The three-month flight along the Nile

Advice, information and discussion about Egypt in general.

Moderators: DJKeefy, 4u Network

Post Reply
User avatar
HEPZIBAH
Luxor4u God
Luxor4u God
Posts: 12116
Joined: Sat Mar 25, 2006 9:15 pm
Has thanked: 1600 times
Been thanked: 2601 times
Gender:
Contact:
United Kingdom

The three-month flight along the Nile

Post by HEPZIBAH »

Not sure if this article has already been posted but thought it may be of interest to some, not least those who managed to take a flight on the sea plane when it was operational in Luxor.

The three-month flight along the Nile
By Matthew Teller
Travel writer

When an early British sea plane, the S.80, made a three-month expedition south down the Nile in 1914, the mechanic was unnamed in the newspaper reports. But the adventure's success depended on his expertise.

It started with a tweet.

Diplomacy and Twitter might seem like chalk and cheese, but one of my more interesting follows is Tom Fletcher, Britain's ambassador to Lebanon.

Recently Tom tweeted that his great-grandfather Gus Smith had been the mechanic on the first flight along the River Nile, exactly one hundred years ago.

I wondered if he had any more detail. Thanks to family records supplied by Tom's father Mark, which have never before been made public, details of a remarkable adventure emerge.

In the early years of aviation, it was the pilots' skill which caught the public imagination.

The Wright brothers came first in 1903 - a few seconds aloft, at barely more than head height above the ground. Then Louis Bleriot successfully flew the English Channel.

Wedding photo showing Gus Smith and Lily Powell
Gus Smith and Lily Powell married on 6 March 1915
When Frank McClean, a wealthy Irish aviator, steered a biplane he'd developed with the engineering firm Short Brothers between the towers of Tower Bridge in London, the Times newspaper noted: "The engine ran smoothly and the machine was always under complete control."

But the Times made no mention of the reason for such smoothness - McClean's mechanic, a young man named Augustus Leonard Smith - Tom Fletcher's great-grandfather Gus.

Gus had joined Short Brothers just as they were transitioning their aviation manufacturing business from balloons to powered aircraft, backed by lucrative deals with McClean and other pioneers.

Gus quickly rose to the peak of his trade, working at Short Brothers' Eastchurch factory in Kent on some of the era's most technologically advanced flying machines.

By 1913 the Short brothers, under commission from Frank McClean, had developed a "hydro-aeroplane" that could not only take off and land on water, but also carry three passengers.

The French National Air League had just issued a challenge to test the viability of long-distance air travel by flying from Paris to Cairo. French aviators were racing each other that autumn across Europe. No doubt the Brits wanted to go one better.

Amid the Edwardian craze for pharaonic discovery, McClean decided to follow the Nile south.

The last week of December 1913 saw McClean, another pioneer aviator Alec Ogilvie, businessman Horace Short and flight mechanic Gus Smith at the Naval Dockyard in Alexandria, on Egypt's Mediterranean coast, receiving a consignment of crates newly arrived from Liverpool containing the disassembled "hydro-aeroplane".

As flight mechanic, Gus would probably have rebuilt the aircraft himself, from its 20-metre wings to the French-designed 14-cylinder engine. Lives depended on him.

On 3 January 1914, with passengers and crew aboard, McClean steered the extraordinarily flimsy machine of wood and wire into the skies over Alexandria. The Times was there, again noting the pilot but leaving his mechanic unnamed.

With the plane's limited range, the journey south formed a series of short hops. Petrol supplies had been left at points all along the route, but even so the team was plagued by engine trouble.


The crew relaxed pre-flight with a camel ride at the Pyramids on 24 Dec 1913
Thirteen breakdowns, with extended delays waiting for delivery of spare parts, meant that the flight to Khartoum - perhaps 1,500 miles, at an altitude of around 60 metres above the Nile - took almost three months.

Adding insult to injury, they were overtaken by French airman Marc Pourpe.

If seaplanes could land on the Thames, McClean reasoned, then why not on the Nile and other rivers in Africa? The enthusiastic aviator spent much of 1913 preparing for an Egyptian adventure.

By flying a wheeled monoplane Pourpe didn't have to rely on the meandering river for takeoffs and landings. He made Khartoum in around 10 days.

That said, there doesn't seem to have been any question of a race, and the Brits persevered, reaching Khartoum on 22 March 1914 - though the prospect of a three-month return no doubt prompted the decision to dismantle the plane and ship it back to England.

Both McClean and Gus Smith flew with the Royal Naval Air Service in the First World War.

McClean was knighted in 1926. And Gus's love of aircraft persisted - he worked as a flight instructor between the wars, and died in 1942, at the age of only 58.

A few days later, his sister received a letter on the stationery of London's Royal Aero Club.

It read: "Though it is a long time since my days at Eastchurch and on the Nile, Gus was so much a part of those days and of the struggle to make machines fly that no recollection is complete without him, and it was in great part due to him that failure was avoided."

The letter was signed FK McClean.

This year, Gus Smith's great-grandson Ambassador Tom Fletcher tells me, plans are afoot to commemorate the centenary of the Nile flight with an event in Cairo, where a model of the 1914 plane is on museum display.

I hope they're realised.

For all the headline-making skill of those at the controls, we now, as then, only stay up thanks to the likes of Gus Smith.

There is more information on the 1914 Nile flight at the Royal Aero Club Collection

For the photo's that are with this article go to http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-25578363

Just seen this follow up alert:
UK in Egypt
The #NileFlight over #Egypt: Stay tuned for rare photographs of #Egypt and Sir Francis McClean's flight from Alexandria to Khartoum over the cities of Egypt from 1914.


Image Experience is not what happens to you;
it is what you do with what happens to you.
-Aldous Huxley
User avatar
Bullet Magnet
Royal V.I.P
Royal V.I.P
Posts: 2530
Joined: Sat Nov 21, 2009 10:38 am
Location: Le Manège Enchanté
Has thanked: 5362 times
Been thanked: 1475 times
Contact:

Re: The three-month flight along the Nile

Post by Bullet Magnet »

Now that is one adventure I would have liked to have been a part of... :up
There's a time for everyone, if they only learn
That the twisting kaleidoscope moves us all in turn.
User avatar
Who2
Egyptian God
Egyptian God
Posts: 7912
Joined: Fri Jul 16, 2010 12:04 pm
Location: Laandaan
Has thanked: 1114 times
Been thanked: 3214 times
Gender:
United Kingdom

Re: The three-month flight along the Nile

Post by Who2 »

Interesting article, but thank god the Luxor sea plane is not operating anymore, noisy blighter... :cool:
"The Salvation of Mankind lies in making everything the responsibility of All"
Sophocles.
User avatar
BBLUX
Egyptian God
Egyptian God
Posts: 7272
Joined: Fri Jan 21, 2005 1:17 pm
Location: Winter in West Bank, Luxor and La Vienne, France in Summer
Has thanked: 104 times
Been thanked: 357 times
Gender:
Contact:
France

Re: The three-month flight along the Nile

Post by BBLUX »

Yes, thank you Hepzi :)
The article does not really indicate the level of planning that must have gone in to the journey with petrol having to be forwarded to the likely landing sites. Much the same as the long range motorised desert explorers would have to have done. I suspect all the petrol and spare parts would have to been sent upriver from Cairo by boat so it is no wonder it took them so long.

Different times with a different pace of life. A pity in many ways that we have lost that now.

The Picasa web albums of The Royal Aero Club Collection make fascinating viewing as well. https://picasaweb.google.com/117089293238261970588
Image

Life is not measured by the breaths you take, but by the moments that take your breath away.
User avatar
Brian Yare
Royal V.I.P
Royal V.I.P
Posts: 2566
Joined: Mon Dec 01, 2008 4:11 pm
Location: Worcester, UK
Has thanked: 720 times
Been thanked: 647 times
Gender:
Contact:
United Kingdom

Re: The three-month flight along the Nile

Post by Brian Yare »

BBLUX wrote:Yes, thank you Hepzi :)
I suspect all the petrol and spare parts would have to been sent upriver from Cairo by boat so it is no wonder it took them so long.
They could have been sent by rail as far as Aswan. Also from Khartoum to Wadi Halfa by rail. Only the short section from Aswan to Wadi Halfa would have to be provisioned by water or road. :) :)
Post Reply
  • Similar Topics
    Replies
    Views
    Last post