Aviation and views about the aeroplanes in war

The British were slow starters: In 1909 the War Office temporarily closed army flying experiments, objecting to the £2,500 cost (this when the Germans had already spent the equivalent of £400,000 and the French little less than that). The Royal Flying Corps (RFC) was formed in 1912, and veteran soldiers soon realized big changes were afoot. At maneuvers the following year, Lieutenant General Sir James Grierson told King George V: “I think, sir, that these aeroplanes are going to spoil war. When they come over I can only tell my men to cover their heads with hay and make a noise like a mushroom!”.

WWI Planes: ‘Inventions of the Devil’

 

We had two local aviation pioneers- the Barnwell brothers- who had a factory in the suburbs of the city. They began with gliders in a nearby village, then started building aircraft after a visit to America to meet the Wright brothers. Frank Barnwell later designed the Blenheim-
The Barnwell Brothers