Swanley History Group – Media Report – July 2015 Meeting
The first slide of the presentation on ‘The History of Local Aviation’, provided by historian and archaeologist Chris Baker at our July meeting, showed Sir Hiram Maxim posing with the machine gun named after him, manufactured at his factory in Crayford. What an interesting character he was. A prolific inventor born in America in 1840, he developed and tested prototype airplanes, powered by light steam engines, in the grounds of his mansion in Bexley. We enjoyed several slides showing his unfeasible looking flying machines, models of which are in the Science Museum.
We were transported back to Christmas Day 1914 by slides showing the first enemy aircraft travelling towards London, a Government poster illustrating various types of enemy aircraft and photographs of members of the Royal Flying Corp at their Training base at Joyce Green, which closed in 1919. Given the fragile nature of the airplanes they flew, it is no wonder that there was a great loss of life and several slides showed crashed aircraft including those that landed in The Thames and an emergency landing in Darenth. It was hard to recognise Dartford in the scenes of the funeral of the Australian airman Wilfrid Salmon – there are 345 people named on Dartford’s War Memorial.
How many people living on the Fleet Estate in Dartford realise that this was the site of The Flying Circus Air Show in the 1930’s? It must have been spectacular with events such as ‘Bombing the Bridal Pair’ and ‘Wing Walking’!
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser
The first slide of the presentation on ‘The History of Local Aviation’, provided by historian and archaeologist Chris Baker at our July meeting, showed Sir Hiram Maxim posing with the machine gun named after him, manufactured at his factory in Crayford. What an interesting character he was. A prolific inventor born in America in 1840, he developed and tested prototype airplanes, powered by light steam engines, in the grounds of his mansion in Bexley. We enjoyed several slides showing his unfeasible looking flying machines, models of which are in the Science Museum.
We were transported back to Christmas Day 1914 by slides showing the first enemy aircraft travelling towards London, a Government poster illustrating various types of enemy aircraft and photographs of members of the Royal Flying Corp at their Training base at Joyce Green, which closed in 1919. Given the fragile nature of the airplanes they flew, it is no wonder that there was a great loss of life and several slides showed crashed aircraft including those that landed in The Thames and an emergency landing in Darenth. It was hard to recognise Dartford in the scenes of the funeral of the Australian airman Wilfrid Salmon – there are 345 people named on Dartford’s War Memorial.
How many people living on the Fleet Estate in Dartford realise that this was the site of The Flying Circus Air Show in the 1930’s? It must have been spectacular with events such as ‘Bombing the Bridal Pair’ and ‘Wing Walking’!
Christina Tyler, Programme Organiser