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Alan Cobham
Sir Alan John Cobham, KBE, AFC (6 May 1894 – 21 October 1973) was an English aviation pioneer.
As a child he attended Wilson's School,[page needed] which was then in Camberwell, London. The school was relocated to the former site of Croydon Airport in 1975.
After National Service and a short career at the Bar, Michael Cobham followed him into the Flight Refuelling business, and for many years was in charge of it.
Alan Cobham began work as a teenage commercial apprentice in the City of London. He enjoyed the outdoors, and after completing his apprenticeship spent a year working on his uncle's farm, hoping to make a career in estate management. After a brief return to London commercial work, in August 1914 he joined the British Army, and was directed to the Royal Army Veterinary Corps due to his farming experience. He served on the Western Front from 1914 to 1917. He dealt mainly with injured horses, and attained the rank of Staff Veterinary Sergeant. After transfer to the Royal Flying Corps and then the Royal Air Force, he became a Pilot Officer flying instructor.
After the war Cobham became a test pilot for the de Havilland aircraft company, and was the first pilot for the newly formed de Havilland Aeroplane Hire Service. In 1921 he made a 5,000-mile air tour of Europe, visiting 17 cities in three weeks. Between 16 November 1925 and 13 March 1926, he made a trip from London to Cape Town and return in his de Havilland DH.50, in which he had replaced the original Siddeley Puma engine with a more powerful, air-cooled Jaguar. On 30 June 1926, he set off on a flight from Britain (from the River Medway) to Australia, where 60,000 people swarmed across the grassy fields of Essendon Airport, Melbourne, when he landed his de Havilland DH.50 floatplane (it had been converted to a wheeled undercarriage earlier, at Darwin). During the flight to Australia, Cobham's engineer of the D.H.50 aircraft, Arthur B. Elliot, was shot and killed after they left Baghdad on 5 July 1926. The return flight was undertaken over the same route. Cobham was knighted the same year.
On 25 November 1926, Cobham attempted but failed to be the first person to deliver mail to New York City by air from the east, planning to fly mail from the White Star ocean liner RMS Homeric in a de Havilland DH.60 Moth floatplane when the ship was about 12 hours from New York harbour on a westbound crossing from Southampton. After the Moth was lowered from the ship, however, Cobham was unable to take off owing to rough water and had to be towed into port by the ship. The same year Cobham was awarded the gold medal by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
Cobham starred as himself in the 1927 British war film The Flight Commander directed by Maurice Elvey. In 1927–28 he flew a Short Singapore flying boat around the continent of Africa landing only in British territory. Cobham wrote his own contemporary accounts of his flights, and recalls them in his biography. The films With Cobham to the Cape (1926), Round Africa with Cobham (1928) and With Cobham to Kivu (1932) contain valuable footage of the flights. Recent commentaries contextualize his flights across the British Empire in the wider events and culture of the time.
In 1929 Cobham mounted his first tour of Britain, called the Municipal Aerodrome Campaign. This was an ambitious plan to encourage town councils to build local airports in the hope of drumming up business for his activities as an aviation consultant. Each event would start with free flights to local dignitaries followed by free flights for local schoolchildren, the latter funded by Sir Charles Wakefield, the founder of Castrol, who paid the fares for ten thousand such flights. The day would finish with as many paid-for pleasure flights as could be managed for the public, the income from which would pay his expenses and make him a profit. The tour visited 110 venues between May and October 1929 using a ten-passenger de Havilland DH.61 Giant Moth G-AAEV named Youth of Britain. Cobham declared the tour to have been a great success.
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Alan Cobham
Sir Alan John Cobham, KBE, AFC (6 May 1894 – 21 October 1973) was an English aviation pioneer.
As a child he attended Wilson's School,[page needed] which was then in Camberwell, London. The school was relocated to the former site of Croydon Airport in 1975.
After National Service and a short career at the Bar, Michael Cobham followed him into the Flight Refuelling business, and for many years was in charge of it.
Alan Cobham began work as a teenage commercial apprentice in the City of London. He enjoyed the outdoors, and after completing his apprenticeship spent a year working on his uncle's farm, hoping to make a career in estate management. After a brief return to London commercial work, in August 1914 he joined the British Army, and was directed to the Royal Army Veterinary Corps due to his farming experience. He served on the Western Front from 1914 to 1917. He dealt mainly with injured horses, and attained the rank of Staff Veterinary Sergeant. After transfer to the Royal Flying Corps and then the Royal Air Force, he became a Pilot Officer flying instructor.
After the war Cobham became a test pilot for the de Havilland aircraft company, and was the first pilot for the newly formed de Havilland Aeroplane Hire Service. In 1921 he made a 5,000-mile air tour of Europe, visiting 17 cities in three weeks. Between 16 November 1925 and 13 March 1926, he made a trip from London to Cape Town and return in his de Havilland DH.50, in which he had replaced the original Siddeley Puma engine with a more powerful, air-cooled Jaguar. On 30 June 1926, he set off on a flight from Britain (from the River Medway) to Australia, where 60,000 people swarmed across the grassy fields of Essendon Airport, Melbourne, when he landed his de Havilland DH.50 floatplane (it had been converted to a wheeled undercarriage earlier, at Darwin). During the flight to Australia, Cobham's engineer of the D.H.50 aircraft, Arthur B. Elliot, was shot and killed after they left Baghdad on 5 July 1926. The return flight was undertaken over the same route. Cobham was knighted the same year.
On 25 November 1926, Cobham attempted but failed to be the first person to deliver mail to New York City by air from the east, planning to fly mail from the White Star ocean liner RMS Homeric in a de Havilland DH.60 Moth floatplane when the ship was about 12 hours from New York harbour on a westbound crossing from Southampton. After the Moth was lowered from the ship, however, Cobham was unable to take off owing to rough water and had to be towed into port by the ship. The same year Cobham was awarded the gold medal by the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale.
Cobham starred as himself in the 1927 British war film The Flight Commander directed by Maurice Elvey. In 1927–28 he flew a Short Singapore flying boat around the continent of Africa landing only in British territory. Cobham wrote his own contemporary accounts of his flights, and recalls them in his biography. The films With Cobham to the Cape (1926), Round Africa with Cobham (1928) and With Cobham to Kivu (1932) contain valuable footage of the flights. Recent commentaries contextualize his flights across the British Empire in the wider events and culture of the time.
In 1929 Cobham mounted his first tour of Britain, called the Municipal Aerodrome Campaign. This was an ambitious plan to encourage town councils to build local airports in the hope of drumming up business for his activities as an aviation consultant. Each event would start with free flights to local dignitaries followed by free flights for local schoolchildren, the latter funded by Sir Charles Wakefield, the founder of Castrol, who paid the fares for ten thousand such flights. The day would finish with as many paid-for pleasure flights as could be managed for the public, the income from which would pay his expenses and make him a profit. The tour visited 110 venues between May and October 1929 using a ten-passenger de Havilland DH.61 Giant Moth G-AAEV named Youth of Britain. Cobham declared the tour to have been a great success.