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January 1910

The Wokingham Whale at Windsor

See also
Royal Windsor History Index Index to Aviation Stories on Thamesweb Royal Windsor
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The First Aerial Post

The Wokingham Whale in St leonards Road

The Wokingham Whale on a Pickfords trailor in St Leonards Road

In the early 1900s The Daily Mail newspaper offered a variety of substantial prizes for aviation 'firsts' such as crossing the Channel, won by Louis Blériot in July 1909, and a 'Round Britain' flight, won by André Beaumont in 1911. These competitions, and others like them, had resulted in many attempts to build suitable aeroplanes and one of the competing designs was, according to a Lloyds Weekly News illustration dated 9th January 1910, being constructed in Wokingham by the owner of a joinery company, Mr A.M. Farbrother.

Wokingham Whale

The Wokingham Whale by Windsor Cemetery
The photograph is inscribed "The Airship gondola" on the reverse

The large fuselage on a horse drawn cart was photographed in January 1910 outside the entrance to the cemetery in St Leonards Road, Windsor. It was brought from Wokingham on a Pickfords horse and cart for an 80 h.p. Blériot engine to be installed.
  The 16 portholes were to hold poles on which canvas was to be spread forming 'wings'. At that time Patrick Y. Alexander was a part time aeronautics teacher at the United Services College (later ISC) in Alma Road, Windsor. He was regarded as a propeller design expert, and the Farbrother aircraft was to be 'lifted' by power transmitted by a long shaft. P.Y. Alexander kept several cuttings from Motor World and Flight magazines about the machine, which was seen by many Windsor boys, almost certainly including Sydney Camm and his brother Fred Camm.
  The gondola was huge. It was 66 feet long and designed to extend telescopically to 140 feet in length, 31 feet high and 20 feet wide. It was planned to have a 'Rotoscope' installed making 1,200 revolutions per minute to lift it into the air, complete with seating, electric lighting, 'self-balancing' hammocks, and lavatory accommodation, "for navigation over seas and other waters".   Application was made for patents, but these appear to have been refused.
  The fuselage was conveyed back to Wokingham, where it was eventually broken up, after Mr Farbrother had sold his cottage to finance the project, helped by donations from Wokingham people. Enthusiasm had outstripped skill and financial prudence again.

Wokingham Whale in Wokingham

The Wokingham Whale at Farbrother's premises in Westcott Road, Wokingham

See also
Royal Windsor History Index Index to Aviation Stories on Thamesweb Royal Windsor
Home Page

The First Aerial Post

 



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