User:TheLongTone/1909 Olympia Aero Exhibition

The 1909 Aero Exhibition was the first exhibition devoted to aircraft in England. It was held annually at the Olmypia exhibition hall in West London between 1909 and 1920, with no exhibitions beingmounted during the First World War.

1909

The first exhibition was organised by the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders and opened in March 1909. The previous year the Wright Brothers had made their first exhibition flight in Europe: until these public displays, their claims to have mastered the art of powered flight had been generally disbelieved. Samuel Cody had succeeded in flying his British Army Aeroplane No. 1 in October 1909. The first Paris Aero Salon was held at end of December 1908, and on 2 January the first issue of Flight was published. Powered flight was beginning to be a subject of popular interest rather than derision.

"The Show, which has organised at Kensington, however, will be remembered not on account of its theoretical or its purely scientific side, but chiefly by reason of the bringing together of a number of full-scale machines of types with which mechanical flights have actually been made"

Above the full-size aircraft and an extensive display of model flying machines which occupied the centre of the hall Walter Wellman's airship, the America was suspended: a staircase was provided so that the public could access the airships's engine room and crew accommodationtion.

Another exhibit was a selection of Samuel Cody's man-lifting kites

Aircraft

Of the eleven full-sized aircraft displayed, three had been built by the French pioneer aircraft designer Gabriel Voisin including the star exhibit, J.T.C. Moore-Brabazon's Bird of Passage Voisin biplane, displayed "with the mud of Issy still on its wheels". Brabazon been taught to fly at Issy-les-Moulineaux in France by Voisin, and had bought this aircraft from him. He was later to use it to become the first British subject to make an officially observed flight over British soil. Although Samuel Cody had flown at Farnborough the previous October, he was an American subject at the time: he was to adopt British citizenship later in 1909 and A. V. Roe's flights at Brooklands the previous summer had not been observed by anybody other than staff at Brooklands.

Monoplane designs had been well-represented in Paris, with machines from Louis Blériot, Antoinette and Robert Esnault-Pelterie and Alberto Santos Dumont.The REP was a variant of the 2bis exhibited in Paris, with a metal-framed fuselage, ventral keel and single central mainwheel undercarriage.

Breguet No. 1 Biplane, very different from the machine shown in Paris, not yet flown

Three English manufacturers exhibited: the Short Brothers, Howard T. Wright and Frederick Handley Page. Two were curiosities, the huge and unfinished Lamplough ornithopter (Lamplough were a company specialising in radiator manufacture) and the De la Meault ornithopter.

The exhibition was well attended by the public, and prominent visitors included King Edward VII and the Secretary of State for War, Richard Haldane.

Table of 1909 exhibitors

Howard Wright Biplane

Exhibitor	Designer	Notes
Short Bros.	H. Short	Short Bros had acquired a license from the Wright Brothers to build their Wright 'Flyer', but the aircraft exhibited was the Short No.1 biplane of their own design, which was shown unfinished, without the fabric covering for the wings.
Howard Wright	Howard Wright 1909 Biplane	Howard Wright's first aeroplane. Briefly one of England most noted aircraft manufactures, he would have three aircraft in the 1910 Olympia show.
Simms	Voisin
J.T.C. Moore-Brabazon	Voisin	Named Bird of Passage, built by Voisin to an order by Henri Farman, incorporating some refinements asked for by Farman but sold to Brabazon.
Mass Motor Co	Delagrange	The Delagrange was a slightly modified Voisin design.
Captain W.G. Windham	Pischoff	Pusher biplane featuring interplane strut ailerons, built fof Windham by Alfred de Pischoff in France.
Stenbury	Breguet Type I	Louis Breguet had displayed a curious half-biplane half helicopter at the Paris Aero Salon. This aircraft, displayed without engine and other fittings, may have used parts of it. Notable for the extensive use of metal in its constuction, it was later flown with moderate success.
Handley Page	Weiss Monoplane	Example
Example	REP	Example
Lamplough	Lamplough Orthopter	Lamplough were manufacturers of radiators,based in Willesden Green in London. This enormous machine had two pair of biplane wings which,to generate lift, moved in a figure-of eight between two more pairs of wings. A pair of propellers proided forward motion. Priced at £1,200 with an optimistic guarante of flight
De la Meault	Example	'Ornithopter'

1910

Exhibitor	Aircraft	Notes
Scottish Aeroplane Syndicate	Avis	Manufactured by Howard Wright
A. V. Roe & Co.	Roe II Triplane	Roe's third aircraft design.
Blériot Aeronautique	Blériot XI	The type of aircraft flown by Louis Blériot to make his famous crossing of the English Channel the previous year.
George and Jobling	George and Jobling Biplane	A single seat pusher biplane powered by a 60 hp Green engine, later sucessfully flown at Gosforth. Noted by Flight for its use of hollow section strut.
Gregoire-Gyp (Fiat)
Handley Page	Handley Page Type A
Henry Farman
Humber	Le Blon type
Humber	Lovelace type
Humber	biplane
Lane
Lane
Mulliner
Nicholson
Lascelles	Lascelles Ornis	Lascelles were an engin-manufacturing company: the Ornis had been built for them by Howard Wright.

..

...

Humber, Le Blon type Do. Capt. Lovelace type Do. Biplane Lane, i - s e a t e r \ (Lane's B. A., ( Do. 2-seaterJ Ltd.) \ Mulliner (Mulliner) Nicholson (Holland & Holland) Ornis (Lascelles) Petre (Leo Ripault) Santos Dumont (A. Clement) ... Do. (Mann & Overtons) Do. (Aeroplane S. Co.) Short (1910) (Short Bros.) Do. (Moore-Brabazon) Short-Wright (Short Bros.) ...; B . 51584 Sommer (Hon. C. S. Rolls) ... B , 456:45 Spencer-Stirling (Berliet Motors): M * 20019 Star JM ) 290:20 Twining (Twining A. Co.) Warwick Wright Zodiac (British & Colonial Co

References

• Penrose, Harald British Aviation: The Pioneer Years. London: Putnam, 1967