Manchester Aviator Firsts

1910s

With powered flight still in its infancy there was a small band of intrepid aviators willing to demonstrate flying to the masses. Most aviators demonstrated their flying prowess to earn money to afford this new method of transport and this is true of those flying in the Manchester Region.

28th April 1910 - First Aviator to fly to Manchester - Flying was very expensive and to raise funds many aviator pioneers took part in air displays called flying circuses or in Air Races. Indeed the first Aviator to fly to Manchester was the Frenchman Lewis Paulhan in a Farman Bi-Plane when winning £10,000 in the Daily Mail sponsored London to Manchester air race (a distance of 195miles/298km) in April 1910. The race against Englishman was Claude Grahame-White lasted 5 days started in London on 23rd April 1910 and finished in Manchester on 28th April.

9th July 1910 - First Flight from Manchester - The first recorded flight from a point within the City of Manchester was made by G.A. Barnes, who flew from the Manchester Athletics Club ground at Fallowfield.

August 1910 - The First Aeroplane made and flown in Manchester was by Charles Fletcher of the Empress Engineering Company who built an aircraft to his own design. It was tested at the Manchester Race Course but it only managed short hops across the race course.

1st January 1914 - The First Aerobatics over Manchester was performed by the Pioneer Bentfield Hucks in a Bleriot monoplane. A large crowd enjoyed the thrills of a dare devil pilot flying upside down and performing Loop the Loops at the Belle Vue amusement park. An advert for the event is opposite.

(Monochrome Photograph showing) - Paulhan surrounded by onlookers having landed at a wet and muddy field at Fog Lane Didsbury Copyright Unknown.

7th July 1911 - The First City to City flight from Manchester was by Liverpudlian, Henry Greg Melly who made the first ever non-stop flight between Liverpool and Manchester. Flying from Waterloo Sands, just north of Liverpool city centre, Melly and his passenger A. Dukinfield Jones flew to Trafford Park landing on the Trafford Park Airfield, in just 40 minutes. They returned non-stop to Liverpool the same day.