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Firsts

The following seaplane firsts were accomplished at Windermere:-

  • The first aeroplane floats with a ‘step’ in the world were designed and tested. – Oscar Gnosspelius in Gnosspelius No. 1 in July 1910.
  • The first British hydro-aeroplane school. – At Hill of Oaks in 1911.
  • The first British hydro-aeroplane to employ auxiliary wingtip floats. – Gnosspelius No. 2.
  • The first successful take-off and landing with a stepped float in the world/ by a hydro-aeroplane outside of France and the USA. – Herbert Stanley Adams in Waterbird on 25 November 1911.
  • The first British naval officer to take off and land on water. – Lieutenant Arthur Longmore in Waterbird on 20 January 1912.
  • The first flight by a ‘practical’ hydro-monoplane in the world. – Gnosspelius in Gnosspelius No. 2 on 14 February 1912.
  • The first woman passenger to fly in a hydro-aeroplane in the world. – Gertrude Bacon in Waterhen on 15 July 1912.
  • The first passenger to fly in a hydro-monoplane in the world. – Edward Wakefield in a Deperdussin on 16 July 1912.
  • The first woman passenger to fly in a hydro-monoplane in the world. – Gertrude Bacon in a Deperdussin on 16 July 1912.
  • The first British army officer/ first person to obtain a British Aviator’s Certificate with the tests on a hydro-aeroplane. – Second Lieutenant John Trotter on 9 September 1912.
  • The first patent for a stepped float in the world. – Wakefield on 18 March 1913.
  • The first British hydro-aeroplane Aviator’s Certificate. – James Bland on 30 August 1913.

The invention of the stepped float has been attributed to Glenn Curtiss as a “Eureka moment” in the early summer of 1912. This is challenged: please see the origins here

Wings Over Windermere

Edward Wakefield described flight from water as ‘Something that beckoned …’