Blackburn Type D at Harrogate Stray.
This pilot worked for Robert Blackburn being a demonstration pilot for the company and was employed to undertake a series of flights to show off the companies brand new Type D Monoplane in 1913. The aeroplane appears to have been owned by Cyril Edgar Foggin, of Lofthouse Park. On Tuesday, 22nd April 1913 it was successfully flown from Lofthouse Park, Wakefield to land at Harrogate Stray with the flight made at between 3000 and 4000 feet and with a strong side wind effecting flying. The flight must have been pre-publicised as there was a large crowd waiting to greet him where the aeroplane remained for four hours. At around 17.30hrs the pilot took off for the return flight with a large crowd watching. The aircraft rose to around fifty feet but the pilot then had to make a sharp turn, it stalled and crashed nose first on the Stray. The pilot received slight injuries but the aeroplane was badly damaged. The pilot was driven back to Leeds while the aeroplane was later transported back on a lorry. He later stated that he had to make the turn to avoid the crowd ahead of the aircraft.
Pilot - Mr Harold Blackburn.
There is a suggestion elsewhere that the aeroplane damaged at Harrogate was known as the Blackburn Type 1 Christie Monoplane. The Type 1 Christie was a two seater variant of the Type D and the documentation I can find suggests that the Type 1 was not being flown as early as April 1913 for these demonstration flights. The Type D was repaired following this accident in April 1913 and Harold Blackburn would then fly it from Wakefield to York on three successive days carrying bundles of the Yorkshire Post newspapers in July 1913. The aeroplane remains in airworthy condition being held by the Shuttleworth Collection and is the oldest flying British aeroplane.