Claude Grahame-White (21 August 1879 – 19 August 1959) was an English pioneer of
aviation
Aviation includes the activities surrounding mechanical flight and the aircraft industry. ''Aircraft'' includes fixed-wing and rotary-wing types, morphable wings, wing-less lifting bodies, as well as lighter-than-air craft such as hot ...
, and the first to make a night flight, during the ''
Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
''-sponsored
1910 London to Manchester air race
The 1910 London to Manchester air race took place between two aviators, each of whom attempted to win a heavier-than-air powered flight challenge between London and Manchester. The race had first been proposed by the ''Daily Mail'' newspaper in ...
.
Early life
Claude Grahame-White was born in
Bursledon,
Hampshire
Hampshire (, ; abbreviated to Hants) is a ceremonial county, ceremonial and non-metropolitan county, non-metropolitan counties of England, county in western South East England on the coast of the English Channel. Home to two major English citi ...
in England on 21 August 1879, and educated at
Bedford Grammar School.
He learned to drive in 1895, was apprenticed as an engineer and later started his own motor engineering company.
Aviation career
Grahame-White's interest in aviation was sparked by
Louis Blériot
Louis Charles Joseph Blériot ( , also , ; 1 July 1872 – 1 August 1936) was a French aviator, inventor, and engineer. He developed the first practical headlamp for cars and established a profitable business manufacturing them, using much of th ...
's crossing of the
English Channel
The English Channel, "The Sleeve"; nrf, la Maunche, "The Sleeve" ( Cotentinais) or (Jèrriais), ( Guernésiais), "The Channel"; br, Mor Breizh, "Sea of Brittany"; cy, Môr Udd, "Lord's Sea"; kw, Mor Bretannek, "British Sea"; nl, Het Kan ...
in 1909. This prompted him to go to France, where he attended the
Reims aviation meeting, at which he met Blériot and subsequently enrolled at his flying school.
[
Grahame-White was one of the first people to qualify as pilot in England, becoming the holder of Royal Aero Club certificate No. 6, awarded in April 1910. He became a celebrity in England in April 1910 when he competed with the French pilot Louis Paulhan for the £10,000 prize offered by the '']Daily Mail
The ''Daily Mail'' is a British daily middle-market tabloid newspaper and news websitePeter Wilb"Paul Dacre of the Daily Mail: The man who hates liberal Britain", ''New Statesman'', 19 December 2013 (online version: 2 January 2014) publish ...
'' newspaper for the first flight between London and Manchester in under 24 hours. Although Paulhan won the prize, Grahame White's achievement was widely praised.
On 2 July 1910, Claude Grahame-White, in his Farman III
The Farman III, also known as the Henry Farman 1909 biplane, was an early French aircraft designed and built by Henry Farman[Wolverhampton
Wolverhampton () is a City status in the United Kingdom, city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands (county), West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 United ...]
. In the same year he won the Gordon Bennett Aviation Cup race in Belmont Park
Belmont Park is a major thoroughbred horse racing facility in the northeastern United States, located in Elmont, New York, just east of the New York City limits. It was opened on May 4, 1905.
It is operated by the non-profit New York Raci ...
, Long Island, New York
New York most commonly refers to:
* New York City, the most populous city in the United States, located in the state of New York
* New York (state), a state in the northeastern United States
New York may also refer to:
Film and television
* '' ...
, for which he was awarded the Gold Medal of the Royal Aero Club.
On 14 October 1910 while in Washington, D.C. Grahame-White flew his Farman biplane over the city and landed on West Executive Avenue near the White House
The White House is the official residence and workplace of the president of the United States. It is located at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue Northwest, Washington, D.C., NW in Washington, D.C., and has been the residence of every U.S. preside ...
. Rather than being arrested Grahame-White was applauded for the feat by the newspapers.
On 26 September 1911 at an International Air Meet at Nassau Boulevard Long Island New York attended by Eugene Ely, George W. Beatty, Harry Atwood
Harry Nelson Atwood (November 15, 1883 – July 14, 1967) was an American engineer and inventor known for pioneering work in the early days of aviation, including setting long-distance flying records and delivering the first delivery of air mail ...
, Bud Mars
Mars aboard dirigible looked on by his wife
James Cairn Mars (March 8, 1875 - July 25, 1944), also known Bud Mars and the Curtiss Daredevil, was an aviation pioneer. He was the eleventh pilot licensed in the United States. As a balloonist, he wa ...
, J. A. D. MucCurdy and Matilda Moissant, Grahame-White won a prize of $600.00 in a speed contest for flying his monoplane ten miles at a speed of 61 and 1/2 miles per hour.
He is known for activities related to the commercialisation of aviation, and he was also involved in promoting the military application of air power before the First World War
World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fig ...
with a campaign called "Wake Up Britain", also experimenting with fitting various weapons and bombs to aircraft. During the war itself he flew the first night patrol mission against an expected German raid on 5 September 1914.
Grahame-White trained several women to fly and he had formed the Women's Aerial League
A woman is an adult female human. Prior to adulthood, a female human is referred to as a girl (a female child or adolescent). The plural ''women'' is sometimes used in certain phrases such as "women's rights" to denote female humans regardle ...
in 1909. The membership of this league included test pilot Mrs Winifred Buller, Lady Anne Savile and Eleanor Trehawke Davies and the suffragette leaders Emmeline
''Emmeline, The Orphan of the Castle'' is the first novel written by English writer Charlotte Smith; it was published in 1788. A Cinderella story in which the heroine stands outside the traditional economic structures of English society and ...
and Christabel Pankhurst
Dame Christabel Harriette Pankhurst, (; 22 September 1880 – 13 February 1958) was a British suffragette born in Manchester, England. A co-founder of the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), she directed its militant actions from exil ...
. He established a flying school at Hendon Aerodrome. Cheridah de Beauvoir Stocks, the second British woman to gain a Royal Aero Club aviator's licence
Pilot licensing or certification refers to permits for operating aircraft. Flight crew licences are regulated by ICAO Annex 1 and issued by the civil aviation authority of each country. CAA’s have to establish that the holder has met a specifi ...
, trained at the school, earning her certificate in November 1911. In 1912 Grahame-White gave H.G. Wells his first flight. The Aerodrome was lent to the Admiralty (1916), and eventually taken over by the RAF in 1919. Grahame-White's aerodrome was purchased by the RAF in 1925, after a protracted legal struggle. After this he lost his interest in aviation, eventually moving to Nice
Nice ( , ; Niçard: , classical norm, or , nonstandard, ; it, Nizza ; lij, Nissa; grc, Νίκαια; la, Nicaea) is the prefecture of the Alpes-Maritimes department in France. The Nice agglomeration extends far beyond the administrative c ...
in his old age, where he died in 1959 having made a fortune in property development in the UK and US.[
]
Hendon Aerodrome later became RAF Hendon but after flying ceased there in the 1960s it was then largely redeveloped as a housing estate which was named Grahame Park in tribute to Grahame-White. An original World War I Grahame-White aircraft factory hangar was relocated a few years ago to the Royal Air Force Museum London, where it houses the museum's World War I collection and is named the Grahame White Factory.
Grahame-White was a co-founder of Aerofilms Limited in 1919.
Grahame-White Aviation Company
In 1911 The Grahame-White Aviation Company was formed to cover his aviation interests, including aerodromes and aircraft design, development, and construction. One of the designers, John Dudley North, became Boulton & Paul's chief designer.
Aircraft built by the Grahame-White Aviation Company included:
* Grahame-White Baby
* Grahame-White Type VI
* Grahame-White Type VII "Popular"
* Grahame-White Type IX Monoplane
* Grahame-White Type X Charabanc
* Grahame-White "Lizzie"
* Grahame-White Type XI __NOTOC__
The Grahame-White Type XI (also known as the "Naval and Military Biplane") was an early aircraft built in the United Kingdom and marketed as being particularly well-suited to military applications. It was a two-bay biplane of pod-and-b ...
* Grahame-White Type XIII Circuit of Britain biplane/scout
* Grahame-White Type XIV (License-built Morane-Saulnier G)
* Grahame-White Type XV
* Grahame-White Type 18
* Grahame-White G.W.19 (License-built Breguet Bre.5)
* Grahame-White Type 20 Scout (Prototype only)
* Grahame-White Type 21 Scout (Prototype only)
* Grahame-White Sommer-biplane
Grahame-White was an early British aircraft manufacturer, flying school and later manufacturer of cyclecars.
The company was established as ''Grahame-White Aviation Company'' by Claude Grahame-White at Hendon in 1911. The firm built mostly airc ...
* Grahame-White G.W.E.IV Ganymede
* Grahame-White G.W.E.VI Bantam
* Grahame-White G.W.E.VII
Grahame-White was an early British aircraft manufacturer, flying school and later manufacturer of cyclecars.
The company was established as ''Grahame-White Aviation Company'' by Claude Grahame-White at Hendon in 1911. The firm built mostly aircra ...
Limousine
Publications
As well as his success in aviation, Claude Grahame-White was a published author whose works include:
* ''The Story of the Aeroplane''
* ''The Aeroplane, Past, Present, and Future,'' 1911
* ''The Aeroplane in War''
* ''Aviation, 1912''
* ''Learning to Fly'', 1914
* ''Aircraft in the Great War'', 1915
* ''Air Power'', 1917
* ''Our First Airways, their Organisation, Equipment, and Finance'', 1918
* ''Heroes of the Air''
* ''With the Airmen''
* ''The Air King’s Treasure''
* ''The Invisible War-Plane''
* ''Heroes of the Flying Corps''
* ''Flying, an Epitome and a Forecast'', 1930
He also contributed to newspapers, reviews, and magazines, dealing with aeronautics in the military and commercial fields.
See also
* Louis Paulhan
References
External links
*
*
*
The restoration of Claude Grahame-White's aviation building begins after 20yrs of neglect
BBC programme – Rebuilding Our Past: Hendon
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Grahame-White, Claude
1879 births
1959 deaths
British aviation pioneers
British aviators
White
White is the lightness, lightest color and is achromatic (having no hue). It is the color of objects such as snow, chalk, and milk, and is the opposite of black. White objects fully diffuse reflection, reflect and scattering, scatter all the ...
People from Bursledon
English aerospace engineers
Royal Naval Air Service aviators
People educated at Bedford School