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The combined failures of both the Berkshire Aviation Co. and
Airco in 1920 left Alan Cobham at the lowest ebb in his career. By
then aged 26 and eager to marry, what at first seemed another false
dawn proved a blessing in disguise.
Geoffrey de Havilland took Cobham on as chief pilot for the new
de Havilland Aeroplane Hire Co, flying to European trouble spots to
bring back press photographs, and dropping cans of film by
parachute to cinemas up and down the country.
He gained valuable long term experience undertaking extended
charter flights, sometimes lasting several weeks, carrying wealthy
patrons over Europe and the Middle East.
Opening the Air Routes
In 1924, on learning that the Director of Civil Aviation, Sir
Sefton Brancker, was planning to sail to India to assess the
locations for landing sites along possible future air routes to
Australia, Cobham raised extra funding, which then allowed Brancker
to charter an aircraft with Cobham as pilot.
It was the first return flight to and from the sub-continent,
and was acclaimed as a triumph by the media. Cobham, now enjoying
new-found fame, and enthused by the possibilities of long-distance
air travel by aeroplane, then organised and carried out, within 18
months, similar first return flights to South Africa and
Australia.
Unsurprisingly, he found himself in great demand, and a six-week
de Havilland sales tour across the northern United States and
Canada proved him an accomplished public speaker.
Airline aspirations
In 1927 circumnavigated Africa in a flying boat loaned by the
Air Ministry. His eventual aim was to form an airline to operate to
African destinations. Cobham-Blackburn Airlines was subsequently
created in partnership with Robert Blackburn but Imperial Airways,
with its vastly greater resources, had belatedly realised the
potential offered in Africa and was politically empowered to take
over their operations.
Capitalising on his fame Cobham branched out on his own, forming
an air consultancy called Alan Cobham Aviation Ltd. Its first
project was what he called his Municipal Aerodrome Campaign, a
highly publicised tour of Britain, which, in 1929, resulted in
50,000 passengers being taken for flights.
Cobham's aerial explorations in Africa were, however, not yet at
an end. In 1931 he embarked on a survey of Lake Kivu and other
waterways in the central region, flying a three-engined Short
Valetta seaplane.
Flying Circus
Following his return from Africa, Cobham hit upon the idea of
taking a large travelling air display around the British Isles.
Engaging a team of pilots, ground engineers and administrative
support staff, he provided exhibitions featuring 'thrills and
spills' at nearly 1,000 locations over the four years from 1932.
Altogether, three million people paid to see Cobham's Flying
Circus, an adventurous million of whom took part in flights that
veered from the sedate to the fast and furious and were guaranteed
to test the strongest stomach.
By the mid-1930s, Sir Alan Cobham's instinct for innovation told
him that touring air shows had largely run their course. The time
had come to move on. |
The first of Alan Cobham's pioneering
long-distance return flights was from Croydon to Rangoon in 1924.
His two companions were Air Vice Marshal Sir W. Sefton Brancker and
an engineer, Arthur Elliott. The main purpose of the flight was to
establish air routes to the Far East, whilst at the same time
helping decide whether flying boats, airships or land-based
aeroplanes would prove the most effective.
Three months after returning from Africa, Cobham
and long-serving engineer Arthur Elliott set off for Australia.
Billed as the "Rochester to London via Australia" flight, it was
marred by the death of Elliott from a bullet fired at the aircraft
by a lone tribesman in Iraq. Cobham went on and was met by a crowd
of more than 100,000 on his arrival in Melbourne, Australia. His
return to England and his landing on the Thames was watched by more
than a million people and was capped with a knighthood.
By the start of the 1930s, Cobham was more than
ever determined to make the public 'air minded'. He therefore
embarked on what he called his National Aviation Day display tour
of the British Isles, visiting nearly 1,000 locations between 1932
and 1935. Though not the first touring air display, Cobham's was
certainly the most highly organised, and was fondly recognised as
the 'Flying Circus' by both the media and general public.
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