Does anyone know what aeroplane Reginald Warneford VC was flying when he crashed and was fatally injured?
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Wiki says:
On 17 June 1915, Warneford received the award of Légion d’honneur from the French Army Commander in Chief, General Joffre. Following a celebratory lunch, Warneford travelled to the aerodrome at Buc in order to ferry an aircraft for delivery to the RNAS at Veurne. Having made one short test flight, he then flew a second flight, carrying an American journalist, Henry Beach Newman, as passenger. During a climb to 200 feet, the righthand wings collapsed leading to a catastrophic failure of the airframe. Accounts suggest that neither occupant was harnessed and were both thrown out of the aircraft, suffering fatal injuries. In the case of Newman, death was instantaneous.
Warneford died of his injuries on the way to hospital.
Since the flight was from Buc was the aircraft a Blériot, or were aeroplanes held there for distribution to front line units?
I have a different obituary (an image, I forget where I got it from) from the time in which the details are fairly similar (ie different heights) but the type was not given. I am hoping that someone recognises the logo on the (tail?) wreckage – for a while (30 seconds!) I thought it looked a bit Handley Page-ish, but I am not ‘up’ on such logos and certainly not aware if the French manufacturers used them anyway.
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The logo enlarged and straightened, in case this helps…
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October 26, 2016 at 11:34 pm