those magnificent men in their flying machines

This is really more a photo essay then a news story.

Love this kind of thing and hope readers enjoy the old pix along with me.

There is nothing for me to say except, catch the link and the story and enjoy.

How trainee pilots got into a few unfortunate scrapes as they took to the skies (and sometimes rooftops) at one of Britain’s first aviation schools
By AMY OLIVER

This is the moment a post master was disturbed in the bath - by a plane crash-landing onto his roof.

But far from being a rare incident, the pilots at one of Britain’s first aviation schools in Hampshire seemed prone to accidents.

As these astonishing pictures show, prangs, bumps and complete nose-dives into ditches were almost a daily occurrence at New Forest Flying School, which opened in 1910.

The hapless trainee pilot in this shot ended up on the post office roof after overshooting the landing strip at the school near East Boldre. Miraculously no one was hurt.

This plane flown by a trainee pilot from nearby New Forest Flying School ‘undershot’ the strip to land on the Post office roof. The postmaster, in the bath at the time, was not amused but amazingly nobody was seriously hurt

Drexel and McArdle chose the unlikely site as the location for the school because it was flat and empty. The planes were taken to the nearby Brockenhurst station by train and were towed from there by horse and cart to the aerodrome.

Lord Montague of Beaulieu - now the home of a motor museum - encouraged the opening of the school. He also tried to persuade the War Office that flying would become an important part of the military and they should invest more in it.

Nothing happened, but in World War One it was realised that flying was important and the aerodrome re-opened.

THERE’S MORE TO SEE AND READ HERE

1. My Dad used to tell me about his working on expanding the airport runways at Port Columbus (Ohio) airport during WWII and the Curtis/Wright factory there turning out Helldivers.  He said not all the fighters came out straight-and-true and every once in a while the test pilot taking them up the first time would be all over the sky or putting them down in nearby fields.

   Posted by TimO       06/27/2012  at  03:42 PM  

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