20-610: The Royal Aero Club ( RAeC ) is the national co-ordinating body for air sport in the United Kingdom . It was founded in 1901 as the Aero Club of Great Britain , being granted the title of the "Royal Aero Club" in 1910. The Aero Club was founded in 1901 by Frank Hedges Butler , his daughter Vera and the Hon Charles Rolls (one of the founders of Rolls-Royce ), partly inspired by the Aero Club of France . It
40-687: A more regulatory role. It had a clubhouse at 119 Piccadilly , which it retained until 1961. The club was granted its Royal prefix on 15 February 1910. From 1910 the club issued Aviators Certificates, which were internationally recognised under the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (the FAI) to which the club was the UK representative. The club is the governing body in the UK for air sports, as well as for records and competitions. The club established its first flying ground on
60-460: A purpose-built clubhouse at 116 Pall Mall , designed by the noted architect John Nash . The club house, on the corner with Waterloo Place , was built between 1826 and 1828. Its style, displaying military friezes along the top of the building, was later mirrored by the Athenaeum opposite. Both buildings had a stone step outside, facing each other across Waterloo Place. These were for the use of
80-497: A stretch of marshland at Shellbeach near Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey in early 1909. A nearby farmhouse, Mussell Manor (now called Muswell Manor) became the flying ground clubhouse, and club members could construct their own sheds to accommodate their aircraft. Among the first occupants of the ground were Short Brothers . Two of the brothers, Eustace and Oswald , had previously made balloons for Aero Club members and been appointed
100-696: Is officially recognised as the first flight by a British pilot in Britain. The same week the Wright brothers visited the Aero Club flying ground at Shellbeach. After inspecting the Short Brothers' factory, a photograph was taken outside Mussell Manor of the Wright Brothers with all of the early British aviation pioneers to commemorate their visit to Britain. In October 1909, the club recognised
120-663: The Blackpool Aviation Week , making it Britain's first official air show . On 30 October Moore-Brabazon was also the first to cover a mile (closed circuit) in a British aeroplane, flying the Short Biplane No. 2 , and so winning a prize of £1,000 offered by the Daily Mail newspaper. On 4 November 1909, he decided to take up a piglet, which he named Icarus the Second, as a passenger, thereby disproving
140-452: The Duke of Wellington , who was a member of both clubs and rode everywhere, rather than use a carriage. These steps still stand today. The building was later altered and extended by Decimus Burton in 1858–9, and then again by the firm of Thompson and Walford, in the years 1912–13 and 1929–30. It was built on the site of the former Carlton House . In 1892 members were concerned that the club
160-771: The Switzerland -based Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) and nationally by aero clubs such as the National Aeronautics Association (NAA) and the Royal Aero Club (RAeC). The FAI has separate commissions for each air sport. For example, the commission for ballooning is the Commission Internationale de l'Aérostation (CIA). Sports within the categories of air sports and their respective commissions are as follows: Other aerial activities not governed by
180-509: The FAI rules: United Service Club The United Service Club was a London gentlemen's club founded in 1815 for the use of senior officers in the British Army and Royal Navy – those above the rank of Major or Commander – and the club was accordingly known to its members as "The Senior" . The club closed in 1978. Because of its emphasis on senior officers, it was considered
200-744: The Secretariat based at the Leicester premises of the British Gliding Association . Today the Royal Aero Club continues to be the national governing and coordinating body of air sport and recreational flying. The governing bodies of the various forms of sporting aviation (for example British Aerobatic Association ) are all members of the Royal Aero Club, which is the UK governing body for international sporting purposes. The Royal Aero Club also acts to support and protect
220-656: The United Service and Royal Aero Club merged with the Naval and Military Club and on 1 August 1975 the Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom was officially launched and endowed with all its awards, library and memorabilia and took the place of the Aviation Council. By 1977, the club had ceased to be a members club but continued to carry out the function previously carried out by its Aviation Council, with
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#1732765264183240-621: The adage that "pigs can't fly". It moved the next year to nearby Eastchurch , where the Royal Navy had established a flying school. Until 1911 the British Military did not have any pilot training facilities. As a result, most early military pilots were trained by members of the club and many became members. By the end of the First World War, more than 6,300 military pilots had taken RAeC Aviator's Certificates. After
260-458: The club: The Britannia Trophy is presented by the Royal Aero Club for aviators accomplishing the most meritorious performance in aviation during the previous year. Air sport The term " air sports " covers a range of aerial activities, including air racing , aerobatics , aeromodelling , hang gliding , human-powered aircraft , parachuting , paragliding, soaring, and skydiving . Many air sports are regulated internationally by
280-703: The loss of its Piccadilly clubhouse in 1961, the club was lodged at the Lansdowne Club at 9 Fitzmaurice Place until 1968. It then moved for a short spell to the Junior Carlton Club 's modern building at 94 Pall Mall . In June 1973 the club merged with the United Service Club and moved into its premises at 116 Pall Mall. All its aviation-related activities were then transferred to the Aviation Council (United Service and Royal Aero Club) Ltd incorporated on 15 February 1973. In June 1975,
300-527: The most prestigious of London's military clubs – reflected partly in its entry fees, which were the highest of any London club in the 1880s, although there has been some speculation this was a device to limit the number of new members. The year after it was founded, in 1816, the Club moved into its first premises in Albemarle Street. Three years later, in 1819, it moved to Charles Street and in 1828 to
320-480: The official engineers of the Aero Club. They had also enlisted their eldest brother, Horace, when they decided to begin constructing heavier-than-air aircraft. They acquired a licence to build copies of the Wright aircraft and set up the first aircraft production line in the world at Leysdown. On 1 May 1909 John Moore-Brabazon (later Lord Brabazon of Tara) made a flight of 500 yards in his Voisin at Shellbeach. This
340-536: The rights of recreational pilots in the context of national and international regulation. The following were the first ten people to gain their aviator certificates from the Royal Aero Club: The first women to be awarded their aviator certificates from the Royal Aero Club were Hilda Hewlett on 29 August 1911( certificate No.122 ) followed by Cheridah de Beauvoir Stocks (certificate No. 153) on 7 November 1911. A number of air races were organised by
360-591: Was bought by the Institute of Directors (IoD), and a condition of the sale was that the IoD would retain all of the club's original fixtures and fittings (including the Duke's step), which it still does today. However, although the building survives substantially intact, the old club building makes up only part of the IoD headquarters on Pall Mall, whose complex encompasses several neighbouring buildings which were never part of
380-423: Was facing financial difficulties and elected to allow lesser ranks – down to Army Captains and Naval Lieutenants – as members. This led to a significant increase in membership and in 1910 the Club expanded its premises into the existing Nos. 118 and 119 Pall Mall. Despite the club's prestige, like many other clubs it ran into serious financial difficulties in the 1970s, and was forced to close in 1978. The building
400-516: Was initially concerned more with ballooning but after the demonstrations of heavier-than-air flight made by the Wright Brothers in France in 1908, it embraced the aeroplane . The original club constitution declared that it was dedicated to 'the encouragement of aero auto-mobilism and ballooning as a sport.' As founded, it was primarily a London gentlemen's club , but gradually moved on to
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