Mersey Aeroplane Co
The Mersey Aeroplane Company
nb: the plane was called Mersey but maybe there wasn't a Mersey Aeroplane Co
The company Planes Ltd was set up in 1909 to build a plane created by W. P. Thompson. A biplane based on his ideas was built by Handley Page in 1909.
In May 1912 it appears that the Mersey Aeroplane co took over Planes Ltd and the designs.
At the Larkhill Trials the Mersey Aeroplane crashed killing the pilot Robert C. Fenwick. Sydney Swaby, partner of Mr Fenwick, in the company, stated that the monoplane which crashed had been constructed by himself and Mr Fenwick with the help of a carpenter[1]
1912 'TRAGEDY OF ARMY AIR TESTS. BRITISH FLYER KILLED. INVENTOR'S MACHINE WRECKED. )From our special correspondent)
LARKHILL CAMP. Aug. 13. - During the Army aeroplane trials this evening Mr. Ralph Fenwick, the pilot of the Mersey Aeroplane Company, of Freshfield, Lancashire, fell with his machine, which he helped to design and build, from a height of some 300ft., and was killed instantly. I watched Fenwick start on his fatal journey. I fancy, but it might only have been fancy, from the sound of the exhaust, that his engine was not working quite smoothly. Still, the little aeroplane rose well and flew away down into the valley towards Stonehenge, where I lost sight of it. It went barely a mile. Nobody will over know the cause of the accident, for the machine was smashed to matchwood, but eye-witnesses tell me that something seemed to go wrong when the aeroplane was up, and that the pilot began to come down, and then, at a height of about 300ft., just crashed down like a stone. The machine was, I believe, the lightest entered for the trials, weighing only 800lb. with everything on board. It had a wing span of 30ft., and the engine was an Isaacson of 4-hp. ...... The machine was, to a certain extent, an experimental one, having made only three flights during the competition, during which a passenger was carried, and everything went well. Previously at Freshfield, with a wing of another pattern, there had been an accident with the machine. None of the tests in this competition had been passed. Fenwick, the pilot, was 26 years old, and unmarried. He was accounted a skilful and experienced flier. The accident happened at a quarter-past six, at the close of a magnificent afternoon's flying. Mr Fenwick helped to build and design the machine on which he met his death. It was of somewhat peculiar construction, being fitted with two monoplane wings, with the propeller behind. The idea of the constructors was to leave a clear front view for the pilot.'[2]
See Also
Sources of Information
- The Aeroplanes of the Royal Flying Corps (Military Wing) by J. M. Bruce. Published in 1982.