Royal Aero Club

The Royal Aero Club (RAeC) is the national co-ordinating body for Air Sport in the United Kingdom.

The Aero Club was founded in 1901 by Frank Hedges Butler, his daughter Vera and the Hon Charles Rolls (one of the founders of Rolls-Royce), partly inspired by the Aero Club of France. It was initially concerned more with ballooning but, after the invention of heavier than air flight, it embraced the airplane. The original club constitution declared that it was dedicated to 'the encouragement of aero auto-mobilism and ballooning as a sport.' As originally founded, it was primarily a London gentlemen's club, but gradually moved on to a more regulatory role. It had a clubhouse at 119 Piccadilly, which it retained until 1961.^[1]

In 1909 the Club was granted the Royal prefix. From 1910 the Club issued Aviators Certificates, which were internationally recognised under the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (the FAI) to which the club was the UK representative. The Club is responsible for control in the UK of all private and sporting flying, as well as for records and competitions.

The Club established its first flying ground at Muswell Manor near Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey in 1909. It was at this ground that John Moore-Brabazon (later Lord Brabazon of Tara) made a flight of 500 yards in his Voisin. This is officially recognised as the first flight by a British pilot in Britain.

Contacts with the Wright brothers led to early members of the Club, the brothers Horace, Eustace and Oswald Short, acquiring for their company Short Brothers a Wright license and laying down the first aircraft production line in the world, at Leysdown.

After inspecting the factory, the Wright Brothers had their photograph taken outside of the aero-club Muswell Manor with all of the early aviation pioneers to commemorate their visit to Britain.

Just two days before the Wright Brothers historic visit, Moore-Brabazon became the first resident English man to make an officially recognised aeroplane flight in England. On 2 May 1909 he was also the first to cover a mile (closed circuit) in a British aeroplane. Two days later, on 4 November 1909, he decided to take up a passenger, a piglet, which he named Icarus 2nd, thereby debunking the old adage that pigs can't fly.

All of these historic events happened on the grounds of the Aero Club at Shellness, Leysdown, Kent. It moved the next year to Eastchurch.

Until 1915 the British Military did not have any pilot training facilities. As a result most early military pilots were trained by members of the club and many became members. By the end of the First World War, more than 6,300 military pilots had taken RAeC Aviator's Certificates.

After the loss of its Piccadilly clubhouse in 1961, the club was unhappily lodged in the Lansdowne Club at 9 Fitzmaurice Place until 1968. It then moved for a short spell to the Junior Carlton Club's modern building at 94 Pall Mall, before moving on to the United Service Club's building at 116 Pall Mall. By 1977, the club was homeless, and it merged to become part of the British Gliding Association.^[1]

Today the Royal Aero Club continues to be the national governing and coordinating body of air sport and recreational flying. The governing bodies of the various forms of sporting aviation are all members of the Royal Aero Club, which is the UK governing body for international sporting purposes. The Royal Aero Club also acts to support and protect the rights of recreational pilots in the context of national and international regulation.

Some aviator certificates

The following are some of the first people to gain their aviator certificates:^[2][3]

• 1 - J T C Moore-Brabazon - 8 March 1910
• 2 - Hon C S Rolls - 8 March 1910
• 3 - A Rawlinson - 5 April 1910
• 4 - C S Grace - 12 April 1910
• 5 - G B Cockburn - 26 April 1910
• 6 - C Grahame-White - 26 April 1910
• 7 - A Ogilvie - 24 May 1910
• 8 - A M Singer - 31 May 1910
• 9 - L D L Gibbs - 7 June 1910
• 10 - S F Cody - 14 June 1910 - made first aeroplane flight in Britain
• 18 - Alliott Verdon Roe - 26 July 1910
• 21 - Francis McClean - 20 September 1910 - founding member of Royal Aero Club
• 27 - Captain John Fulton - 15 November 1910 - founding member of the Air Battalion Royal Engineers
• 31 - Thomas Sopwith - 22 November 1910
• 42 - Henry Cook - 31 December 1910^[4]
• 53 - Geoffrey de Havilland - 7 February 1911
• 64 - Gustav Hamel - 14 February 1911
• 72 - Lieutenant Arthur Longmore RN - 25 April 1911 - later Air Chief Marshal Sir Arthur Longmore RAF
• 95 - Frederick Sykes - 20 June 1911
• 108 - Robert Brooke-Popham - July 1911
• 118 - Colonel D Henderson - 17 August 1911
• 122 - Hilda Hewlett - 29 August 1911 - the first British woman to receive a pilot's certificate
• 125 - Captain D LeG Pitcher - 29 August 1911
• 127 - Lieutenant Robert Clark-Hall RN - 1911 - later Air Marshal Sir Robert Clark-Hall RAF (and Air Commodore RNZAF 1943-45)^[5]
• 130 - E W Copland Perry - 12 September 1911
• 144 - Cyril Newall - 3 October 1911
• 147 - William Barnard Rhodes-Moorhouse - 17 October 1911
• 186 - Marcel Desoutter - 27 February 1912
• 270 - Hugh Trenchard - 18 August 1912 - later to command the Royal Flying Corps in France and serve as first Chief of the Air Staff
• 280 - Philip Joubert de la Ferté - 3 September 1912
• 297 - Harry Hawker - 17 September 1912
• 305 - Edward Leonard Ellington - 1 October 1912 - later Marshal of the Royal Air Force
• 368 - John Alcock - 26 November 1912
• xxx - Lieutenant Charles Rumney Samson RN - 1912 - transferred 1912 to the RFC Naval Wing, in 1914 to RNAS and in 1919 RAF, retiring as Air Commodore
• 525 - W Sefton Brancker - 18 June 1913
• 605 - Lord George Wellesley - 28 August 1913
• 632 - Noel Pemberton Billing - 17 September 1913
• 646 - Christopher Draper - 9 October 1913
• 711 - Capt Hugh C T Dowding - 20 December 1913
• 813 - John Lankester Parker - 18 June 1914
• 1281 - Edward Maitland
• 1301 - Sholto Douglas - May 1915
• 3949 - Quintin Brand - later Air Vice-Marshal
• 5093 - Henry John Lawrence Botterell

References