PapaLima – that’s an excellent list of events from 1958.

If I can add a few from 1908 which was, after all, the year aviation took off in the UK:

13 Jan 1908 – Henri Farman first circle flown in Europe
14 May 1908 – Wright Brothers undertake first passenger flight
June/July 1908 – A V Roe testing his biplane at Brooklands (but not airborne)
8 August 1908 – Wilbur Wright flies at Le Mans in France
17 Sept 1908 – first fatality in powered aviation. Lt Selfridge killed when a passenger with Orville Wright
16 Oct 1908 – S F Cody made the first flight in Britain at Farnborough
Dec 1908 – J T C Moore-Brabazon flies in France. First Briton to fly. Brabazon went on to make the first all-British flight in a Short machine in Oct the next year.
(Much of the above sourced from C H Gibbs-Smith, The World’s First Aeroplane Flights, HMSO 1965)

And of course, although they had been building balloons successfully since 1900, it was in November 1908 that Horace, Oswald and Eustace Short set up Short Brothers as a company. They made a batch of six licence-built Wright Fliers to become the world’s first aircraft manufacturing company before going on to build their own designs.

Allan

That’ll be an R-100 then 😀

It has to be the sheer luxury of a cruise out there in an Empire flying boat – although I was always very impressed by the chap who flew the first microlight (a Shadow?) to Australia in the 80s . It would still be quite an adventure but achievable.

Allan

Are you refering to Cody’s flight which is to be recreated. The first flight in the UK:
http://www.codyflyerproject.com/

The first Briton to fly was J T C Moore-Brabazon in a Voisin:
http://www.eastchurchpc.kentparishes.gov.uk/default.cfm?pid=543

The first all British aircraft was the A V Roe Triplane which survives in the Science Museum:
http://www.sciencemuseum.org.uk/objects/aeronautics/1925-443.aspx

There is a replica of the Triplane in the Museum of Science and Industry (MoSI) in Manchester where another replica, this time to be fully airworthy, is under construction.

Does that help?

Allan

I was just reading in one of my American car magazines that in the late 50s Vickers wanted to use the Vanguard name for their new airliner but found Triumph had the rights to it.
So they did an exchange. Triumph got to name their news sports car after a Vickers product and they chose (surprise!) Spitfire.

In over 20 years involved with old Triumphs I’ve never heard of it and never seen this mentioned in the many historic articles from the Triumph owner’s clubs in the UK. That the very credible Dutch club can’t find a source adds weight to it being an entirely made up story.

It just doesn’t seem credible, especially, as shown here, when there were so many cases of aircraft and car names being the same. I suspect that trademarking names would only come into effect if somebody tried to name a similar product – ie two cars or two aircraft with the same name.

Apple Computers had a deal with the Beatles’ Apple Corp that they could share the same name providing one did computers and the other did music. Apple’s iPod and iTunes sparked off a court case.

Good to have a date for that standardisation – thanks.

Black and White pics also depend on the light the photo was taken in. I’ve seen aircraft in a hangar, presumably under yellow tungsten light, in which the two colours are clearly defined. But outdoors in certain conditions, aircraft are sometimes all one shade of grey – no contrast difference between the two colours. But those were new aircraft before colours had faded. Interesting topic.

From aircraft coming out of factories, I know the change from ESDG/DSG to predominantly white schemes for Coastal Command was in about March 1943. But I’ve not got access to documents which issued the orders, or the details of squadron code colours. It would be interesting if anybody had that info.

Was Reginald Mitchell sufficient reason for purchasing the entire company and then waiting six-eight more years for their first mass-production contract?

I think there is a danger here of using too much hindsight. Mitchell’s reputation is based on the success of the S6B and the Spitfire, as we see it today. But what was his reputation at the time of the take over? To answer the question needs a view of what the two company’s ambitions were in 1928.

In 1927 Alan Cobham flew a Short Singapore to South Africa – gaining experience and understanding for the use of flying boats on what later became the Empire Flying Boat’s routes. And, of course, Supermarine had built aircraft for Imperial Airways (Sea Eagle).

I am speculating here but I wonder if the fact that Supermarine built seaplanes and Vickers didn’t, made the pair a natural fit at a time when it was thought flying boats would be the answer to long distance flights. That way they weren’t just getting a designer, but his team, and the rest of a workforce with experience in building flying boats.

Allan

The bits of LK488 can be seen on this link on the RAF Museum’s website:

http://navigator.rafmuseum.org/results.do?view=detail&db=object&pageSize=1&id=20285