Bleriot Monoplane near Apperley Bridge.
During the 22nd March 1910 this aircraft was flown on three short flights in the Apperley Bridge area around the home of the pilot and owner. After making the third flight the engine of the Bleriot began to mis-fire and the aircraft lost height and was landed but ran into a stone wall, damaged a wing and the propeller. The pilot escaped injury. The photograph shows the crashed aircraft with originals also appearing in newspapers of the day.
Pilot - Mr John William House, of Bradford.
Mr Albert House and his son John House ran the Northern Aero Syndicate company; John had built his own glider in 1905 and his father was reputed to have been the first motor car owner in Bradford. The pair owned a Bleriot aircraft which they initially flew from their home area of Apperley Bridge, Bradford in 1910. It was stored in a hanger at Airedale Aerodrome on Rawdon Meadow. John House had crashed the aircraft at Apperley Bridge on to attempt to win a prize offered for someone flying the two mile stretch of Filey beach to be awarded only to a person who had not previously won such a competition. The Bleriot then crashed again at Filey, believed to have been in late-July 1910. After suffering a number of mishaps at Filey in the summer of 1910 the Northern Aero Synicate company went into liquidation. John House is then believed to have joined forces with Mr Blackburn in buying a cottage on the cliff tops and assisting him at Filey with his flying activities. The photograph shown above is their hanger. Both photographs came to me via the late Albert Pritchard.
