Does anyone have any information – ideally date and location – about the crash of the Aero 8 Flying Club’s ‘streamlined’ Pou du Ciel G-AEFW? All that I’ve been able to trace is that on an attempted cross-channel flight it crashed south of Gravesend in 1936 and that its registration finally was cancelled by the CAA in August 1945.
With my thanks in anticipation.
By: Mothminor - 11th March 2018 at 22:30
I must admit I’d never heard of Aero 8 or Canute Air Park and the idea of a “streamlined” Pou made me smile. I found the following 2-page article on Flight Archive which makes quite fascinating reading – The day certainly didn’t go as planned!
https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1936/1936%20-%200963.html
By: avion ancien - 11th March 2018 at 15:05
Thank you, Simon. Well, that’s now three different locations – but all along the same line, assuming a Thames crossing at Tilbury and an intended crossing of the Channel at its narrowest point – for the forced landing. Maybe they are all correct – if the Pou force landed twice before putting down for a final time near Lympne. But if this speculation is correct, perhaps Mr Oscroft decided that discretion was the better part of valour – not wanting to risk a fourth atterrissage forcé somewhere between Folkestone and Cap Gris-Nez!
By: Arabella-Cox - 11th March 2018 at 14:25
A.A.
The Daily Herald of May 18th 1936 reported the following:
PILOT NEARLY BLINDED BY OIL
“Flying Flea” Channel Attempt Fails
Half blinded by oil from a burst pipe, Mr. Claud Oscroft, chief instructor of Southend Aero Eight Club, who was attempting a double crossing of the Channel in a “Flying Flea,” made a forced landing at Stockbury, Kent, yesterday. He had flown between 50 and 60 miles by way of Gravesend.
Regards
Simon
By: avion ancien - 11th March 2018 at 14:23
Thank you, gentlemen. That information is very helpful and I’m most grateful to you all for it.
Since my original post I’ve found a little more about the incident at https://petercbrown.wordpress.com/2016/11/04/flying-fleas-at-southend/, where it is said:
….. a Southend pilot. “Ossie” Oscroft, a dare-devil, who aimed to fly his Machine which was owned by the Aero 8 Club, from Ashingdon to France and back again. Rather than risk crossing the Thames at an early stage of the flight he flew up to Tilbury and then crossed the river. The “Buzzcraft”, designed and built at Ashingdon, covered fifty miles until an oil feed pipe cracked, blinding him with oil. He landed on a hillside running straight into a muck heap, the whirling propeller showering him with foul-smelling manure
By: Arabella-Cox - 11th March 2018 at 13:08
And ‘Canute Air Park’ was Aero 8 base flying field – north of current Southend Airport.
By: David Legg - 11th March 2018 at 12:42
In Henri Mignet and his Flying Fleas by Ken Ellis and Geoff Jones, page 76 states that “…it was eventually flown by Claude Ashcroft and received its Authorisation on 16May36. Flushed with the success of possessing this piece of paper,, the following day, the little Flea set off on a cross-Channel attempt. This was to end somewhat prematurely in a forced-landing near Lympne in Kent. It is thought that the damage incurred put the aircraft into store. It was certainly to be found gathering dust at Canute Air Park during 1939.”
By: G-APDK - 11th March 2018 at 12:40
Air-Britain has it as force landed near Lympne during cross channel attempt 17.5.36.
It was cancelled as part of the post war register census in 1946
G-APDK
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March 11, 2018 at 12:03 pm