecy and Stealth (2014) and the first edition of Aviation Landmarks in Norfolk and Suffolk (2017). This new edition, his eighth book, is the outcome of many years of research and travels around his home county of Norfolk and neighbouring Suffolk together with his wife Janet. In 2023 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Historical Society.

Read an Excerpt

CHAPTER 1

SETTING THE SCENE

Balloonatics

The first ventures by man into the air were by balloon during the 1780s and notable among these were the exploits of Norfolk-born Major (later General) John Money. In July 1785, only a year after the first manned balloon flight in England by Vincent Lunardi from Moorfields in London, Money made an ascent from Norwich, a flight that nearly ended in disaster as the balloon drifted out to sea and ditched 20 miles off Southwold. Money was fortunate to be rescued none the worse from the ordeal. As a military man he became interested in the military usefulness of ballooning and in 1803 wrote a treatise on the subject.

General Money settled close to his birthplace and built a mansion called Crown Point at Trowse Newton, Norwich. The site of the mansion is now the location of Whitlingham Hall and there is information about Money and his ballooning adventures in Whitlingham Country Park in Trowse. He died in 1817 at the age of 77 and his grave is to be found at nearby St Andrew's Church, Trowse.

There were many enterprising balloonists over the following century and some recognition of the military value of ballooning, particularly for observation of enemy lines as in the American Civil War (1861–65). Balloons were employed to carry mail and despatches over enemy lines during the Siege of Paris in the Franco–Prussian War of 1870–71.

One of Britain's first military pioneers was Captain (later Colonel) James Templar of the Royal Engineers, who took charge of balloon experiments and training at Woolwich and later at Chatham. At this stage there was little official interest in ballooning by the War Office, although a small fund had been allocated for ballooning experiments, now in the hands of the Royal Engineers.

Observation balloons were deployed overseas for the first time by the British Army in Bechuanaland in 1884, in eastern Sudan in 1885 commanded by (now) Major Templar, and in the Boer War of 1899–1902. These so-called spherical 'kite' balloons had their uses but were completely at the mercy of wind and weather. Further progress was made possible by developing some form of controlling balloons and making them navigable, hence the 'dirigible' or navigable balloon. The application of aerodynamics to balloon design meant that during World War One kite or tethered balloons were in common use by the allies in observation of enemy lines and artillery spotting, an example being the French-designed 'Caquot' type. These sausage-shaped craft were aerodynamically designed to withstand severe weather. The expression 'the balloon's going up' probably dates from the time that a balloon ascent was the guarantee of an impending artillery barrage. As early as 1904 air-to-ground wireless communication had been pioneered to a distance of up to 30 miles, which gave the kite balloon added potential for observation on land or at sea. The main disadvantage of balloons was the use of highly flammable hydrogen as the lifting gas, and it was only after World War One that non-flammable helium became available.

Kite balloons proved their worth in artillery spotting both on the Western Front and in the Gallipoli campaign of 1915–16, so much so that the Admiralty adapted them to be towed behind warships of varying size to spot enemy submarines. Depending on visibility, a surfaced submarine could be sighted at between 12 and 28 miles distant. Furthermore, a balloon was able to remain on station with two observers for up to twenty-four hours in direct wireless communication with escort captains. Shore maintenance was required and for this reason kite balloon stations were established by the RNAS (and later the RAF) at Lowestoft and Shotley in Suffolk from 1917 to 1919. Canvas hangars were erected for two balloons at Lowestoft and four at Shotley.

Zeppelins and Airships

By the end of the nineteenth century two innovations made possible further advances in aeronautics. The first was the application of light metals such as aluminium and the second a new power source in the internal combustion engine. This paved the way for the 'rigid' airship in which the envelope is supported by an internal metal structure rather than relying purely on gas pressure. This resulted in craft that were more robust, capable of supporting heavier payloads over a greater range and, above all, 'dirigible' (steerable or navigable) by means of a power source. The door was also opened to subsequent developments in heavier-than-air flight.

The first experiments in rigid airships were carried out in Germany and in July 1900 the first 'Zeppelin', named after its designer Ferdinand, Graf von Zeppelin, made its initial flight from Lake Constance. With a length of 420ft (128m) and steel framework that supported hydrogenfilled gasbags, the craft had two external cars each with a 16hp engine geared to two propellers, which gave it a speed of 20mph (32km).

Britain and the United States lagged behind Germany and France in aeronautics, but it was impossible to ignore the new dimension in warfare, attack from the air. The first powered heavier-than-air human flight by the Wright brothers in 1903 gave added weight to the opinions of those who believed that aviation should be taken seriously by the military establishment, although the Admiralty refused to purchase the brothers' design patents in 1907. The way ahead seemed to be in airship design and first in the field was the War Office-financed 'Army Airship No. 1' Nulli Secundus ('second to none'), which was launched in October 1907. This was semi-rigid, where the gas pressure of the envelope was supported only by a rigid keel and not a metal framework; in other words, an elongated, motorised (dirigible) balloon. This craft was claimed to be Britain's first powered military aircraft but managed only one successful flight before being damaged in bad weather. A Mark II was produced the following year, but this made only two flights before being decommissioned. From 1910 non-rigid dirigibles such as 'Beta', 'Gamma' and 'Delta', came into service with the army, the first two seeing service during the army manoeuvres at Thetford in September 1912. By the end of 1913 the army had handed over its airships to the control of the navy, preferring to concentrate on aeroplanes.

In spite of the Admiralty's refusal to take up the Wright brothers' patents, some progress was being made in naval aviation, both with aeroplanes and 'hydro-aeroplanes' (later called seaplanes), but there was serious alarm about Britain's failure to keep pace with Germany and the growing Zeppelin fleet. Flight magazine of Apr 1909 reported the proceedings of a conference convened by the Lord Mayor of London that echoed some of the concerns. In the opinion of the Lord Mayor 'the only airship to hang over the Bank of England or the Mansion House must be one flying the Union Jack'. The Daily Telegraph urged that Great Britain 'must at once set about building an aerial navy'. (Flightglobal archive Apr 1909, p213.)

Faced with the success of Zeppelins in Germany, the Admiralty began to sponsor rigid airship design and in 1910 considered the construction of airship sheds along the east coast to protect the naval bases of Dover, Lowestoft and Harwich. Another outcome was the launch in September 1911 by Vickers at Barrow-in-Furness of Britain's first rigid airship 'His Majesty's Airship No. 1', HMA Hermione or Mayfly. Unfortunately, strong winds broke the craft in two even before her first flight and the project was soon abandoned. After this the Admiralty put its faith mainly in non-rigid airship designs as being easier to build and operate, exceptions being the rigids R-23 and R-29, both constructed during the war.

Faced with increasing international tension, the Committee of Imperial Defence produced a report in 1912 recommending a survey of possible sites for air stations along the east coast both for aeroplanes and airships. As far as airships were concerned, land at Pulham St Mary in Norfolk was secretly acquired and a site at Cromer was considered (but later rejected). The coming of war concentrated official minds and in May 1915 the first major airship station was opened at Capel-le-Ferne, Folkestone, with a number of sub-stations along the south coast. Pulham airship station in Norfolk was commissioned in February 1916, with others to follow further north all the way to the north of Scotland.

The main objective was to protect the fleet and in particular to seek out and destroy enemy U-boats, a new threat in warfare. As mentioned previously, the non-rigid dirigibles were the most numerous in the class and a succession of craft emerged from the navy's airship factory at Kingsnorth in Kent, many of which were to see service at Pulham. Among the best known were the C-class coastal airships nicknamed 'blimps' or 'Pulham Pigs' by local people on account of their clumsy-looking shape – in fact most airships which followed later at Pulham were unable to shake off that label. One non-rigid airship shed was constructed at Pulham as well as two rigid sheds, making provision for airships such as the R-23 and R-24, and the many others that appeared after the war.

Ringstead in Norfolk was designated as a sub-station for Pulham to accommodate one of the coastal 'Pulham Pigs', but no evidence appears to exist about its use or precise location. In 1920 two German Zeppelins, L64 and L71, arrived at Pulham in accordance with the Armistice surrender terms at the end of the war.

Among the many who saw service on airships was the Hon. Roger Coke, son of the Third Earl of Leicester, of Holkham Hall, Norfolk. As a squadron commander based at Capel he made several flights over the North Sea, later achieving a mention in despatches. He was later to serve in the Royal Air Force during World War Two and was decorated with the Air Force Cross.

Aeroplane Pioneers

Heavier-than-air manned flight had taken off with the achievement of the Wright brothers in 1903. In Europe there was rapid progress during the early years of the century and in 1908 Samuel Cody made the first sustained heavier-than-air manned flight in Great Britain. Zeppelin construction in Germany offered a formidable challenge and the fact was that Britain lagged behind in airship development. Britain's airship programme faced a number of setbacks that raised the question – did the future lie with airships or aeroplanes? War Office and Admiralty interest in aeroplanes was confined to a watching brief rather than the commitment of a realistic level of funding. Some remarkable individuals took up the challenge, one of the most influential being Winston Churchill who served as President of the Board of Trade in the Liberal Government (1908–10) and First Lord of the Admiralty from 1911. He regarded airships as clumsy and vulnerable so, typical of a man who would never expect anyone to do what he was not prepared to do himself, took several aeroplane flights as a civilian passenger (and on occasion took the controls).

Developments across the Channel seemed to outpace those in Britain and it is no accident that many aviation terms had their origin in the French language: words such as fuselage, nacelle, aileron, sortie, dirigible (French dirigeable = airship) and hangar (meaning covered space for a carriage), although 'aeroplane shed' was the more common term during the early years. Some of the leading aviation pioneers included Louis Blériot, the Voisin brothers, Henri and Maurice Farman, all of whom gave their names to aircraft types widely used by Britain and her allies during the war. However, it was an Englishman and early pioneer of flight, Major Robert Loraine, who was credited with coining the term 'joystick' to describe an aeroplane's control column in 1909. He went on to pilot one of two Bristol Boxkites in the military manoeuvres of 1910 on Salisbury Plain and was claimed to have sent the first radio message from the air in Britain while flying over Stonehenge.

If the diehards of the War Office and Admiralty were slow to react to developments, many private individuals were not. Alfred Harmsworth, 1st Viscount Northcliffe, founder and first proprietor of the Daily Mail, and his successors, offered numerous prizes between 1907 and 1925 for aviation achievements, one of the earliest and most notable being the £1,000 award to Louis Blériot for the first cross-Channel flight on 25 July 1909. This momentous turning point was summed up by the Daily Express in the headline 'Britain is no longer an island'.

The eastern counties had their fair share of 'those magnificent men in their flying machines' with home-grown aeroplane experiments such as those of the brothers Haydn and Hampden Sanders at Kessingland in Suffolk. In October 1909 Haydn succeeded in making the first heavier-than-air flight in Norfolk and Suffolk piloting Sanders Biplane No. 1 from Benacre estate, Kessingland. The Wallis brothers (father and uncle of the late Wing Commander Ken Wallis) constructed and briefly flew the Walbro Monoplane in 1910, billed as 'the first aeroplane to be built in Cambridge'. In 1912 French aviator Henri Salmet introduced aviation to a wider public by touring much of eastern England, including Clacton, Ipswich and Lowestoft, in his Blériot monoplane as part of a Daily Mail-sponsored flying competition. That same summer Essex-born Bentfield C. Hucks was credited with introducing powered flight to the Norfolk public by touring Yarmouth, Gorleston, Norwich and Eaton, also in a Blériot monoplane. The Eastern Daily Press marked the occasion with the headline 'The First Aviator at Norwich' (EDP 12 Aug 1912). Hucks returned the following summer to much acclaim.

In May 1914 a young test pilot of the fledgling Naval Wing of the Royal Flying Corps, Lieutenant Charles Herbert Collet, made what was claimed to be one of the first aeroplane flights over west Norfolk in his German-built DFW Military Arrow Tractor Biplane. He was attempting a long-distance flight from Gosport in Hampshire to Wick in Caithness. Fighting a severe headwind across East Anglia, he was forced down at Donna Nook in Lincolnshire after a record-breaking flight of seven-and-a-half hours. The Leipzig-built DFW machine was quietly retired soon after the war started. Collet was soon to achieve fame as the first pilot to make a bombing raid on the enemy homeland when he attacked the Zeppelin sheds at Düsseldorf in September 1914. Sadly he was shortly to meet his death in the Dardanelles campaign of 1915.

The novelty of flight continued to attract the crowds whenever the opportunity arose, as at Hunstanton in July 1914 only weeks before the outbreak of war. F.P. 'Freddie' Raynham flew his Avro 504 Waterplane from Brooklands to give a demonstration in front of 12,000 spectators before flying on to Cromer as part of the Daily Mail-sponsored Circuit of Britain Race. However, the days of 'fun' flying were nearly over as Europe moved towards war.

The Royal Flying Corps and Royal Naval Air Service in War

The Royal Flying Corps had been established in 1912 with a Naval and Military Wing, providing more of a permanent structure in the days ahead. However, by 1914 the naval branch became the Royal Naval Air Service. It had never been an easy relationship, with the military wing having as its main responsibility supporting the army in the field, and the naval wing defending the fleet and the home coastline.

On the outbreak of war in August 1914 the RFC possessed around 180 aeroplanes; RNAS strength amounted to thirty-nine aeroplanes, fifty-two seaplanes (previously known as hydro-aeroplanes) and a few airships. This represented a smaller air arm than either the French or the Germans were able to field, and Britain's weaker aircraft manufacturing capability meant it had to rely in the early stages of the war on French designs including the FE types (Farman Experimental) and BE types (Blériot Experimental).

The basic unit of air organisation born in these RFC days was the numbered squadron, divided into three flights of around four aeroplanes each. With the expansion of the service, squadrons (at first called reserve aeroplane squadrons) were formed into wings, and later brigades; in due course when the Royal Air Force was formed the higher units, then as now, became groups. The RNAS initially organised its units by location, for example the Eastchurch (Mobile) Squadron, but soon confusingly adopted a system similar to the RFC of numbered squadrons and wings. When the two services combined as the Royal Air Force in 1918 naval units had to be renumbered.

The meagre resources available to the RFC and RNAS were thinly spread. More than half the aeroplane strength of the RFC was allocated to support the British Expeditionary Force in France, and a small contingent from the RNAS based at Eastchurch was sent by Churchill to Belgium to take the war to the enemy homeland. At home the main concentration was defence of the Thames Estuary and London, which was to be shared between RFC and RNAS stations such as Eastchurch, Isle of Sheppey in Kent, the Isle of Grain in the Thames Estuary and Calshot in Hampshire.

(Continues…)

---

Excerpted from "Aviation Landmarks"
by .
Copyright © 2017 Peter B. Gunn.
Excerpted by permission of The History Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

---

Table of Contents

Glossary,
Introduction and Acknowledgements,
Aviation Timeline,
Setting the Scene,
Part 1: NORFOLK,
Part 2: SUFFOLK,
Sources and Bibliography,
Index of People and Places,