Monday 7 March 2011
My Thai pals love irony
Iain Smith was raised in Ness in the Island of Lewis
Sopwith
This is only interesting for aircraft buffs such as me who grew up on a steady diet of WE Johns Biggles books (and who wandered unsteadily from Stornoway to Glasgow on ex-WW2 BEA Dakotas in the 50s). Biggles of course flew the Sopwith Camel. Hawker-Siddleys spent several years flying on the Hebridean routes. And Sopwith (as some of you will know) knew the Hebrides. Even Donald Trump did not air-freight a Rolls Royce for personal use into Stornoway Airport - but Sopwith did.
On October 22, 1910, he made his first flight . . . and crashed. Within a month, with a new biplane, he obtained his pilot's certificate, No. 31, and the same day took up his first passenger. Soon afterwards he commenced building biplanes and obtained an order from the War Office for 12 aircraft. He was 22.
So his mechanical aptitude and abundant enthusiasm had led him nto the infant aviation scene in 1910. In no time, he won flying prizes and used the prize money to start making airplanes. Like Fokker, he was a young airplane maker, ready for World War (At the venerable age of 92, he was still consulting in the affairs of his company (Hawker-Siddley, I guess), truly the elder statesman in the world of aviation).
He took his flying brevet at Brooklands in November of 1910, and within four days made the British duration record of 108 miles in 3 hours 12 minutes.
On December 18th, 1910, he won the Baron de Forrest prize of L4,000 for the longest flight from England to the Continent, flying from Eastchurch to Tirlemont, Belgium, in three hours, a distance of 161 miles.
After two years of touring in America, he returned to England and established a flying school. In 1912 he won the first aerial Derby, and in 1913 a machine of his design, a tractor biplane, raised the British height record to 13,000 feet (June 16th, at Brooklands). First as aviator, and then as designer, Sopwith has did much useful work in aviation. In 1911 he was graciously received by King George V at Windsor Castle, after having flown from Brooklands and alighted on the East Terrace of the famous castle.
In the same year he visited America, and astonished even that go-ahead country with some skilful flying feats. To show the practical possibilities of the aeroplane he overtook the liner Olympic, after she had left New York harbour on her homeward voyage, and dropped aboard a parcel addressed to a passenger. On his return to England he competed in the first Aerial Derby, the course being a circuit of London, representing a distance of 81
miles. In this race he made a magnificent flight in a 70-horse-power Bleriot monoplane, and came in some fifteen minutes before Mr. Hamel, the second pilot home. So popular was his victory that Mr. Grahame-White and several other officials of the London Aerodrome carried him shoulder high from his machine.
In sumnmary, in the years prior to the World War I, he became England's premier aviator and established the first authoritative test pilot school in the world. He founded England's first major flight school, where those who were to lead British aviation in the coming decades received their flying training
From this time we hear little of Sopwith as a pilot, for, like other famous airmen, such as Louis Bleriot, Henri Farman, and Claude Grahame-White, who jumped into fame by success in competition flying, he retired with his laurels, and now devoted his efforts to the construction of machines. He was to be equally successful as a constructor of aircraft as he formerly was as a pilot of flying machines.
N.B. Not many early aircraft pioneers lived to the age of 100: indeed few lived to the age of 30.
Sir Thomas Octave Murdoch 'T.O.M' Sopwith (1888 - 1989)
In 1906, at 18, while auto-racing at Brookland --- which at that time was also being used as an airfield --- he became greatly interested in flying (by then, he'd raced automobiles and speedboats, and he'd done daredevil ballooning), and soon bought his first aeroplane --- a 40 h.p. Howard Wright monoplane.On October 22, 1910, he made his first flight . . . and crashed. Within a month, with a new biplane, he obtained his pilot's certificate, No. 31, and the same day took up his first passenger. Soon afterwards he commenced building biplanes and obtained an order from the War Office for 12 aircraft. He was 22.
So his mechanical aptitude and abundant enthusiasm had led him nto the infant aviation scene in 1910. In no time, he won flying prizes and used the prize money to start making airplanes. Like Fokker, he was a young airplane maker, ready for World War (At the venerable age of 92, he was still consulting in the affairs of his company (Hawker-Siddley, I guess), truly the elder statesman in the world of aviation).
He took his flying brevet at Brooklands in November of 1910, and within four days made the British duration record of 108 miles in 3 hours 12 minutes.
On December 18th, 1910, he won the Baron de Forrest prize of L4,000 for the longest flight from England to the Continent, flying from Eastchurch to Tirlemont, Belgium, in three hours, a distance of 161 miles.
After two years of touring in America, he returned to England and established a flying school. In 1912 he won the first aerial Derby, and in 1913 a machine of his design, a tractor biplane, raised the British height record to 13,000 feet (June 16th, at Brooklands). First as aviator, and then as designer, Sopwith has did much useful work in aviation. In 1911 he was graciously received by King George V at Windsor Castle, after having flown from Brooklands and alighted on the East Terrace of the famous castle.
In the same year he visited America, and astonished even that go-ahead country with some skilful flying feats. To show the practical possibilities of the aeroplane he overtook the liner Olympic, after she had left New York harbour on her homeward voyage, and dropped aboard a parcel addressed to a passenger. On his return to England he competed in the first Aerial Derby, the course being a circuit of London, representing a distance of 81
miles. In this race he made a magnificent flight in a 70-horse-power Bleriot monoplane, and came in some fifteen minutes before Mr. Hamel, the second pilot home. So popular was his victory that Mr. Grahame-White and several other officials of the London Aerodrome carried him shoulder high from his machine.
In sumnmary, in the years prior to the World War I, he became England's premier aviator and established the first authoritative test pilot school in the world. He founded England's first major flight school, where those who were to lead British aviation in the coming decades received their flying training
From this time we hear little of Sopwith as a pilot, for, like other famous airmen, such as Louis Bleriot, Henri Farman, and Claude Grahame-White, who jumped into fame by success in competition flying, he retired with his laurels, and now devoted his efforts to the construction of machines. He was to be equally successful as a constructor of aircraft as he formerly was as a pilot of flying machines.
The company was founded in Kingston upon Thames in June 1912, when Sopwith was only 24 years old. The company's first factory premises opened that December in a recently closed roller skating rink in Canbury Park Road near Kingston Railway Station in South West London.[
During the First World War, the company made more than 16,000 aircraft and employed 5,000 people. Many more of the company's aircraft were made by subcontractors rather than by Sopwiths themselves. The chief test pilot of Sopwith's was Harry Hawker, a pionering Australian.
After the war, the company attempted to produce aircraft for the civil market based on their wartime types, but the wide availability of war-surplus aircraft at knock-down prices meant this was never economic. The Sopwith company was wound up in 1920 after the business collapsed.
Upon the liquidation of the Sopwith company, Tom Sopwith himself, together with Harry Hawker, immediately formed H.G. Hawker Engineering, forerunner of the Hawker Aircraft and Hawker Siddeley lineage. Sopwith was Chairman of Hawker Siddeley until his retirement. Hawker and its successors produced many more famous military aircraft, including the World War II's Hurricane, ; and the post-war Hunter and Harrier. Incredibly, these later jet types were manufactured in exactly the same factory buildings used to produce Sopwith Snipes in 1918.
In 1944. Amhuinnsuidhe Castle in North Harris was purchased by Sir Thomas Sopwith. Sopwith sold the estate in 1961 but to continued to visit it until the year before his death. From some source ( I cannot remember which), I know - or claim to know- that Sopwith would have his Rolls-Royce air-freighted into Stornoway Aiport and then driven to Amhuinnsuidhe for his visits there. For a guy who had gone bankrupt in 1920 (and who came close to death in the 1910s), he had not done badly.
Biggles (although he lived to a great old age) was never rich; and Captain WE Johns (while he made a great deal of money fromn the Biggles books) was never as rich as Sopwith.
(This is all compiled from a few websites, the content of which will mostly have been written by hagiographers: up in Mull, I have a very critical history of the UK air industry of the 20th century, which I do not have it to hand here in Glasgow.)
During the First World War, the company made more than 16,000 aircraft and employed 5,000 people. Many more of the company's aircraft were made by subcontractors rather than by Sopwiths themselves. The chief test pilot of Sopwith's was Harry Hawker, a pionering Australian.
After the war, the company attempted to produce aircraft for the civil market based on their wartime types, but the wide availability of war-surplus aircraft at knock-down prices meant this was never economic. The Sopwith company was wound up in 1920 after the business collapsed.
Upon the liquidation of the Sopwith company, Tom Sopwith himself, together with Harry Hawker, immediately formed H.G. Hawker Engineering, forerunner of the Hawker Aircraft and Hawker Siddeley lineage. Sopwith was Chairman of Hawker Siddeley until his retirement. Hawker and its successors produced many more famous military aircraft, including the World War II's Hurricane, ; and the post-war Hunter and Harrier. Incredibly, these later jet types were manufactured in exactly the same factory buildings used to produce Sopwith Snipes in 1918.
In 1944. Amhuinnsuidhe Castle in North Harris was purchased by Sir Thomas Sopwith. Sopwith sold the estate in 1961 but to continued to visit it until the year before his death. From some source ( I cannot remember which), I know - or claim to know- that Sopwith would have his Rolls-Royce air-freighted into Stornoway Aiport and then driven to Amhuinnsuidhe for his visits there. For a guy who had gone bankrupt in 1920 (and who came close to death in the 1910s), he had not done badly.
Biggles (although he lived to a great old age) was never rich; and Captain WE Johns (while he made a great deal of money fromn the Biggles books) was never as rich as Sopwith.
(This is all compiled from a few websites, the content of which will mostly have been written by hagiographers: up in Mull, I have a very critical history of the UK air industry of the 20th century, which I do not have it to hand here in Glasgow.)
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