February 1913 – Cross-country Flight to Montrose

The Aeroplane. February 20, 1913.

On Thursday afternoon last [13th February 1913], five biplanes, three Maurice Farmans and two B.E.’s, all Renault-engined, set off from Farnborough on the first stage of the Montrose adventure. Captain Longcroft led the way at 2.30 p.m. on a B.E., after him at short intervals came Lieut. P. W. L. Herbert, Sherwood Foresters ; Capt. G. W. P. Dawes, Royal Berks ; Lieut. F. F. Waldron, 19th Hussars, and Capt. J. H. W. Becke, Sherwood Foresters, who is in charge of the flight. All are first-class pilots. Towcester was the first objective, the original route being altered on account of fog in the Thames valley.
The pilots were unaccompanied by passengers. A fleet of cars and motor lorries followed by road equipped with tools, spares, and stores. This was under the charge of Lieut. H. P. Atkinson, R.A. The landing places proposed are Towcester, Newark, York, Newcastle, and Edinburgh.

Three machines came down at Reading; the others returned to Farnborough, owing to fog.

This migration of a squadron to Scotland is part of the system according to which the R.F.C. is being developed.

From their preliminary training at the Central Flying School, at Upavon, it is intended that the military pilots shall pass to Farnborough, where their training is carried further, and the squadrons formed. As each squadron completes its training, it is to be despatched by air to its permanent post; Montrose being the first of these stations to be formed away from headquarters.

The flight of No. 2 Squadron, Royal Flying Corps, was continued on February 17th, despite a very high wind. Captains Becke and Dawes and Lieutenant Herbert left Reading about 9 a.m., and Captain Longcroft and Lieutenant Waldron left Farnborough some two hours later. Captain Becke arrived at Towcester at 2 p.m., after one stop for petrol at Blakesley. One other pilot landed at Moreton-in-the-Marsh, one at Aylesbury, and Captain Longcroft and Lieutenant Waldron at Oxford.

The Aeroplane. March 6, 1912 – The Montrose Flight.

The five Army aviators who have been repairing from Farnborough to Montrose happily reached their journey’s end on Wednesday, February 26th, having been thirteen days on the “road,” the speed average thus approximating to 1.24 m.p.h.

On Tuesday (February 25th) all five left Newcastle, and four of them—namely, Capt. Becke (“B.E.”). Capt. Longcroft (“B.E.”), Capt. Dawes (Maurice Farman), and Lieut. Herbert [Maurice Farman)—arrived at their destination, Edinburgh. The fifth—Lieut. Waldron (Maurice Farman)—descended near Little Mill, Northumberland, and then flew on to Berwick, whence he proceeded on the following day to Montrose, as did the others from Edinburgh.
The main point which stands out in connection with this flight is the pluck and determination of the five pilots. It is difficult to conceive why the worst possible season of the year should have been chosen for this demonstration, which, so far from constituting a much-needed advertisement for aviation, has had, rather, the effect of confirming public disbelief.

“For,” says the Man-in-the-street upon perusing this record of short daily mileages, of long halts and occasional mishaps, “if this is all that aeroplanes can do, let us await further development before we begin spending money on them. ”

That may or may not be sound commercial philosophy; politically, it is mischievous to the point of suicide; moreover, the Montrose flight is not a fair measure of the modern aeroplane’s capabilities.

As regards Capt. Becke’s unpremeditated decent at Doncaster, Mr. D. W. Cook writes that Mr. Egglestone, of the firm of Wyatt and Egglestone, motor engineers of Doncaster, who had the repairs in hand, reports that one of the cylinders of the Renault engine blew off and the connecting rod swung round loose as the crankshaft continued to revolve, until the end of the rod came out through the crank-case and locked the engine. The tractor screw did not break, but the propeller shaft was twisted round nearly three-quarters of a turn. No other damage was done to the machine, except that a small hole was knocked in one of the planes.

Mr. Egglestone was of the opinion that the direct cause of failure was not due to a piston jamming through faulty lubrication, but that the gudgeon pin breaking with an oblique fracture had probably twisted and caused the two parts to force nut into the cylinder walls, the pin being broken in such a wav as to suggest this.

Mr. G. T. Cooper, of Edinburgh, writes :—

“On Wednesday, February 26th, Edinburgh saw the Armv aviators flying over the centre of the city in order to reach their landing ground at Colinton, which they had the greatest difficulty in finding owing to the fog. Capt. Dawes, in fact, landed a mile away, flying over later in the afternoon. The aviators were for starting off a; once for Montrose, but as the fog began to get thicker and difficulty was experienced in getting petrol, they decided to spend the night in Edinburgh.

“In the evening all of them, except Lieut. Waldron, who had not reached Edinburgh, having descended at Berwick, were ‘entertained to a dinner given in their honour by the Edinburgh Aeronautical Society.

“The next morning, owing to a thick Scotch mist, it looked as if the aviators would be unable to go, but shortly before ten the mist rose and the weather conditions become perfect. After a trial flight by Capt. Longcroft, they all set off and, except Lieut. Herbert, who had to descend on account of fog, they all did the trip in very fast time, at about seventy miles an “hour.”