Today marked the centenary of the crash of the Bristol Coanda monoplane at Wolvercote in which Lieutenants Bettinson and Hotchkiss were killed, precipitating the infamous monoplane ban.
The local history society organised a commemoration, which I was at. Hopefully some of the photos are of interest (if not of great quality). Here’s the programme:
I rather like “may be a flypast”
Adrian
By: Arm Waver - 11th September 2012 at 09:48
Thanks for sharing them – I work in Oxford and knew of the incident but not the date. I as on a day off too so could have gone.
By: adrian_gray - 10th September 2012 at 21:57
And the exhibition in the Trout – a lot of stuff I hadn’t seen before, including some nice stuff relating to Frank Widenham Gooden, allegedly local (though showing no signs of it in the 1911 census), and later killed in the crash of the
prototype SE5. Apologies for quality – flash not always an option in a very tight space!
Part of the plane, picked up by a souvenir hunter:
And a suggestion of which part it is:
Gooden parachuting from a balloon:
Material mostly relating to Hotchkiss, with some Gooden as well.
Finally, as I returned to the memorial, I found a latecomer who’d missed the main ceremony having arrived from Cambridge.
Hope they’re of interest!
Adrian
By: adrian_gray - 10th September 2012 at 21:48
Quite a turnout for a work & school day.
The memorial – which has featured in these pages before:
By: adrian_gray - 10th September 2012 at 21:45
Some photos of the speeches (something of an oxymoron, I know…) The cattle on the meadow had been rounded up that morning and were pinned in the nearby pound, so the background noise was rather more bucolic than usual!
I think this may have been the flypast – a Puma did also go over, but very high and surely Puma operate out of Benson?
Adrian
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September 10, 2012 at 9:39 pm