Supermarine Air Yacht G-AASE

Can but agree with Schneiderman regarding Biards book, a bit Boys Own, written in the style of the times etc.

However re reading the chapter in question a good basic account of the events, description of the Air Yacht etc, dare say his part possibly embellished a bit!

Please forgive me a tangential post, but is their any connection between Henri Biard and the name of the airport at Poitiers? Maybe there’s not and the common name is a mere geographical coincidence.

“Biard is a commune in the Vienne department in the Poitou-Charentes region in western France, in the Boivre valley.
A suburb of Poitiers, Biard gives its name to the Poitiers-Biard Airport, located 2 km west of the city.”

Please forgive me a tangential post, but is their any connection between Henri Biard and the name of the airport at Poitiers? Maybe there’s not and the common name is a mere geographical coincidence.

…..but take his account with a pinch of salt. The chapter relating to his win in the 1922 Schneider Trophy turned out to be 90% fantasy when I was doing the research for my book and its possible the same narrative distortion to make a good read is also present in the Air Yacht chapter.

Thank you, chumpy. I’ll send you a PM with my e-mail address. Will you need to get the pit props out again!

Henri Biards book ‘Wing’s contains a chapter devoted to the saga of his time flying the Air Yacht for the lady owner. She remains un-named in the book, quite a well connected ‘gal’ it would seem!

Can fire up the scanner if A.A. so wishes…but please remind me of your email addy.

[ATTACH=CONFIG]234183[/ATTACH]

It looks as if these were salvage claims.

Agreed!

The links work perfectly, Martin. Thank you. It looks as if these were salvage claims.

There was a report in 21 Profile Vol 1 No 9 “Air Yacht – 1930s luxury”

Martin, can you please provide a hyperlink to the ‘rescuing fisherman want a reward’ website? Would I be correct in assuming that this related to the rescue of Mrs James and her guests after G-AASE made its failed take off? If so, on the ASN website the following is posted:

‘My father, Ernest (Fred) Smith was the flight engineer on this flight, he was also seconded from Supermarine, as was the pilot Henri Biard. His account listed more occupants, including the owner’s dog, all of which except dad and the replacement pilot, Tommy Rose, left the sinking aircraft in the overloaded collapasable lifeboat..all were rescued by local fishermen, the aircraft wreck towed to shore and scrapped, the engines returning to the UK with dad and Tommy, while the rest of the party continued their Grand Tour by conventional means… ‘.

http://newspaperarchive.com/us/new-york/syracuse/syracuse-herald/1933/03-30/
http://newspaperarchive.com/us/texas/san-antonio/san-antonio-express/1933/03-31/page-5

AA please pm if it doesn’t work properly!

Martin, can you please provide a hyperlink to the ‘rescuing fisherman want a reward’ website? Would I be correct in assuming that this related to the rescue of Mrs James and her guests after G-AASE made its failed take off? If so, on the ASN website the following is posted:

‘My father, Ernest (Fred) Smith was the flight engineer on this flight, he was also seconded from Supermarine, as was the pilot Henri Biard. His account listed more occupants, including the owner’s dog, all of which except dad and the replacement pilot, Tommy Rose, left the sinking aircraft in the overloaded collapasable lifeboat..all were rescued by local fishermen, the aircraft wreck towed to shore and scrapped, the engines returning to the UK with dad and Tommy, while the rest of the party continued their Grand Tour by conventional means… ‘.

By the way – looking at GINFO G-AASE the address isn’t
Kenya Park, Rownhams, Southampton, Hampshire – but
Kenya Park, Romsey, Hampshire, England – ok, near Southampton

and an image after the crash (Spitfire’s Forgotten Designer: The Career of Supermarine’s Joe Smith by Mike Roussel)
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I’m not really sure I understand your comment ‘aa’.

I fear that you may have read into my response more than I intended. If so, the fault is mine in that I failed to express myself clearly. For that I apologise. The point that I intended to make was that the theory you’d expounded was quite likely to be correct but that there remained a possibility of there being another explanation, by virtue of which I was keeping an open mind. To emphasise that, I referred to Ju.87s carrying a similar ‘rotated’ swastika less than seven years later.

“In the wake of widespread popular usage, the Nazi Party (Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei or NSDAP) formally adopted the swastika (in German: Hakenkreuz [hook-cross]) in 1920. This was used on the party’s flag, badge, and armband.”
“On March 14, 1933, shortly after Hitler’s appointment as Chancellor of Germany, the NSDAP flag was hoisted alongside Germany’s national colors. It was adopted as the sole national flag on September 15, 1935.”
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika

J9630 Westland Wapiti IIA over Iraq http://smg.photobucket.com/user/woof603/media/RAFirag.jpg.html
Pfalz D.III during WWI http://www.vintagewings.ca/Portals/0/Vintage_Stories/News%20Stories%20G/Aviation’s%20Cross%20Dressers/WTF144.jpg
US Army Boeing P-12C http://news.bbcimg.co.uk/media/images/78463000/jpg/_78463616_aircraft624.jpg

That’s a plausible explanation, David. However less than seven years later we have…..

I’m not really sure I understand your comment ‘aa’. All I was trying to say was that regardless of why the symbol was later adopted by Germany (on which I have no view), it was used in a number of instances before that as a good luck symbol. Another example was on the Blackburn T.5 Ripon S.1270 where the symbol was painted, albeit in ‘reversed’ format, on the wheel covers. See p215 of Blackburn Aircraft since 1909 by AJ Jackson/Putnam

As an aside the swastika was at the time, and before, a symbol of good luck (very popular in the Baltic states e.g. Finland and Latvia). In 1933, apart from Germany, there was no political significance attached to it. In fact it remains a symbol of good luck in many parts of the world at this time. I have several books on Indian archaeology published in the 1970s whose publisher’s logo is a swastika – also the orientation is a thing to note. If the cross is laid out as a vertical square then that is the traditional form while if it is at 45 degrees then that may correspond with the Nazi layout but then again it might not – so context and date is important. Also the arms on the cross may be reversed on the traditional symbol at times. Unless you can find evidence that Mrs James was an early member of the Nazi Party then I wouldn’t read too much significance into the use of it on the Air Yacht.

Found this in THE LONDON GAZETTE, 18 JULY, 1933,
“JAMES, June Jewett, described in the Receiving Order as JUNE JEWELL JAMES (Widow), lately residing at Kenya Park, Rownhams, Southampton, Hampshire, but whose present residence the Petitioning Creditor is unable to ascertain. Lady of independent means, domiciled in England.
Court—HIGH COURT OF JUSTICE.
No. of Matter—482 of 1933.
Trustee’s Name, Address and Description—
Robson, Lawrence William, Melbourne House,
Aldwych, London, W.C.2, Chartered Accountant.
Date of Certificate of Appointment—July 12, 1933.”

Under the name JUNE JEWETT JAMES you can find two stories, one from her living at a chateau in Neuilly and the second from fishermen claiming to get 25.000 $ for rescueing her.

That would be a sensible choice. I think ‘British’ on the registration was just a convenience. I haven’t been able, yes, to find her or her husband on Ancestry.com. Here is the accident report which shows that only the engines were returned to the U.K.

http://aviation-safety.net/wikibase/wiki.php?id=27428

By the end of 1939 Mrs James (who appears to have been American by birth but to have married, and recently lost, a British husband) was active with James Sparks (of the American Legion) in mobilising the American Ambulance Corps in France. She also donated vehicles to the French Government and seems to have been involved in endeavouring to make the Americans realise the threat which Hitler and the Nazis posed to and in Europe. However by May 1940 she had fled Paris for Biarritz.

G-INFO record Mrs James as a British subject living in Romsey, Hampshire (not too far from Rownhams).