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By: - 6th December 2009 at 09:07 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
All I can find out is that Barbara Cartland wanted to bring in an airmail delivery service using a glider.
In 1931 Barbara and two Officers of the RAF thought up and created the first aeroplane-towed glider airmail. Their first flight was from Manston aerodrome to Reading.
Found this snippet too.
In 1931, a young woman in Britain, in collaboration with two RAF officers,
designed a towed glider capable of carrying cargo. The young woman was
Barbara Cartland and the glider, specially built for the project, was airtowed from
RAF Manston to Reading on the 20th June 1931, where it landed to deliver mail.
Later that year the glider (the Barbara Cartland), carrying a passenger, raced an
express-train from London to Blackpool, winning easily. While a number of nations
were soon to see such flights as the opening of a new epoch in air travel, the
air-towing of gliders was banned in Britain as being too dangerous.
Cannot find out the type of glider used but hope this helps a little.
Brian.
By: - 6th December 2009 at 09:18 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
The glider is a BAC V11 flown by Edward Mole.
Dave
By: - 6th December 2009 at 09:22 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
It's a BAC VII from Lowe Wylde. Robert Kronfeld flew this glider across the English Channel in June 1931,after a 12,000 foot aero-tow by a Klemm from Boulogne to Dover. Pictures and stories in " Happy Landings" by Group Captain Edward Mole. Colour was white with the title in bright red . It looks like the leading edges were red also.
By: - 6th December 2009 at 09:25 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
More details in 'Happy Landings'
A light hearted Autobiography by Group Captain Edward Mole,havent read it for years but very enjoyable read...loads on amazon
By: - 6th December 2009 at 10:11 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Quite a few years ago I was incarcerated in hospital, and 'Happy Landings' was a very welcome distraction. A close up picture of that glider was on ther rear cover.
I was most grateful when a rather attractive young nurse came past one afternoon, and sat, passing a few minutes chatting about this and that. She spotted the book, lying face down, and after a pause remarked
''Quite unusual to see a man reading a Barbera Cartland book!'' and with that she rose and dissapeared, never to be seen again....:confused:
By: - 6th December 2009 at 10:56 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
G-ASEA, didn't we recreate some aspect of this in the Russavia days? I seem to remember the Drone and the Tiger being used, and PT dressed up in a big pink hat! Was it for a BBC programme about Cartland?
Happy Landings indeed a great read....
By: - 6th December 2009 at 13:55 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
G-ASEA, didn't we recreate some aspect of this in the Russavia days? I seem to remember the Drone and the Tiger being used, and PT dressed up in a big pink hat! Was it for a BBC programme about Cartland?Happy Landings indeed a great read....
Yes we did we also use the Haddenham based T31 'Blue Brick'. I think it was a programe about her life. I met some of film crew at Haddenham when the where filming our camouflaged Kirby Kite 1. They said they had to film her in a surtain light!
When Michael Maufe built a replica BAC V11 a good few years ago he contacted Barbera Cartland, all she repiled was that she had finished gliding days, so that was that.The glider was on display at Brooklands for a short time when Mike Beach got a few vintage gliders together. Mikes BAC V11 was built using wings and other parts of BAC Drone's. It was later sold, so i beleve to somebody wanting to convert it back into a Drone.
Dave
By: - 7th December 2009 at 08:15 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Quite a few years ago I was incarcerated in hospital, and 'Happy Landings' was a very welcome distraction. A close up picture of that glider was on ther rear cover.I was most grateful when a rather attractive young nurse came past one afternoon, and sat, passing a few minutes chatting about this and that. She spotted the book, lying face down, and after a pause remarked
''Quite unusual to see a man reading a Barbera Cartland book!'' and with that she rose and dissapeared, never to be seen again....:confused:
Check the photo... Barbara, not Barbera.
That nurse thought your book was about gals & guys, not gliders.
Dame Mary Barbara Hamilton Cartland, DBE, CStJ, (9 July 1901 – 21 May 2000) was an English author, known for her numerous romance novels.After a year as a gossip columnist for the Daily Express, Cartland published her first novel, Jigsaw (1923), a slightly risque society thriller that became a bestseller. She also began writing and producing somewhat racy plays, one of which, Blood Money (1926), was banned by the Lord Chamberlain's Office.
Her publishers estimated that since her writing career began in 1923, Dame Barbara Cartland had produced a total of 723 titles.
In the mid-1990s, by which time she had sold over a billion books, Vogue magazine called her "the true Queen of Romance".
Privately, Cartland took an interest in the early gliding movement. Although aerotowing for launching gliders first occurred in Germany, she thought of long distance tows in 1931 and did a 200 mile tow in a two-seater glider. The idea led to troop-carrying gliders. In 1984, she was awarded the Bishop Wright Air Industry Award for this contribution.
She regularly attended Brooklands aerodrome and motor racing circuit during the 1920s and 1930s, and the Brooklands Museum has preserved a sitting room from that era and named it after her.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_books_by_Barbara_Cartland.
By: - 7th December 2009 at 10:19 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
IIRC there is a brief mention of this incident in "A Glider Pilot Bold" by Wally Kahn. If you haven't read it you should it is great reading. Wally's sense of humour shines through from start to finish. From what I can make out they were a couple of great characters such as one only seems to find in aviation circles. Just wish I could have met one or both of them.
By: - 7th December 2009 at 13:31 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
I knew I'd seen this somewhere before.
By: - 7th December 2009 at 14:18 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
IIRC there is a brief mention of this incident in "A Glider Pilot Bold" by Wally Kahn. If you haven't read it you should it is great reading. Wally's sense of humour shines through from start to finish. From what I can make out they were a couple of great characters such as one only seems to find in aviation circles. Just wish I could have met one or both of them.
I did have the pleasure of meeting Group Captain Edward Mole. He was a very intresting person. In fact there was a documentary made about the London Gliding Club, in which Edward Mole was telling me the history of the club. I dont know what happend to it, if it was ever released. In am in a photo in Ted Hulls book 'Take up Slack' with Edaward Mole and Ted Hull standing in front of a Eon primary glider.
Dave
By: - 7th December 2009 at 23:21 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
Thank you all for the comprehensive answers. I assumed that the glider would have had a known history, and it does seem to have achieve quite a lot in it's short existance.
The picture came from a article on gliding in a "General interest" magazine from 1937, that gave no information about the glider, or it's achievements.
Robert
By: - 8th December 2009 at 12:21 Permalink - Edited 1st January 1970 at 01:00
The B.A.C. VII "Barbara Cartland" must be BGA 186, which was registered to National Flying Services in June 1931 (it was towed by NFS Moth G-AAPA, with the tow hook attached to a long boom mounted above the tail). It was wrecked when it was blown over on landing at Ditchling Beacon on 3.8.31, but was rebuilt as BGA 194 for the Southern Counties Soaring Club in Oct. 1931. The club became the Southdown Gliding Club in March 1932 and the B.A.C. VII was apparently still in use in 1939. However, BGA 194 is also reported as being motorised as "Planette No.1" in 1932, and was the aircraft in which C H Lowe-Wylde crashed fatally at Maidstone Airport (West Malling) on 13.5.33.
The proprietor of B.A.C. seems to have gone through several changes of name. Born Thomas Harold Lowe in Newcastle-upon-Tyne in 1901, he married Dorothy E Wilde in 1924, hence becoming T H Lowe-Wilde. By 1930 he had become Charles Herbert Lowe-Wylde, but popularly known as "Jimmy" after a boxer of similar name. . .
Posts: 151
By: Robert Edward - 6th December 2009 at 08:56
I wonder if this was pink?!
Please can anyone identify the type or provide more details about this?
Thanks,
Robert