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Sopwith Camel (Brooklands Museum).


fitted it and the aeroplane left for Bournemouth. Henderson was back at his base by 10.45am. A few days later General Seely, the Under Sec-


retary of State for Air, made a speech in which he stated aerodromes needed to be at least 400 yards long, as shorter fields would require the pilots to have super-human skills. Henderson disagreed. In The Times he pointed out that during the Derby (4th June) he and five other pilots operated easily out of a field 150 yards long with no difficulty, “I maintain that with the proper selection of pilots that such a danger becomes practically non- existent.” In The Aeroplane of 18th June Henderson wrote a letter complaining about the ministry’s attitude towards civilian flyers. He claimed they were excessively taxed and heavily charged for the use of aerodrome services. He said civilian flyers were treated as a nuisance. In support of this he quoted one official who said his (Henderson’s) flying was ‘not serious’.


Determination and perseverance In the King’s birthday honours list he was awarded the Air Force Cross. He took part in the Victory Aerial Derby, expecting to fly a Martinsyde F4, but the ministry forbade the use of any ma- chine or engine that it had ordered even if it had not yet been delivered, unfortunately that included Henderson’s F4, so instead he flew an old Avro 504. Flight magazine thought he should be congratulated ‘for his determination and perseverance in completing the course’. When not racing he was giving joy-rides to Epsom Downs and back. Avro Transport reorganised itself into areas based around local aerodromes. Henderson became manager of the northern area. He made a


36


point of targeting the ‘Wakes’ weeks when large numbers of workers would be on holiday. Another celebratory event took place on 5th July. This was called the Hendon Peace Meeting. He entered an Avro ‘Baby’, a low-powered machine, so with only a 19-second start, he was soon overtaken.


Henderson then became interested in develop- ing civil flying in Scandinavia, but initially his efforts were thwarted. While in Sweden he noted that although there were many potential landing fields in the winter, in the summer when the corn was growing, they would disappear, so in some places there was no landing ground for 20 to 30 miles. Therefore seaplanes were essential. He noted that selling British aeroplanes in Sweden would be difficult as you could buy two twin- engined German seaplanes for the price of one single-engined British machine.


As the year ended he was back in England


offering the wealthy a chance to escape our winter by flying them down to the Riviera early in January. He would use two aeroplanes, each capable of carrying four passengers. There would be two stops, one at Paris and another at Lyons. The hotel accommodation would be arranged by the LEP Aerial Travel Bureau, who would also sell the tickets. The single fare to Monte Carlo, Menton or Nice was £50 (equivalent to £2,520 today).


Air supremacy


On 7th January 1920 Henderson wrote a letter to The Times which it did not publish, but The Aeroplane did. It starts: ‘Sir, I fear that the acerbity of some of my expressions… has made you doubt the sincerity of my views and therefore you refuse to publish my letters,’ he then goes on to say ‘the


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