Cross Channel Aviation Pioneers

The stories of the daredevils who attempted to fly over the English Channel—a history filled with triumphs, tragedies, and colorful characters. On July 25, 1909, a dapper, mustachioed Frenchman flying a flimsy, diaphanous airplane changed the status of a great nation. “England is no longer an island,” declared the Daily Mail. Lord Northcliffe, the newspaper’s proprietor, had put up the £1,000 prize for the first flight of the English Channel by the pilot of an airplane. In securing the prize for one of aviation’s most celebrated firsts, Louis Blériot had beaten his Anglo-French rival Hubert Latham. Six days earlier, Latham had become the first airman to make a forced landing on water when the engine of his elegant Antoinette monoplane failed while he attempted the crossing. This book explores the triumphs, tragedies, and many milestones in cross-channel flight, beginning back in July 1785 when John-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries made the first crossing, by balloon. Other flyers quickly followed Blériot so that Pierre Prier made the first non-stop London-Paris flight in April 1911 and Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the Channel a year later—though her historic accomplishment was overshadowed by the Titanic catastrophe. The book also charts other events in cross-Channel aviation such as the midair collision between the UK and France that led to a rudimentary system of air traffic control; the first cat to make the flight; the popular car ferry services of the 1950s and 1960s; and the coming of the jets—providing a colorful history of the era before the debut of the famed Channel Tunnel.

On 25 July 1909, a dapper, moustachioed Frenchman flying a flimsy, diaphanous aeroplane changed the status of a great nation. 'England is no longer an island,' declared the Daily Mail. Lord Northcliffe, the newspaper's proprietor, had put up the £1,000 prize for the first flight of the English Channel by the pilot of an aeroplane.In securing the prize for one of aviation's most celebrated firsts, Louis Blériot had beaten his Anglo-French rival Hubert Latham. Six days earlier, Latham had become the first airman to make a forced landing on water when the engine of his elegant Antoinette monoplane failed while he was attempted the crossing.In this book the author explores the many and varied milestones in cross-channel flight, beginning back in July 1785 when John-Pierre Blanchard and John Jeffries made the first crossing, by balloon. Other flyers quickly followed Blériot so that Pierre Prier made the first non-stop London-Paris flight in April 1911 and Harriet Quimby became the first woman to fly the Channel a year later.The book will chart other significant events in cross-Channel aviation such as the first mid-air collision between airliners flying between the UK and France, which led to a rudimentary system of air traffic control, the popularity of car ferry services in the 1950s and 1960s, and the coming of the jets.Other big changes were on the way. In 1994 Eurostar rail passenger services from London using the Channel Tunnel were launched. In October 2001, following chronic air traffic delays during the late 1980s, the European Commission adopted proposals for a Single European Sky but it comes as no surprise to learn that during the second decade of the 21st century this has become bogged down in intra-European politics.

This a story of pioneers, intrepid aviators, adventurers, tycoons and innovators. It is also a story of dedication and determination, for despite fixed-wing aircraft proving their value over the battlefields of the Western Front during the First World War, convincing governments and public alike that they had a role in peacetime proved far more challenging. The Americans, as inventors of heavier-than-air powered flight, had briefly courted with a passenger airline across Tampa Bay in 1914, yet it took a further nine years for mail to be flown coast-to-coast. In 1919 a British company made the first international scheduled flight between London and Paris, but the continuation of regular services was thwarted by a less-than-enthusiastic government that allowed its generously subsidised French competition, for a short time at least, to fly cross-Channel passenger schedules unimpeded. The British eventually realzed that fast links with their Empire were vital, followed the example of the French and Dutch who had forged air links with their cousins in North Africa and the Far East. Meanwhile, in South America, the Germans, forbidden under the Versailles Treaty from any major aircraft-building, were establishing cunning supremacy by forming airlines throughout South America and in China. While America awaited a transcontinental passenger service, Juan Trippe's Pan American Airways was crossing swords with Ralph O'Neill of New York, Rio & Buenos Aires Line (NYRBA) for air supremacy between the US, Brazil, Argentina and elsewhere in Latin America that led to the formation of arguably the world's greatest airline. In Russia, Igor Sikorsky had built a vast passenger-carrying aircraft, the Il'ya Muromets, and politicians debated whether giant airships or fixed-wing aircraft should rule the skies _ an issue that was put firmly to bed when the mighty German airship Hindenburg exploded while mooring at Lakehurst in 1937. Robert BluffieldÍs highly researched and detailed account tells the dramatic stories of explorers such as Kingsford Smith, Lindbergh and Cobham, and flamboyant entrepreneurs, some well known, others forgotten, who risked fortunes and reputations to follow their dreams of reaching and ruling the skies over empires, continents and oceans. Against bewildering adversity, corruption, underhanded deals and dwindling resources, these tenacious individuals braved the elements using primitive, entirely unsuitable equipment to establish earth-shrinking aerial services that criss-crossed the great oceans and the globe's most inhospitable territories. These are the stories of those pioneers _ of A_ropostale, CNAC, Air Orient, Imperial Airways, KLM, Deutsche Luft Hansa, Pan Am, SCADTA, The Condor Syndicat, Qantas and others that had a far-reaching impact on the way the modern world would travel.

On the 17th of December 1903 the world changed forever. The first powered flight by the Wright brothers at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina ushered in the era of powered flight, which has transformed and shaped all aspects of modern life. To mark the centenary of this momentous event, this text presents a photographic history of aviation, from the failed attempts at flying machines at the end of the 19th century, such as Lilienthal's glider, through the Wright brothers themselves and on to the pioneers who spread aviation throughout the world. It provides coverage of: Louis Bleriot's first flight across the Channel in 1909; the first transatlantic crossing in 1919 by Alcock and Whitten Brown; and Amy Johnson's first flight to Australia in 1930. It examines the rise of the first passenger airlines in the 1920s, too, and chronicles the beginnings of the jet era in the 1940s. The rise of great commercial airliners such as the Jumbo Jet, Concorde and the Airbus are also dealt with to give a comprehensive account of a century of powered flight.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

The book describes through the newspaper reporting of the events of all of the fourteen Daily Mail flying prize winners from 1907-1919: Roe, Farman, Brabazon, Blériot, Paulhan, de Lessep, Paulhan a second time, Moisant, Beaumont, Sopwith, Hamel, Brock, Alcock and Brown; and Gatherwood. Most of these names remain in history as great air pioneers. The newspaper reporting at that time tells you why: In Europe in 1906, following the Wright brothers' success in the first flight by man in a powered aircraft in 1903, progress in manned flight was slowly coming to fruition in France and Germany but not in Britain. In November, 1906, only a short time after Santos-Dumont performed the first successful flight in Europe, Lord Northcliffe, publisher of the Daily Mail, was prompted to announce the offer of a prize of £10,000 for a flight from London to Manchester. Through this offer, Lord Northcliffe took Britain into the international world of flying. The prize offer encouraged the pioneers, and not surprisingly, the prize was won within four years of the offer. Even though, the Wright brothers were capable of crossing the English Channel first, they did not for various reasons. In 1909, Louis Blériot garnered the Daily Mail prize for this feat plus acquiring everlasting world wide fame. In April, 1913, the Daily Mail again startled the world with the offer of £10,000 for the first non-stop cross-Atlantic flight. World War I interrupted any attempts for the prize. Post the war, a number of groups flocked to Newfoundland to try and succeed for the unprecedented flight. Alcock and Brown in their Vickers Vimy aircraft on June 14-15, 1919 performed the first non-stop trans-Atlantic flight going from Newfoundland to Ireland. Experience the ventures of early these aviation pioneers just as readers did at the time with "splash" as the "Chief" (Lord Northcliffe) would say.

Heroes and Landmarks of British Aviation tells the dramatic story of a world leading aviation industry, from the sweat and grease of the workshop, to the board rooms and government nationalisations that ultimately fashioned its destiny.The heroes are Britains most innovative aviation pioneers and their aircraft, the men and women who persevered to be the first into the air, to fly the fastest, the highest and the furthest. This broad and highly accessible books ranges from the first man to fly across the English Channel from England to France to the development of the Spitfire and from the disastrous R101 airship to the development of the jet engine and ultimately the worlds first supersonic airliner.Each chapter looks at a different aviation pioneer and the flying machines that they designed, their engineering landmarks, their triumphs in the air and on occasion their disasters too. The book explores the great air races that were won and lost, the government contracts and political short-sightedness that cut short the development of leading aircraft designs and many of the dramatic air raids and sea battles from the First World War to the Falklands and the Middle East.Many of the industrys most prominent names are profiled, including Ernest Willows, the Short brothers, Geoffrey de Havilland, Vincent Richmond, George White, Thomas Sopwith, Harry Hawker, RJ Mitchell, Herbert Smith, Charles Rolls, Henry Royce, Reginald Pierson, Alliott Verdon-Roe, Frederick Handley Page, Robert Watson-Watt, Robert Blackburn and Frank Whittle.Behind the personal stories are the histories of the aircraft companies that these pioneers created, from those that went bankrupt to those that lasted the test of time and have become indivisible from British aviation folklore, such names as Sopwith, Handley Page, Avro, Supermarine, Blackburn, Bristol, Fairey and Rolls-Royce. The book covers the mergers and acquisitions that led to the creation of two major aircraft manufacturers, Hawker Siddeley Group and the British Aircraft Corporation, and how barely two decades later, before the century was out, they were nationalised to form British Aerospace.

Winner of the Caldecott Medal, this stunningly illustrated book depicts Louis Bleriot's historic first cross-Channel flight.