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 on 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 successful British flight by a hydro-aeroplane with a passenger. – Captain Edward Wakefield in Waterhen on 3 May 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. – 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 in America as a “Eureka moment” in the early summer of 1912. This is challenged: please see information on the developments here