Rolls in his Gnomeengined Sommer biplane at Eastchurch at end of April 1910. His enthusiasm for this design led to its adoption by Shorts in place of the Wright biplane. (AUTHOR)
Short Brothers’ works in 1910, after their removal to Eastchurch. (AUTHOR)
In the assembling shops we came to a biplane practically complete. There was no weight stinted in it. A big engine sat in a metal framework in the centre of it. There were landing skids with broad, strong timbers in them. The craze to weaken struts and stays by tapering them in order to lessen resistance to the wind had been completely ignored. The aeroplane looked so big and strong that it seemed scarcely credible that it should raise itself in the air and carry a man.
“Strength and weight – both are beginning to enter more and more into the construction of a flying machine,” said Mr Short. “The weight of the aeroplanes of the future, and the speed at which they will fly, will give them the power to remain in the air when high winds are blowing.”
Like several other owners and pilots of early Wright biplanes, McClean later had a wheeled undercarriage added to his Short-Wright No 3, doing away with the need for a take-off rail, plus a rear elevator behind the twin rudders. The protective upward-curved ‘horn’ on the lower wingtip leading edge was a distinctive feature of Short-built Wrights. (AUTHOR)
During McClean’s absence several interesting developments took place. Early in 1910 Rolls bought a French-built Sommer biplane, a pusher type very similar to the Henry Farman biplane, with monoplane tailplane and forward elevator and powered by the ingenious and light 50hp seven-cylinder Gnome air-cooled rotary engine. He exhibited his new acquisition in the RAeC’s section at the Olympia show. Impressed by the engine’s reliability and simplicity, Rolls exulted over the freedom from the cumbersome ground handling and catapult launching of the Wright machine, with the need to move the launch rail when the wind shifted.
Charles Rolls prepares to take off from Dover on 2 June 19 10 for his successful non-stop cross-Channel return flight. For this exploit he used his French-built Wright biplane, fitted with a fixed tailplane aft of the rudders and flotation bags as a precaution in the event of a ditching. Just over a month later he was dead. (AUTHOR)
Evidently impressed by the Sommer, Horace Short seems to have seen the light, as he now designed a new machine on similar lines. The first example to be completed was the Short-Sommer No 1/Short S.27, ordered by another Short customer, the Irish-American Cecil Grace, on 8 April. In May Short Bros moved from Shellbeach into a newly-built factory at Eastchurch. Late that same month the S.27, powered by a water-cooled eight-cylinder ENV engine, was rolled out and flown by Grace. Also during May, McClean’s Short-Wright was fitted with a fixed tailplane and wheeled undercarriage, among other modifications.
The Short-Wright and Short pilots, Rolls, Moore-Brabazon, Ogilvie and Grace, all became competent pilots, making increasingly longer flights and venturing cross-country. Tragically, at Bournemouth on 12 July Charles Rolls met with a fatal accident when his French-built Wright biplane suffered an inflight structural failure during a spot-landing competition.
Back in the air
When Frank McClean arrived back in England late in June he was clearly itching to get back into aviation. He attended the Bournemouth meeting on 13–17 July, not as a participant, but possibly to help sort out the sad aftermath of the Rolls tragedy, and was at the Blackpool meeting from 29 July to 2 August, but again not as a flyer. On 3 August he moved into ‘Stonepitts’, so that he was now living on the flying ground. In its issue of 10 September Flight reported that, on Wednesday 31 August, ‘Mr Frank McClean was… out for a short trial along the ground on the new Short biplane constructed for him. This machine is the first of Messrs. Short Bros’ design to be fitted with a Gnome engine.’ The description of the aircraft as ‘new’ and having been built for McClean is misleading. In fact this was Short-Sommer No 2 (c/n S.28), initially powered by a 60hp ENV engine, which had been built for J T C Moore-Brabazon, who had flown it once or twice at Eastchurch and then entered it for the Bournemouth 1910 meeting, but had not flown at that event. Following Charles Rolls’s death, Brabazon’s pregnant wife had asked him to give up flying, and, as he wrote in his autobiography The Brabazon Story (Heinemann, London, 1956): T acquiesced, for, quite apart from our sadness at Charlie’s death, I was beginning to think flying a sort of circus in which the private man had no place – firms were producing planes and paying professionals to fly them’. Brabazon had expressed his feelings on the matter in a letter published in the 13 August 1910 issue of Flight, when he wrote:
There seems to be an impression that I have definitely given up aviation, owing to its dangers or what I do not know, so that if you will grant me a few lines of your paper for an explanation of my apparent cessation of experiments, you would do me a favour.
First of all, re the danger of aeroplaning. This, to my mind, is diminishing every day – granted, owing to there being many more aviators, there are, consequently, more accidents; but nothing will persuade me that aviation is not getting safer every day, engines are more reliable, machines more stable, engineers more conversant than formerly with the construction of machines.
It seems, therefore, to me hardly fair, either to Mr Cockburn [a fellow aviator] or myself, to assume that we are giving up aviation because it is, or has become, dangerous. If it is dangerous now, it was more dangerous a year or more ago, before most of the present-day cracks [i.e. crack pilots] had learnt to handle a machine.
What has happened is that Mr Cockburn, as also myself, have realised the small chance and impossible position the real amateur has at public meetings. He has to compete, not against men of similar means with machines of their own, but against firms with a great deal of capital at their back, and with the idea of advertisement before them accruing from winning certain prizes, a situation entirely similar to what occurred in early motor-racing days.
An engine misfires! No one thinks of putting it right. Another engine is slipped on to the machine. A wheel buckles. Another machine is brought out, while half-a-dozen mechanics from the “maison” repair the disarranged parts.
Were I a millionaire, I possibly could compete against such organisation, but unfortunately I am not, and therefore I believe it best to let it alone as far as appearing in public is concerned. In the very early days, private men with time and money were wanted, and I think, perhaps, did a lot to help the movement on, but now the private man is the unfortunate individual the cracks wish to sell machines to.
Do not let it be supposed I think ill of the professional with a firm at his back. On the contrary, I think he is doing a lot of good, more than the private man now could; but do not let us confuse the two individuals, the private individual and the firm’s professional.
The day of the private investigator is over, and I for one very much regret it, but it is for the good of the movement that it is so, and consequently we must welcome it.
Flying in public, or at meetings, I certainly have given up, under present conditions, but that in no way is the same as abandoning flying altogether. To abandon aviation at the present time would be similar to abandoning motoring after the Paris-Bordeaux race, when the automobile movement was in its infancy.
When I took up aviation nearly four years ago, I looked upon it as a scientific investigation with a vast future before it. In that future I still believe, but whether the best interests of aviation are being studied by turning a highly complex mechanical problem into a travelling form of entertainment, I very much question.
That Mr Rolls’ death was directly due to this form of gymkhana I emphatically believe, and, on this account alone, you will forgive me if the tone of this letter is somewhat bitter against aviation meetings of any kind.
Consequently Brabazon sold S.28 to McClean. (It was subsequently misidentified as S.26, which at that time still belonged to G C Colmore.) He also placed a classified advertisement in the 20 August issue of Flight, seeking a buyer for the ‘Short Wri
ght biplane’ (actually Short No 2), in which he had won the £1,000 Daily Mail prize for the first closed-circuit one-mile flight by a British pilot in an all-British aeroplane, and the British Michelin Cup and £500 for the longest flight made by an all-British machine before 31 March 1910. Describing the aircraft as ‘being used for exhibition’, he offered it for ‘Immediate disposal, without Engine £200; or near offer’. Apparently there were no takers, as another classified advertisement appeared in the magazine’s 3 September issue that simply read: ‘Biplane, winner of “Daily Mail” £1,000 Prize, Michelin Trophy, etc., fine condition, has been used for exhibition; best cash offer gets it by September 10th…’, and in the 24 September and 1 October issues the advertisement said, in part: ‘… splendid condition; accept £100, or best first offer; material worth double’. In truth it was already an outmoded design, and the air-frame would only have been of use as a potential source of materials and components. At this early stage its significance in the early development of British aviation was probably not fully appreciated, and this historic aeroplane, which should have been preserved for posterity, did not survive.
Frank McClean’s first Short-Sommer, No 2/S.28, was acquired from Moore-Brabazon. This photograph was taken by William J Lockyer, who was given his first flight as an aeroplane passenger in this machine by McClean at Eastchurch on 22 October 1910. (AUTHOR)
By this time some of the owners of Short-Wright and early Short aircraft had been trying to sell them. Over some months Grace, Moore-Brabazon and Rolls had all been placing classified advertisements in Flighty offering various machines for sale. Grace was not only trying to sell his Short-Wright No 5 and his Antoinette monoplane, but also his ‘Short Farman’ (i.e. Short-Sommer; probably S.27, later acquired by McClean). Ogilvie, however, remained a staunch adherent of the Wright aeroplanes, and continued to fly and modify them.
On 2 September McClean made ‘several long hops’ in S.28, then circled the ground two or three times at a height of about 20ft. ‘This,’ said Flight, ‘at only the third attempt, and with the engine not yet adjusted to give off its full power, was undoubtedly a promising performance.’ In this aeroplane, at Eastchurch on 19 September, McClean, now aged 34, set out to complete the tests for his aviator’s certificate, and ‘after negotiating the course several times in greatly improved style, he successfully accomplished the necessary circuits at an altitude of some 20ft’. At an RAeC committee meeting on the following day he was awarded Aviator’s Certificate No 21.
Even when others had changed over to the Sommer-type biplanes, Alec Ogilvie maintained his allegiance to the Wright type. Here he is flying his Short-Wright No 2 after fitting it with a wheeled undercarriage. (AUTHOR)
Frank McClean’s Royal Aero Club aviator’s certificate, No 21, dated 20 September 19 10. He had made the qualifying flight and performed the required evolutions at Eastchurch on the previous day. (FLEET AIR ARM MUSEUM)
McClean’s Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) aviator’s certificate, No 21, also dated 20 September 1910. (FLEET AIR ARM MUSEUM)
Although these pictures are said to show Frank McClean flying Short-Sommer No 3 (S.26) at Eastchurch on 5 November 1910, this is probably wrong, as that machine still belonged to Colmore at that time. It is almost certainly S.28/Short-Sommer No 2, ex-Moore-Brabazon. (AUTHOR)
The late awarding of his certificate always remained something of a sore point with McClean. In Fellowship of the Air: The Jubilee Book of the Royal Aero Club 1901–1951 (Iliffe, London, 1951) the author, B J Hurren, writes: ‘… Sir Frank McClean recalls that he, although obviously in the very front rank of the pioneers, was abroad when the first British certificates were mooted and then issued. It was therefore with some degree of annoyance that he found himself omitted from a most justifiable pride of seniority, and through the post was eventually awarded certificate No. 21.’ While it was certainly unfortunate that McClean’s absence deprived him of an earlier certificate to which he might have been entitled by merit, he seems to have forgotten that he did actually take the required tests that had been introduced by the RAeC in February 1910, while he was abroad.
On the 22nd he made several flights, including two trips to Shellbeach, and in the afternoon of the 23rd Cecil Grace flew McClean’s Gnome-powered S.28 for 20min. On Friday 30 September McClean made several circuits over Eastchurch and then flew along the coast to Shellbeach, turned, and flew back to the Swale. Just before crossing the river he lost height in a ‘rather sharp turn’ and dropped lower still as he crossed the water. He just cleared the bank on the opposite side, but before he could gain height he was confronted by a dyke. Although he jumped it, the tail scraped the bank as he landed on rough ground and the rest of the aircraft ended up in a ditch. Although the tail and skid were damaged, McClean was unhurt, and Flight said that it was ‘one of Mr McClean’s best performances, and it is a great pity this accident occurred to mar the finish’.
Frank McClean prepares to take his friend Dr William Lockyer for a flight in the S.28 at 10.40am on 6 November 1910. Lockyer was the first passenger to be taken up by McClean. (FLEET AIR ARM MUSEUM)
Following Rolls’s death, McClean bought his Eastchurch sheds from the executors for £275. They were later used to house the two aircraft loaned to the Admiralty in 1911. Also in September McClean ordered a monoplane that was destined never to be built, and his own Short-Sommer, No 6/S.33, which he planned to use to compete for the £4,000 Baron de Forest prize. First announced in July 1909, this was to be awarded to the British aviator who, from a point fixed upon by himself, and approved by the RAeC, flew the longest distance non-stop from England to the Continent in an all-British aeroplane during 1910.
At an RAeC committee meeting on Tuesday 27 September McClean was one of nine members asked to join a special committee to deal with cases of club members or certificated aviators making unnecessary flights over towns or thickly populated areas.
In its issue of 15 October Flight reported that he had been making good flights, and that on 4 and 5 October he ‘made half-a-dozen trips of some 20min each at an average height of about 100ft’. ‘His machine behaved splendidly,’ the account continued, ‘and Mr McClean appears quite at ease in her now that he has accustomed himself to the Gnome engine.’ The magazine added that he spent a total of nearly six hours in the air on the following Sunday (the 9th), in flights averaging half an hour in duration. ‘The feature of his flying this week,’ it concluded, ‘has been some very creditable exhibitions of planing [gliding with the engine off].’
On Saturday 15 and Sunday 16 October a ‘large number’ of naval officers from Sheerness and Chatham visited Eastchurch and witnessed some flights by McClean. On 22 October he made some more good solo flights, and also made several short ones carrying a passenger for the first time, the gentleman in question being his friend and fellow astronomer Dr W J S Lockyer. Early in the week ending 29 October he made more good flights, but then his aircraft dropped several feet after a vol plane [engine-off glide] and suffered considerable damage to its undercarriage. ‘It speaks well for the machine,’ said The Aero, ‘that it was not completely broken up.’
Recalling this aircraft (which he described as being ‘of Farman type’) in the late 1930s, McClean wrote:
The pilot sat on the leading edge with his feet in space and a strut to hold on to with one hand while the other did the work. The passenger (if any) sat behind him and also held on, but in moments of nervous breakdown was liable to grip the pilot with his or her knees, thereby making the manipulation of the controls more erratic.
… These machines did not necessarily fly when they first left the Works, but if after charging the largest bumps on Eastchurch Aerodrome they refused to stay in the air, extra lengths were added to the wing tips and success thereby achieved, even though the speed was reduced from some thirty-five miles an hour to a possible thirty.
November saw McClean making numerous flights. In its issue for the 19th Flight reported:
On Wednesday, the
9th inst, he brought out [his Gnome-engined Short biplane], and despite a stiffish breeze immediately rose to about 100ft. He was content, on this occasion, to remain within the immediate vicinity of the grounds, flying in circles and figure eights and executing several successful vols plane, at which… he is becoming quite an adept. One of these exhibitions was particularly clean, the machine approaching to within 15–20ft of the ground before the engine was re-started. Later in the day Mr McClean was again seen to advantage, on this occasion making several short trips carrying a lady passenger.
On Thursday, the 10th, Mr McClean… made a splendid flight of over an hour’s duration [The Aero put it at 67 minutes]. He frequently passed over Harty and the surrounding country, returning each time along the coast line, and ultimately effecting a good landing from a steady vol plane of some 150ft.
Friday was an impossible day, but on Saturday Mr McClean beat all his previous performances by remaining aloft for well over an hour and a quarter. His journeyings on this occasion extended over Harty and Shellbeach on the one side, and Queenborough and Sheerness on the other.
Frank McClean Page 6
