Pioneer Aviator.

Hi
being both sick of the English Winter and threads on either what we’d most like to see fly at Duxford or why we hate everybody I thought I’d post this.
If you can be bothered to read it I’d like to hear what people think and see what others might like to write about.
Below:-

Here’s a little piece I wrote last year about A.E. Grimmer, who today is mostly forgotten but was a real pioneer flyer and thanks to him we are today richer in preserved aircraft than we certainly otherwise would be.
Grimmer was an Ampthill man and owned a cycle business known as ‘The Flit Cycle Company’ and was interested in aviation even before the Wright brother’s first flight in December 1903. He certainly wrote to a number of scientific and engineering journals supporting the brother’s claim to flight in the period before 1907 when the Wrights came to Europe and finally ‘proved’ to the experts in France and Gt Britain that they had actually flown.
It was late in 1912 that Grimmer took up aviation himself. He purchased a Bleriot type XI from a waste merchant in Blackfriars, London and towed it home to Ampthill behind his car. It was somewhat damaged both from a crash whilst being flown by it’s previous owner and by Grimmer himself while towing it back from London. It also shows the pace of technological development in those days that although the Bleriot was only three years old it was considered an obsolete type. Once back in Bedfordshire Grimmer set about repairing the damage to the aeroplane and preparing the engine, which was showing signs of wear. Mrs Grimmer was responsible for covering the wings with new fabric and Grimmer tells us in his small book of flying memoirs that there was enough linen left over for summer dresses for their daughters and a pair of curtains! He also tells us that Mrs Grimmer wasn’t very keen on his flying exploits as they had five daughters and she didn’t fancy early widowhood! However she always supported him where practical and helped to prepare the aircraft.
He made his first flight on Easter Monday 1913 from Postern Piece in Ampthill, Bedfordshire but was hampered by Easter Monday crowds turning out to witness the spectacle.
Later that year he moved to Flitwick and later still moved his aircraft to Bedford where he set up a more permanent base at Cow Bridge. He built a small aircraft shed there to protect the aircraft when not in use.
Grimmer certainly made a number of hops in his Bleriot. Remember there were no flying lessons in those days so a person’s first flight was his first ‘teach yourself lesson’!

Reading somewhat between the lines of Grimmer’s flying memoir (which at seven pages of something like A5 pages are not extensive) one gets the impression that the Bleriot was not really reliable enough to allow Grimmer to fly properly.
He makes no mention in his writing of anything other than hops and it appears that he didn’t achieve even a circuit in the Bleriot.
So in 1914 he purchased a second aeroplane in an auction at Hendon Aerodrome. It was a Deperdussin, another French design with a slightly more powerful engine than the Bleriot. Its previous owner had also damaged this aircraft and the airfield authorities because of unpaid hangar fees had also impounded it.
Grimmer flew this aircraft until shortly after the start of The Great War when both the changing environment of a country at war and business commitments brought his exploits to a halt.
The aircraft were then put into storage at Bedford where the Deperdussin was damaged by intruders into the aircraft shed, an early example of vandalism it seems and there they were left to deteriorate.
It wasn’t until 1935 that these aircraft saw the light of day again. They were given to Mr Richard Shuttleworth by Mr Grimmer after a meeting in Bedford.
Shuttleworth took both the aircraft back to his airfield at Old Warden where he had them both totally rebuilt. They are still there today in flying condition. The Bleriot is the oldest flyable aircraft in the World and the Deperdussin is now a unique survivor of its type.
Neither of them fly further than short hops today. Grimmer it seems managed a circuit (or two) in ‘The Dep’ and Shuttleworth himself managed a circuit in the Bleriot after reconstruction but today these aircraft are far too valuable both historically and financially to risk more than the minimum of flight.
Grimmer himself passed away long ago but his short flying memoir brings home the basic nature of early flying and he seems like a man who didn’t take himself or life too seriously.