VGC News/Newsletters - Lakes Gliding Club

Unlike other experimenters of the time, Houshold did not
try to copy the shapes of bird wings but made a single long
wing in parallelogram form. The pilot was to sit on a seat suspended
on four ropes from the centre of the wing, something
like a childs' swing, and would exercise control in flight with
movements of his body.
The framework of the glider was said to have been constructed
with a species of river reed wound tightly together or
possibly bamboo was used. The frame was then covered with
oiled paper. Behind Del' Magtenoerg stands Karkloof, a flattopped
ridge rising slightly more than 300 metres above the
surrounding countryside. Now owned by a timber company,
Karkloof is almost covered with a carpet of pines but in
Houshold's time the slopes would have been grass-covered
with very few trees and it was here that he decided to attempt
his first flight.
This was some time between 1871 and 1875, pre-dating
Lillienthal's similar experiments in ElIl'ope by about twenty
years.
When the glider was ready a gang of Zulu farm labourers
carried it up the slope of Karkloof to the spot selected by
Houshold for his launching point but, when il came to helping
him leap off the hill, they denllllTed. They argued that as Ihe
"baas" was surely going to break his neck they were afraid
they would be accused of his murder.
With the help of Archer, Houshold eventually managed to
persuade them. The Zulus took up the weight of the glider,
with Houshold sitting on his swing underneath, ran a few steps
down the slope and heaved the contraption into the air.
An old Zulu, interviewed in 1908, claimed that he witnessed
this flight. The glider sailed through the air with an
excited mob of black children running behind, yelling and
gesticulating. It drifted twice across the river before coming in
to land successfully about 500 metres from the launching
point. Houshold was wildly enthusiastic about his flight and
immediately set about building a bigger and better machine. It
is said that this time he used imported steel rods and silk.
Other flights followed but then came disaster. The glider
crashed, "falling", as another Zulu said, "like a wounded bird".
The glider was smashed and HOllshold had injured his leg.
Now the secret was out and Houshold's tearful mother,
who believed he was tampering with the powers of darkness,
extracted a promise from him that he would never again
attempt to fly.
He burnt all his plafls and notes. The glider was stored for
years in an old barn but on the death of HOllshold's father in
190 I the farm was sold and the new owners destroyed it.
Houshold kept his promises and gave up alllhoughts of aviation.
He went from farming to mining and died in Pietermaritzburg
from fever on thel3th of March 1906.
Sadly, no sketches nor photographs of the gliders have survived
and the flights went unreported at the time. The only
evidence of Houshold's fl'ights come from accounts of witnesses
(fanuly, neighbours and labourers) recorded many
years later. Naturally the versions vary but the version I have
given above agrees substantially with most of them. Readers
may feel that the story is. to say the least, unlikely but if you
stand on the crest of Karkloof as he did, look out over the lush
farm land below, feel yourself the wind ruffling your hair and
tugging at your clothing and watch a solitary berg eagle
working the ridge, it is easy to believe that the story is true and
that John Goodman Houshold was indeed a great aviation
pioneer and the first glider pilot in Africa.
Mike O'Donnell
BRITISH GLIDING HISTORY
In 185 I Sir George Cayley succeeded in launching his coachman
in a perambulator beneath a great sail, which filled as it
was being towed by two horses ridden by grooms. As soon as
forward momentum fell off, the aircraft pancaked on to the
ground and the coachman made off, saying he was hired to be
a coachman, not a pilot. Lateral stability was through wing
flexing due to air pressure underneath it. Forward stability was
due to the horses. Longitudinal stability was supposed to be
controlled by an oar with sails at its rear extremity, its shaft
being held by the coachman from the rear of the perambulator.
A replica was sLlccessfully built and flown by Derek Piggotl at
Lasham. The coachman clearly would not have been able to
influence proceedings. Sir George's 185 I flying models were
really good and his contributions to aviation were really
important.
Percy Pilcher I869-30th September 1899. He followed in
the steps of his friend Otto Lillienthal but his flights ended
with a fatal accident at Stanford Hall near Husbands Bosworth
due to a bracing line snapping, causing the tailplane to arch
upwards and round, hitting him on the head. He was hoping
on Ihat day to fly a powered triplane which, if successful,
would have been the first powered flight in the world.
Jose Weiss was a painter who came to England in 1870
from Alsace due to the Prussian arrival there. He painted to
earn enough money to build his gliders which, we believe, he
did not fly himself.
16 year old Eric Cordan England in the Weiss glider i/7
1909. He stayed up for 58secs .1'0 !VlIS this the first soaring
flight?
In 1909 the sixteen year old Eric Cordon England was
launched from the top of the South Downs in one of the Weiss
gliders. As it was 58 seconds before he a1Tived on the ground
300 feet below, it is thought he mllst have encountered hill lift
and thus he is credited with the world's first soaring flight.
During WW I Weiss gave up building aircraft as he was desolated
that they were being used for war.
Itford Hill 1922. The first British International Gliding
Contest. The Daily Mail newspaper had offered £ 1,000 for the
first flight of over 30 minutes duration. After both the British
hopes Raynham and Gordon England, had crashed, the
Frenchman Maneyrol won the contest with a world duration
record of 3 hours 21 minutes on the last day. His incredible
tandem wing Peyret aircraft, which no-one thought had a
chance, was displayed in Selfridge's department store before
returning to Paris at the Gare du Nord where he was given a
hero's welcome. Both he and the Peyret were carried shoulder
high through the streets to the cries of "Vive I'Aviateur"! !!
22