Rebuilding Britains History

[John Arton]

On BBC 4 last night there was a program with this title and it was all about taking apart brick by brick and rebuilding it of the largest aircraft factory of WW1, situated in Hendon, London.
Claude White was a successful car salesman who was fascinated by aviation. He was also a brilliant engineer. He taught himself to fly and started up the first London Airport at Hendon. By 1911 it had become on of the most popular destination for London's society attracting as bigger crowds as Henley regatta etc. He was the first person to recognise the value of aviation for military use but also for commercial use flying people around the world. By 1917 his factory at Hendon employed around 3000 people (men and women) building aircraft for the Navy (fore runner of the RAF).
A truly amazing man who was the first person to take fare paying passengers up in the air and at his aerodrome trained most of the WW1 airplane pilots.
His factory was a model of modern factory layout and his workers were well paid and had medical treatment etc. for free. The frontage and rear of his factory have been taken apart and rebuilt at the RAF museum at the following link.
Aviation Museum Guide | Royal Airforce Museum Hendon, London, England
For U.K. viewers check it out on BBC IPlayer, for overseas viewers maybe someone can put it up onto UTube.
Just google Claude Graeme White for more info.
rgds
JA

[Frederick Lacey]

Hi John, thought this would be of interest to you..Google, Stow Maries Aerodrome was a WW1 aerodrome and is being refurbished, has many pages
Wiki and Facebook etc, see many of the old type planes flying overhead, looks like they are held together with wire and bits of string, enjoy.

Fred.

[happy daze john in oz]

Even in the 60's there were still some very basic airports around the country. I flew in 1967 to Jersey in a DC 6 from a grass airfield in Portsmouth.

[John Arton]

As a follow on from my original post. In Hendon there is still Airport Road which originally ran through the centre of the complex and at least one of the original buildings, the canteen and rest rooms, is still standing there.
rgds
JA