Frank McClean

by Philip Jarrett

  The writer continued:

  The basis of the statement is that, through the Royal Aero Club, two exceptionally fine aeroplanes built by Short Bros, at Sheppey have been placed at the disposal of naval officers absolutely free of all cost, with the very simple conditions attached that officers using them must pay for breakages… and that the said officers shall become members of the Royal Aero Club, so as to have the right of entrée to the Club grounds at Eastchurch.

  No charge is to be made for the housing of the machines, and, further, instruction in their use will be given by members of the Club who are thoroughly competent to do so.

  Though the ownership of these machines has been hitherto kept more or less secret among the members of the Royal Aero Club out of respect for the wishes of the donor, it is undoubtedly, under the circumstances which have arisen, one’s duty to state definitely that the machines are the personal private property of Mr EK. McClean, and, further, that owing to the loss of one of the machines originally intended for this purpose, the machine being that driven by poor Cecil Grace, Mr McClean has ordered from Mr Short another machine to replace it.

  Unfortunately, Mr McClean is leaving this country in the course of a few weeks on an astronomical expedition to Tasmania [actually the Solar Eclipse Expedition to the Vava’u Group in the Tonga Islands in the South Pacific], to observe an eclipse on April 29, 1911 (Eastern date), but in the meantime he is himself giving his services as an instructor, and during his absence various other members of the Club who are competent pilots of standard type biplanes will take up his duties.

  Mr McClean’s action is surely as thoroughly patriotic as anything that has been done, and it is only to be hoped that when, in the future, we shall have in this country an adequate system of aerial defence in connection with the navy, Mr McClean’s name will go down in history as the founder of our British Naval Air Fleet.

  Mr McClean’s name is nothing like so well known in the world of aviation as it should be, considering his ability as an aviator, and many a man has attained international fame without having done half as many good flights, or one-tenth as much hard work as Mr McClean has done.

  It is necessary to appreciate this fact in order to realise the true modesty which has hitherto insisted on hiding the name of the man who had practically given two first-class aeroplanes to the British Admiralty; for, though the pupils who learn on these machines may pay for breakages, the fact remains that by the time Mr McClean returns from Tasmania [sic] they will probably have been so broken up and repaired that he will have to have a new machine for his own driving.

  Under any properly organised system a Government Department of National Defence would feel ashamed to accept weapons of war – for such aeroplanes are today – from a private individual, and certainly it would feel ashamed to think that the men who were to operate such weapons were to receive their training from mere civilians. All these facts, taken into consideration, merely accentuate the part which Mr McClean is playing in the affairs of the nation, and it is only to be hoped that in due time his action may be properly recognised.

  More than 200 officers had volunteered for the course of flying training at Eastchurch. From these, four (three naval and one marine) were selected for a six-month course of instruction commencing on 1 March. They were Lieutenants Gregory, Samson and Longmore, RN, and Lieutenant Wildman-Lushington, RMS. In McClean’s absence Mr G B Cockburn, an RAeC member and certificated pilot who had already been giving free instruction to army officers on Salisbury Plain, consented to give flying instruction. The officers were also to be given a course on aircraft construction by Short Brothers. Wildman-Lushington was taken ill just before the course started, his place being taken by Lieutenant E L Gerrard of the Royal Marine Light Infantry.

  The four officers were given confidential instructions direct from Admiral Drury that their task was to become instructors in their own right; that the main point to be kept in view was the ‘adaptability’ of aeroplanes for ship work, but that they were to keep from Shorts their views on working aeroplanes from ships lest Shorts gained a commercial advantage; and that Shorts were not led to believe that the Admiralty were bound in any way to buy their machines. The officers were not to fly on Sundays, and they were to make at least three flights as passengers before going solo. In particular they were to have experience as a passenger in a ‘strong wind’ before going solo in a wind in excess of 4mph, the local flying area and arrangements for medical assistance were to be clearly defined, and, even after obtaining their certificates, they were to have ‘considerable experience’ before flying over ships or towns. ‘Sensational vol plané’ and flights at ‘unnecessary heights’ were forbidden. Samson was appointed senior officer with responsibility for inspecting the aeroplanes, and made weekly reports to Admiral Drury.

  The Royal Aero Club sheds and Shorts Brothers’ works at Eastchurch in 1911. (AUTHOR)

  Instruction began in March, and Samson and Longmore were granted Aviators’ Certificates Nos 71 and 72, respectively, on 25 April, and Gregory and Gerrard were awarded certificates 75 and 76 on 2 May. They quickly became competent pilots, and all four made flights in the presence of Admiral HRH Prince Louis of Battenberg, the Second Sea Lord (First Sea Lord 1912–14) when he visited Eastchurch on 11 May and 10 June.

  Wreck and replace

  McClean had given Egerton permission to try out the new S.34, which was fitted with a nacelle (‘canoe’) to protect the occupants, before it was handed over to the navy. It was completed at about 5pm on 8 March, and Egerton immediately took it for a run along the ground. He ‘Started about 3/4 downwind with the intention of coming back against it’, but found the aircraft ‘very difficult to handle’ on the ground after his big machine, and could not steer it at all because it kept getting its head to wind and the lifting tail was troublesome. He made one or two sharp turns and buckled the axle, and the back-rest broke which prevented him from getting any purchase on the rudder bar. After stopping the engine at the top end of the ground he had to be guided back. The repairs were quickly effected. Egerton flew S.34 on 9 and 10 March, and made a 20-minute flight on the 12th. On the 16th Cock-burn flew it for the first time and gave Samson a few lessons.

  An improved S.27-type with a nacelle for the pilot outside the Eastchurch sheds in 1911. (AUTHOR)

  The Short S.34/Short-Sommer No 7, a copy of S.33, was built for McClean to be used to train Royal Navy pilots. Although it initially had a nacelle for its occupants, this was removed. It was eventually bought by the navy and became T.I. (AUTHOR)

  On 1 May Egerton was asked to test the repaired S.28, which had also been fitted with a nacelle. He had ‘just got it over the trees with the tail down’ when it ‘suddenly swung round and down’, and he was unable to correct it. According to McClean’s captions on photographs of the wreck, it ‘fell from about 80 feet’ and suffered major damage. Although Egerton had noted that ‘about 3 new spars [were] required, a fairly extensive smash up’, Samson faced a choice of repairing the wreck at a cost of £100 or spending £260 on a new machine incorporating the nacelle and engine salvaged from S.28. He recommended the second option in a letter to Admiral Drury dated 1 May, arguing that S.28 had been so badly damaged that its safety would always be doubtful after repair.

  The aircraft was therefore deemed unrepairable, and the Admiralty, in accordance with its agreement with McClean, ordered a new machine to replace it. Things moved quickly, and on Wednesday 24 May Samson took up the ‘new’ Short biplane, S.38 (Short-Sommer No 9) which had been ordered to replace S.28 and was ‘just out of the workshops’. (The order book identifies ‘F. McClean (Navy)’ as the customer, and gives the delivery date as 23 May.) Known as the ‘improved S.27’, this machine had a nacelle, upper wing extensions and ailerons on upper and lower surfaces. To improve structural rigidity kingposts had been added above the spars in the inner bays and below the spars in the centre bay, and the whole wing truss had been strengthened by the addition of solid compression ribs below the low
er surface of the upper wing, between the top sockets of the interplane struts. After a ‘trial trip’ of 45 minutes, during which he found ‘everything in perfect working order’, Samson made a 65-minute flight, landing in fading light and mist. By this time the naval pilots were also using S.32, which had passed into McClean’s ownership along with S.27 (Short-Sommer No 1; Grace’s first of the type) after Grace’s disappearance on McClean’s S.33. In addition, they had frequent use of McClean’s other aircraft and of Maurice Egerton’s S.35. The old S.26, which had deteriorated as a result of a series of crashes and had proved sluggish, had been relegated to preliminary taxiing lessons, being nicknamed ‘the Dud’ and ‘Th’ owd Bitch’ by the naval pilots. Early in June the nacelles were removed from both S.34 and S.38.

  Two views of the newly repaired S.28, now fitted with a nacelle for the pilot after Egerton’s accident of 1 May 1911, while he was testing it in McClean’s absence. Although Egerton thought it repairable, the Admiralty disagreed and it was written off, the engine and nacelle being incorporated in its replacement, the S.38. (AUTHOR)

  Lieutenant Gerrard, left, and Frank McClean try out the nacelle devised for the Short S.27-type biplanes. For obvious reasons this accommodation was initially dubbed the ‘canoe’, but the name did not stick. Worthy of note are the pilot’s instrument panel, the large control column, the map board worn on the pilot’s back for use by the occupant of the rear seat, and the large petrol tank immediately behind that seat. Although these nacelles appeared to be an improvement, providing the occupants with a degree of protection from the elements, they evidently proved unpopular and were soon removed, perhaps because they impeded accessibility. Nacelles reappeared on later Short pusher biplanes. (AUTHOR)

  Meanwhile, the creation of S.39 was apparently causing some problems for Horace Short. Having patented a variety of configurations in January 1911, he began its design, and ‘drawings’ of a twin-engine machine, described as ‘really lovely’, were displayed on Short’s stand at the Olympia Aero Show in March. However, according to E Travers, author of the book Cross Country (Hothersall & Travers, 1989), although Horace had great ‘brainpower and intelligence’, his designs to date had been based largely on other people’s aeroplanes. He was not a trained engineer, and despite his engineering background and practical experience he struggled unsuccessfully for some months to bring McClean’s ‘multiple plant’ machine into being.

  The Short S.27, alias Short-Sommer No. 1, was powered by a 60hp ENV engine and built for Cecil Grace. McClean acquired it in 1911, and after he had unsuccessfully put it up for sale it was converted into the Tandem Twin. (AUTHOR)

  In June 1911 Horace Short employed engineer/pilot J L Travers as his assistant and designer The new recruit was immediately put to work on the S.39, which was to have two engines and had been posing some problems for Horace. (AUTHOR)

  Finally, early in June, Horace took on the trained engineer and early Eastchurch pioneer J L (Jim) Travers as his assistant and designer. Travers tackled his new task energetically and, though the extent of his input into the S.39 is unclear, many alterations were made. On 18 June he wrote to his parents: ‘I have been very busy today hurrying on the new twin-engine machine which should be finished in about a month.’ As it was to transpire, even this forecast was over-optimistic.

  The aviator Claude Grahame-White and aviation journalist Harry Harper had evidently persuaded McClean to indulge in the precarious pursuit of prophecy, and in their book The Aeroplane: Past, Present, and Future, published in 1911, McClean was one of several prominent aviators who contributed to the final chapter, ‘The Future of Flying’. As might be expected at such an early stage in the aeroplane’s development, his comments were a mixture of cautiously vague forecasts and sage advice regarding safety:

  From the point of view of freight carrying, the prospect of success with the aeroplane is undoubtedly still very distant.

  For carrying ‘mails,’ there is a good possibility of use in certain cases, but only where there is considerable difficulty in land or water transport.

  For carrying up to half a dozen passengers of ordinary weight, this is possible at any time, but is hardly to be considered a commercial undertaking, as the expense would be very great.

  For rivalling trains or steamers, in carrying capacity, the prospect of the aeroplane is unlikely.

  The aeroplane of 1911 will certainly be as easily manipulated and as safe as a motor-car, provided that continuous care is taken, and only well-tried machines are used.

  This must, however, be qualified by the restriction that the machine is only used in reasonable weather. No motor-car is expected to stand a cross-country run at 40 to 50 miles an hour.

  A large factor of safety must always be employed, to stand any uncalculated stresses due to wind gusts tending to damage the planes, or due to an uneven landing and starting ground, which will injure the under-carriage. The latter is as important as the former both from the point of view of actual danger and from the consideration of large repair bills.

  Also incessant care is absolutely necessary to see that no bolts or split pins or wires are in a dangerous condition. All controls should be doubled.

  Forced landings, due to engine troubles, would be eliminated by the use of two engines running entirely separate, which will probably be in common use at an early date. Even if one engine alone is insufficient to keep the machine flying – it would so increase the landing radius that danger would be minimised.

  During their return from the eclipse expedition McClean and Lockyer stopped over in the USA, and on 24 and 25 June they visited and dined with the Wrights in the family home at Hawthorn Hill, Dayton, Ohio. Bishop Milton Wright, father of Wilbur and Orville, recorded the visit in his diary, noting: ‘McClean is six feet high and well built.’

  At 1.45am on 11 July McClean arrived at Paddington Station in London. Unfortunately, as J L Travers recorded, ‘… he was far from well and suffered spasmodic bouts of sciatica well into September’. In The Aeroplane for 7 September 1911 the editor, C G Grey, remarked that McClean ‘has been laid up with sciatica practically ever since he came back from eclipse-hunting in the South Seas’. This undoubtedly accounts for the hiatus before his first post-expedition flights at Eastchurch.

  His first flight appears to have been made on Saturday 29 July, Flight for 5 August reporting that he ‘demonstrated that he had lost none of his skill, for although the Short biplane which he piloted on this occasion was somewhat different to what he had previously been using, he made several good flights over Leysdown and Eastchurch during the evening’. This was probably S.38. The proceedings were rudely interrupted towards 8pm when a thunderstorm broke ‘with alarming suddenness’ and the wind speed rose from a dead calm to 30mph, reaching 60 or 70mph at 500–600ft and forcing McClean, Samson and Gregory to return in haste to the aerodrome, where they all landed safely. McClean was flying again on the Sunday and Monday.

  On the evening of Monday the 31st the flying ground at Eastchurch was visited by Their Royal Highnesses Prince and Princess Louise of Battenberg, Princess Henry of Prussia, and party, ‘who witnessed some splendid flying during their two hours’ stay’, as The Aeroplane reported in its 3 August issue. Between 6 and 8 o’clock McClean, Samson, Longmore, Gregory and Gerrard gave exhibition flights on Short biplanes, as did Ogilvie on his ‘Baby’ Wright (modified Short-Wright No 6). Several ladies of the royal party were given passenger flights by naval officers.

  Also in its 5 August issue, Flight reported on the aerostatic and aeronautical activities of the London Balloon Company of the Royal Engineer Territorials, recounting flights given to the NCOs and men by Geoffrey de Havilland on 28 July. The article concluded: ‘… a good, strong and reliable aeroplane is just the thing needed by the Company, and would make a very welcome present to the London Balloon Company, RE Territorials. Will somebody assist them to their desires?’

  Early in August McClean acquired his only non-Short aeroplane when he bought the Universal Aviat
ion Birdling monoplane, a Blériot XI copy, flown by H J D Astley in the Circuit of Britain from 22–26 July. On the 26th Astley withdrew owing to inferior castor oil lubricant causing engine problems, and he finally arrived back at Brooklands on the 31st. McClean’s purchase was announced in the 10 August issue of The Aeroplane, and the Birdling was quickly made available to the navy pilots. By early September, however, it was in pieces at Eastchurch, ‘having been the victim of some stray sheep which wandered across Lieutenant Samson’s path when he was landing’. ‘Not being used to the machine, on which he was making his first monoplane flight,’ The Aeroplane later reported, ‘he reached for his switch alongside, as it is placed on the Short, and forgot it was on the control wheel in front, a very natural mistake. Unfortunately, the short delay brought him too close to the sheep, and to avoid running into them he tried to jump over them, but, the throttle not being full open, the machine pancaked just beyond and smashed itself fairly completely.’ The Naval Flying School subsequently used the Birdling from November 1911 to 20 July 1912, when it was again damaged, repaired by Shorts and put back to work. It was still being used in early November 1912. In December 1913 McClean lent it to the Science Museum in London for a temporary aeronautical exhibition opened on 14 February 1914. It was apparently retained by the museum.

  In August 1911 McClean acquired his only non-Short prewar aeroplane when he bought this Universal Aviation Company Birdling monoplane, a Blériot XI copy, from H J D Astley who is seen in it here during the 1911 Circuit of Britain Race. (DAVID BROWNING)