Nostalgia: Inspirational men in flying machines

A brief interview with the aeronaut, RAF Lieutenant Mapplebeck, was reported in the Courier on 14th April that year. He explained that he was on a test flight from Salisbury Plain in the Bleriot Experimental Biplane number 242. His engine was an eight cylinder Renault capable of 70 mph horse-power.

The start of the Second World War was still nearly four months away and so the fixed-wing aircraft posed no threat as it was first sighted directly above Welch’s meadow at about 1pm.

Eye witnesses said the biplane circled, as though about to settle at the side of the river, indeed dropping within a yard or so of the grass. Then it rose again and headed in the direction of the Grand Union Canal where it finally landed close to the Warwickshire Polo Club and Sydenham Farm.

Men, women and children followed and, heedless of their own dinners spoiling at home, the Courier noted how they began to prowl around like: “A whole batch of German spies, and, not a few glances of admiration - to say nothing of awe - were cast in the direction of the unknown pilot, the hero of it all.”

The reporter concluded: “At about a quarter to three, Lt Mapplebeck returned from lunch. He was imemdiately surrounded by a small army of young people, who kept him busy for several minutes signing his autograph in albums, on postcards and on small slips of paper - some of them not over-clean...” before taking off south for Salisbury Plain.

* Two years later, in 1916, another biplane made a forced landing on Hearsall Common in Coventry after developing an oil leak. Among the crowd of excited small boys who quickly surroudned it was eight-year-old Frank Whittle, future inventor of the jet engine.

In his later memoirs, Sir Frank recalled how the updraft as the plane took off again, blew off his school cap. It was a defining moment. By the time he won a scholarship to Leamington College, young Frank already knew exactly what he wanted to do in life.