The 1911 Aero Exhibition held at Olympia bore witness to the enormous
strides made in construction, more especially by British designers,
between 1908 and the opening of the Show. The Bristol Firm showed three
machines, including a military biplane, and the first British built
biplane with tractor screw. The Cody biplane, with its enormous size
rendering it a prominent feature of the show, was exhibited. Its
designer anticipated later engines by expressing his desire for a motor
of 150 horse-power, which in his opinion was necessary to get the best
results from the machine. The then famous Dunne monoplane was exhibited
at this show, its planes being V-shaped in plan, with apex leading. It
embodied the results of very lengthy experiments carried out both with
gliders and power-driven machines by Colonel Capper, Lieut. Gibbs,
and Lieut. Dunne, and constituted the longest step so far taken in the
direction of inherent stability.
Such forerunners of the notable planes of the war period as the Martin
Handasyde, the Nieuport, Sopwith, Bristol, and Farman machines, were
features of the show; the Handley-Page monoplane, with a span of 32
feet over all, a length of 22 feet, and a weight of 422 lbs., bore no
relation at all to the twin-engined giant which later made this firm
famous. In the matter of engines, the principal survivals to the present
day, of which this show held specimens, were the Gnome, Green, Renault
air-cooled, Mercedes four-cylinder dirigible engine of 115 horse-power,
and 120 horsepower Wolseley of eight cylinders for use with dirigibles.
On April 12th, of 1911, Paprier, instructor at the Bleriot school at
Hendon, made the first non-stop flight between London and Paris. He left
the aerodrome at 1.37 p.m., and arrived at Issy-les-Moulineaux at 5.33
p.m., thus travelling 250 miles in a little under 4 hours. He followed
the railway route practically throughout, crossing from Dover to nearly
opposite Calais, keeping along the coast to Boulogne, and then following
the Nord Railway to Amiens, Beauvais, and finally Paris.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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