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BRITAIN'S FIRST MILITARY AEROPLANE
One of their earliest aeroplanes constructed at Filton was the Boxkite, a design so closely based on the existing Farman III biplane that Henri Farman threaned legal action. The Boxkite was, however, powered by one of the first purpose-designed aircraft engines, the 50 bhp Rhone rotary, which gave the 900 lb biplane a speed of 40 mph.
The Boxkite featured twin rudders at the rear and had two elevators one at the front of the aircraft and one at the rear. Ailerons were fitted but they did not operate in the conventional sense. While at rest they hung down, with the slipstream of the moving aircraft bringing them level with the wing. The controls then only moved the ailerons down, there being no upwards movement as there is on modern aircraft
By the time that production ceased in 1914, 76 examples had been built with 60 being the military version with the upper wing extended by an additional twelve feet to 46' 6". The Bristol Boxkite thus became the first aeroplane ordered for Britain's armed forces by the War Ministry, the first being delivered early in 1911.
However, the first British military heavier than air flight had taken place on 21 September 1910 and involved an earlier Boxkite supplied by the British and Colonial Aeroplane Company, which had built two hangars and laid out a grass runway at Larkhill near Stonehenge in June of that year. The new base had been constructed on Salisbury Plain to allow a Boxkite to participate in the autumn Army Manoeuvres.
The pilot was former Royal Artillery Captain Bertram Dickson, who had learned to fly in France. His mission was to observe the movements of the Blue Force and report these to the opposing Red Force headquarters, although two days of bad weather prevented him from making an earlier flight. Having reached an altitude of 200' on 21 September 1910 however, Captain Dickson located the Blue Force cavalry and turned back to report the sighting. Although the Army had installed wireless telegraphy in its new "Beta" airship which had also been allocated to the Red Force, this was not considered practicable for a heavier than air machine; so rather than fly all the way back to Red HQ, Dickson decided to land in a field close to the village of Wylye and telephone the information.
Here he was captured by a patrol of the 4th Dragoon Guards led by Corporal Arthur Edwards and taken to Blue Headquarters while umpires decided what to do in the unprecedented case of cavalry capturing an aeroplane. While there, Dickson met Home Secretary Winston Churchill who had come to observe the Manoeuvres. Churchill was at once struck by the aircraft's potential - and would himself learn to fly. On becoming First Lord of the Admiralty in 1911 too, Churchill immediately began pressing the case for naval aviaton to be expanded beyond the existing ballons and airships with the Royal Naval Air Service being founded in 1914.
Meanwhile, Dickson's exploits and his capture by Arthur Edwards caused such a newspaper sensation that actor and aviator Robert Loraine at once offered his services and his own Boxkite to Blue Force. He had served as a trooper in the Montgomeryshire Yeomanry in the Boer War and went into mock battle with a wireless telegraph transmitter, the Morse key being strapped to his leg. Although only powerful enough to transmit over a quarter mile range, Loraine's flight proved the worth of such equipment.
The British and Colonial Aeroplane Company's schools at Larkhill, and at Brooklands in Surrey, were the Army and Navy's principal flight training establishments until the Central Flying School at Upavon, Wiltshire, opened in August 1912.
Like its nearby subsidiary airfield at Netheravon, what remains of the Central Flying School's Upavon base can still be seen from nearby public roads and both sites were laid out on what had been the gallops of the Netheravon Cavalry School following the Boer War. This landscape offered safe and level runways for the new trainee pilots, many of whom had been selected from the ranks of cavalry officers for their ability to navigate across country at speed.
The first British military flying field at Larkhill meanwhile is today partly obscured by houses and trees but is marked by a concrete plinth near the still -extant hangars, the oldest in Europe.
The Royal Flying Corps was established in May 1912 and by August 1914 it was able to send 80 aeroplanes in four squadrons to France in support of the British Expeditionary Force - of which the 4th Dragoon Guards would become the first regiment to make contact with the Germans.
By early 1915, wireless telegraphy in aircraft had proved reliable enough to play an important role in reconaissance and artillery spotting and also for ground stations to telegraph the aeroplanes, replacing the semaphore flags used to signal Loraine and the other pre-War British pilots.
Indeed, Robert Loraine volunteered for the Royal Flying Corps at the outbreak of War in 1914 although sadly the previous year Bertram Dickson had died from his injuries after being involved in the World's first mid-air collision over Milan.
The Boxkite, although soon outclassed by more modern aircraft, continued as a two seat British military trainer during the early part of the War and was also exported to Australia, Bulgaria, india, Russia, South Africa and Spain. Indeed, a Boxkite had also been offered to - and declined by - Sir Robert Falcon Scott's last expedition to the South Pole.
Although no original Boxkites survived beyond 1915, three replicas - two static and one airworthy - were built by the Miles Aircraft Company at Woodley, Reading in 1964 the for the 1965 Ken Annakin film "Those Magnificent Men in their Flying Machines". The three replicas themselves made aviation history as the last design produced by Miles before the company was absorbed into Handley-Page.
Of the two static Miles-built Boxkites, one is now suspended from the ceiling of Bristol City Museum and the other is in Australia. The flying replica, registered G-ASPP, was powered by a modern 90 bhp 4 cylinder Rolls-Royce Continental engine rather than the original rotary. However this led to a few problems with the engine not providing enough thrust for the aircraft. A larger engine was fitted but rudder control was still not good. This was eventually solved by fitting a third rudder in between the original two and directly in line with the propellers slipstream. As such the Boxkite was a very good flyer and made several long distance cross country flights.
After filming, G-ASPP - was purchased by the Bristol Aeroplane Company - by then a part of the British Aircraft Corporation - and presented to the Shuttleworth Collection based at Old Warden in Bedfordshire. It is pictured above courtesy of www.military-aircraft.org.uk