Famous names figure in airport’s 100 years (From Basingstoke Gazette)

Famous names figure in airport’s 100 years

11:58am Tuesday 2nd March 2010 in

• Skip social links
• Print
• Email
•  

THE GATEWAY to Europe is only 22 minutes away by train from Basingstoke to Southampton International Airport – a place which celebrates its 100th birthday this year.

It was back in 1910 that pioneering Hampshire aviator, Edwin Rowland Moon, flew his home-made monoplane Moonbeam II from the meadows of North Stoneham Farm – the site of today’s bustling airport.

The airport has quite a history, with the farm being requisitioned during the First World War by the War Office as an aircraft acceptance park.

However, before its completion, the base was given to the US Navy to develop an assembly area for future bombing operations in northern Europe in 1917.

That year, the hanger that was to become the terminal building for the early airport, was built by prisoners of war.

However, it was not until May 1919 that the airport’s first fare paying passenger – a Lieutenant GP Templeton of the Tank Corps – boarded a twin engine Handley- Page aircraft, flying to London.

By 1921, the site had become a trans-migrant centre called the Atlantic Park Hostel.

It did not become an active airfield again until the late 1920s, becoming Southampton Municipal Airport in 1932.

Today, the airport is a far cry from when it was an airfield on a farm in 1910.

Now, it welcomes around two million passengers a year, who fly to and from 48 destinations around the UK, and mainland Europe.

To mark its historic milestone, the airport is running a series of centenary events, details of which can be found at centenaryof- flight.co.uk.

Edwin’s triumphant powered flight may well have been no more than a series of hops as, after all, this was at a time when aircraft were in their infancy – the Wright brothers in America had only just flown their plane in December 1903.

Our hero’s innovation and ingenuity no doubt inspired others to design, build and fly aeroplanes from Hampshire, which was to become home to the Spitfire and Skeeter helicopters.

Perhaps, Edwin himself was inspired by the first man to fly a plane in Britain, Colonel Samuel Cody.

The flamboyant showman, who stylised himself along the lines of Buffalo Bill, flew his British Army Aeroplane No 1 in 1908, at Farnborough.

Another pioneer, who came on to the scene a little later, was the remarkable Sir Alan Cobham, a highly-acclaimed test pilot and aerial photographer.

After serving in the Royal Flying Corps during the First World War, he was enthusiastic about the potential of long-distance air travel, and was the first to fly a plane from India, Australia and South America.

He set up his Cobham’s Flying Circus, which featured skilled acrobatic pilots, parachutists and wing walkers.

With around 15 aeroplanes, his flying circus put on an impressive performance at the opening of Southampton Municipal Airport in August 1932.

He also took to the skies over Basingstoke, offering pleasure flights from today’s Oakridge area, flying and landing from the former site of Basingstoke Golf Club.