COLLECTION - Early Days
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Balloons:
Photograph: Photograph of a British military gas balloon.
Hot-air ballooning began in France in the late eighteen century. The use of balloons for military observation grew during the nineteenth century, particularly during the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71. In Great Britain, a small number of Army officers began to investigate the military potential of hydrogen balloons.
In 1878, the War Office formed an establishment at Woolwich to develop military ballooning and Captain James L B Templer (later Colonel) was appointed Instructor in Ballooning to the Royal Engineers. With a grant of £150, Britain’s first military balloon was constructed. It was called Pioneer.
In 1885, balloon detachments were used operationally in the Bechuanaland expedition and in the Sudan. These campaigns proved the value of balloons but also showed that their use in the field was hampered by a lack of properly established balloon units. So, in 1890, a Balloon Section of the Royal Engineers was formed and located at Aldershot. In the Boer War in South Africa (1899-1902) three balloon sections served in the Natal, the Transvaal and the Orange Free State. They were used for artillery observation in a number of major battles including Magersfontein, Paardeberg and Driefontein and were present at Ladysmith. As a result of this experience, the British Army led the world in the use of military balloons.
Photograph: Balloon course notebook, 1905, belonging to Lieutenant Farfan of the Royal Artillery. This page shows how to haul an inflated balloon over telegraph wires whilst on the march.
Man-lifting kites:
Photograph: Photograph of a man-lifting kite complete with basket and winch.
In 1906 man-lifting kites were added to the regular equipment of the Balloon Sections (now called Balloon Companies). Unlike balloons, kites could be launched very quickly and used in winds of up to 50 miles per hour.
Photograph: A replica man-lifting kite.
Airships:
The development of the internal combustion engine enabled pioneers to build powered balloons that could be steered. These were called dirigibles or airships. The first British Army airship, Dirigible No. 1, was popularly called Nulli Secundus (Second to None) and made her maiden flight on 10th September 1907. She made her first public appearance the following month on 5th October when she flew from Farnborough to London. Crewed by Colonel J E Capper and Samuel F Cody, she completed a tour over the city before strong head winds forced her to land at the Crystal Palace, Sydenham. She was deflated there and transported back to Farnborough by road. The flight had lasted for three hours and 25 minutes and had covered 50 miles overland.
Photograph: Medallion struck for the Balloon School, Royal Engineers, to commemorate the first public flight of Nulli Secundus on 5th October 1907.
Military airship development continued with the airships Beta, Gamma and Delta appearing from 1909. In 1914, responsibility for the operation and development of all official British airships passed to the Royal Navy.
Samuel F Cody:
Photograph: Samuel Cody.
Samuel Franklin Cody was an American entertainer who became an aviation pioneer. His real surname was Cowdery and he was born in Iowa in 1867. He worked with the British Army on the development of kites, airships and aeroplanes and was made Chief Kiting Instructor in 1906. He designed the man-lifting kite system which was adopted by the British Army for observation and developed the steering gear and engine of the airship Nulli Secundus (see above).
He also designed his own aeroplane, Army Aeroplane No. 1, and on 16th October 1908 he completed the first officially recognised manned flight in a powered aeroplane in England. He flew almost 1,400ft in 27 seconds at an altitude of between 30 and 40ft. He went on to win the Army military aeroplane trials held on Salisbury Plain in 1912. Samuel Cody died on 7th August 1913 when an aircraft he was flying collapsed in mid-air. He was buried with full military honours.
The progress made by pioneers such as Cody led to the formation in 1911 of an Air Battalion within the Royal Engineers. This consisted of No. 1 (Airship, Balloon and Kite) Company and No. 2 (Aeroplane) Company.