Flight magazine, 1911–12

Wealthy adventurers were taking up ballooning before the 1900s, but by about 1908 there were some powered craft for the brave. By 1909 it was clear that there was a future for air travel, either commercial or military, and clubs were springing up to support the enthusiasts. Flying, though, long remained dangerous – famously, Charles Rolls (one half of Rolls-Royce) was killed in 1909 when his aircraft crashed at a public show.

Publishers soon latched on to a public interest in powered flight, though, and Flight magazine was one of the first on the market. A weekly, costing a penny, it started in 1909, was renamed Flight International in 1962, and still survives, having become a monthly in 2020. 

The Archive was delighted to acquire a run of Flight from the early years,  from 21 October 1911 to 12 October 1912. The paper is fragile and some of the copies are incomplete or in a poor state, but on the whole it is a good run. In the magazines there aren’t many images, either photographs or drawings, and what there are are in black and white. The content, though, clearly demonstrates the challenges and excitement felt by the enthusiasts at the time, and knowledge was being quickly gained and disseminated. Typically in each issue of Flight there are reviews of aircraft, discussions on the potential of aeroplanes as military craft, studies of bird flight, club news and correspondence. Whenever somebody made a flight of any distance, it would be written up in the magazine (and would probably make the national press as well, in particular the Daily Mail, whose proprietor was a motoring and aviation enthusiast).

The adverts are diverse. They are for aero-engines, wing fabric, radiators, propellors and more. There are also adverts for aeroplane companies (for example, Nieuport, Farman, Bristol, Deperdussin, Valkyrie, Short Bros). Of these, Short Bros is the only surviving company.

For this particular magazine, the Archive has a good run already, with only the 1920s and from the 2000s being thin on the ground. Incidentally, we have a good run of Airplane magazine too, from the first issue in 1911, until that merged with Flight in 1968.

If you’d like to help us catalogue and preserve these magazines, get in touch on volunteering@richardrobertsarchive.org.uk