Spa, Belgium, September 20th - October 5th, 1909
Spa 1909: Defying the Ardennes weather
The little town Spa in the Liège province of the Belgian Ardennes is
famous since Roman times for its healthy iron-rich water, in fact so
famous that its name has become the general term for water therapy
installations. In 1909 the town had around 8,000 inhabitants, but some
25,000 visitors came each year to drink water, gamble at the casino and
enjoy themselves.
The first ideas of an aviation contest in Spa were launched already in
March 1908. A committee was established and a three-day meeting in July
1908 was planned. A price fund of 75,000 francs was promised. In June
1908 Henry Farman was consulted about the airfield, and he found the
proposed site, the horse race course at La Sauvenière, too restricted.
He recommended building a new field further away from the town. The
meeting was re-scheduled to start in mid-August, but in the end it came
to nothing. In early August the Belgian Aéro-Club informed the
committee that it hadn't received even a single entry to the
competitions.
The "Aéro Club de Liège-Spa" was formed in late 1908, and
soon revived the ideas and started planning a two-week meeting. The
club also took help from Franyz Reichel, the aviation reporter of
"Le Figaro", who had many contacts in flying circles. After
some rescheduling, a date in the end of September was decided, and this
time it would actually happen.
Four foreign flyers were contracted. Leon Delagrange would bring two
Blériots for himself and his newly recruited pilot Hubert Le Blon, and
a Voisin, which in the end would only leave its hangar for a couple of
tests. Louis Paulhan would bring his Voisin "Octavie No 3"
and Roger Sommer his Farman. In addition to these well-known names the
Belgian Druet brothers would bring his biplane and Comte de la Vaulx
would have his airship "Zodiac III" ready for flights during
the second week of the meeting. The Romanian inventor Henri Coanda had
brought a glider, which was to take off from a wheeled trolley pulled
by a weight dropped from a pylon similar to that used by the Wright
brothers. A local inventor by the name of Spoo-Naert would display his
fourteen-horsepower, eight-wing ornithopter, a tethered balloon, the
"Mallet" of M. Hervieux, would make flights and there would
be kite-flying competitions, offering prices of 10 to 40 francs for
fastest climb, longest line paid out and heaviest weight carried.
The pilots received a daily salary of 1,000 francs, which would cover
all expenses. This represented half of the 162,000 francs costs for
staging the meeting. Five contests were announced, for endurance,
distance, speed, altitude and quickest take-off. No prize money was
offered, but the winners of the different events would get trophies.
The installations were inspired by the recent Reims meeting and left
little to be desired. The airfield was built at Malchamps, on the
uncultivated plateau between Spa and Francorchamps, some five
kilometres from the Spa-Francorchamps circuit where the Belgian Formula
One Grand Prix is held. A four-pylon 2-kilometre course was marked up.
Hangars, grandstands, a buffet, kiosks, a signal mast and a result
board were built, and large spectator areas were cleared. A private
telephone line connected the airfield with the Casino of Spa, and flags
indicating the flying conditions were hoisted not only at several
places in Spa, but also in Brussels, Liège and Verviers. Law and order
would be ensured by 200 gendarmes, two squadrons of lancers and a
company of bicycle infantry. The railway companies organized special
trains from several major Belgian towns.
In the middle of September "Flight" announced that the Aero
Club of Belgium had issued a notice that the Spa meeting was not
authorized by them, and that any participants would be disqualified for
all international events. Nobody got disqualified in the end, so the
organizers apparently managed to make peace with the Aero Club, but
this was only the first time that sanctioning conflicts would affect an
aviation meeting.
Monday 20 September
Anybody who follows Formula One knows that weather in the Spa area is
at best unpredictable, so it is perhaps no surprise that the first
day's flying was prevented by wind and rain. The flyers were anyway
busy assembling their planes, and even though the visitors had paid a
high price to get in, 20 francs for a seat in the grandstands and 1
franc in the public enclosures, they appeared to be pleased with seeing
real airplanes and following the action in the hangars.
Tuesday 21 September
Torrential rain fell during the night and into the second day and
despite being covered with fir branches and ash the roads around the
airfield were getting very difficult to use.
Wednesday 22 September
The weather was much better and the wind was down to 5-7 m/s, so at
eleven o'clock the white flag was hoisted. The meeting was
inaugurated by Princess Clementine, "exquisitely dressed in pink
and wearing a beautiful coat", in the presence of the organizing
committee and several local dignitaries. She went from hangar to
hangar, visiting the flyers and having "charming words" for
everybody. Towards the end of the third day there was finally some
flying: Around sunset Delagrange made a short flight, but he had
spark-plug problems and had to land after only 700 metres, frightening
a flock of grouse as he came down on the spongy peat ground. The
evening brought the disturbing news that Ferdinand Ferber had been
killed in his Voisin at Boulogne. He was the second pilot to die in an
air accident, and it happened less than two weeks after Eugène
Lefebvre's fatal accident at Port-Aviation.
Thursday 23 September
The final planes, Delagrange's Voisin and his second Blériot,
arrived during the morning after being released by the Belgian customs.
The princess made another visit in the afternoon, when the weather was
better. Delagrange was the hero of the day, making four splendid
flights, the longest for three laps. During the afternoon there was
another heavy rain shower. After trying several times to take off from
the soft airfield Sommer finally made a flight at around six
o'clock, when the rain had stopped, but for some reason he
didn't turn at the far end of the course and finally landed some
three kilometres from his hangar. He landed in a marsh and it took his
crew until half past nine in the evening to get the machine back to the
hangar, some of them wet above the knees. Paulhan also made a short
flight, but was forced down after 250 meters, putting the plane on its
nose without causing any damage. The crash was blamed on faulty rigging
of the tail. Towards the late afternoon the rain returned again.
Friday 24 September
The sky was overcast during the morning and remained showery and
unstable during the afternoon, but some flying was still possible
towards the end of the day. The unlucky Paulhan, by now completely
frustrated by the poor ground conditions, made another short hop, which
resulted in heavy landing and a broken propeller. Delagrange flew twice
for a total of four laps before being forced down when his engine
suddenly stopped. His dramatic landing caused some concern among the
spectators, but no damage was done. Sommer flew five laps during the
late afternoon. Le Blon, who was still under instruction from
Delagrange and had only made two straight-line hops before, flew two
laps. Towards the evening the wind and rain returned.
Saturday 25 September
On this day all the factories of the region were closed in order to
give their employees that chance to watch the flying, and miraculously
the day started with fine weather and low winds. Despite the muddy
ground Delagrange and Sommer made several flights, totalling five laps
each. Delagrange improved Sommer's previous best lap time by almost
four seconds, posting a best of 1:44.6. He also took the lead in the
altitude completion by reaching 35 meters.
Paulhan's troubles continued. His Voisin didn't have the
advantage of the double wheels of Sommer's Farman or the light
weight of Delagrange's Blériots, so it suffered badly from the soft
ground. On top of that his engine didn't run well and it was
suspected that it had been damaged when he landed in the sea at Ostend
before the meeting.
Sunday 26 September
The rain had started again on the evening before and even though the
weather looked promising during the morning it soon got worse again.
230 gendarmes struggled to control over 10,000 spectators who were
frustrated by waiting for hours. Sommer then crashed his plane when
some people got in his way, forcing him to land suddenly. The wheels
stuck in the soft ground and the plane was completely wrecked when it
nosed over.
Delagrange crashed in a similar way after a flight of four laps, his
second of the day. A sudden rain shower forced him to land quickly, and
the wheels got stuck in a muddy patch after the landing. His plane
stood on its nose and the propeller and some wing rigging were broken.
Thankfully neither of the pilots was injured. Delagrange managed to get
out his plane unaided and was carried on the shoulders of enthusiastic
fans to his hangar, where he was met by princess Clémentine.
Monday 27 September
If was decided to postpone the meeting while a 150 by 15 metre strip of
the by now completely waterlogged airfield was covered with planks in
order to make it possible to start. There was no flying, but the crews
had lots to do repairing the planes after the accidents. Sommer's
plane turned out to be less damaged than first thought. He had the wing
of his Farman sent to Liège, where it could be repaired.
Delagrange's crew also assembled his old Voisin, now reportedly
equipped with a Mutel engine. The Druet brothers tried to finish
preparing their plane, which had been damaged during the transport to
the airfield. The day was finished by a banquet for the flyers.
Tuesday 28 September
The Tuesday started with a kite-flying contest, which ended in chaos
when the wind suddenly dropped and around a dozen of competitors had to
quickly wind down the hundreds of metres of wire holding their kites.
The wires of many competitors were so tangled that they had to be
weighed instead of measured. The winner was a M. Droeven, who had paid
out 1,025 metres of wire.
Le Blon continued his progress by flying fourteen laps at around four
o'clock. The flight, officially measured to 21.984 kilometres
covered in 23:09.6, was the longest of the meeting. The other pilots
didn't achieve much, despite the sunny weather, which attracted
more than 25,000 spectators. Delagrange had engine problems and only
flew a single lap.
Paulhan announced that because of the unsatisfactory state of the field
he would not make any further flights during the meeting. His partner
Henri Brégi stated that the plane was out trim since it had had a
replacement tail installed after the Ostend ditching. In order to
achieve proper rigging the unbalanced plane had to be test-flown, and
this was impossible to do without a good airfield. After making an
agreement with the organizers Paulhan left Spa for Paris during the
Tuesday night. The agreement doesn't appear to have been all that
friendly. M. Lambert, president of the committee, made an official
statement that Paulhan "had promised to come back as soon as
possible with another machine. We are waiting for him. Will he come
back? That's his business. If he doesn't come back we will keep
the 25,000 francs cheque that we promised him for flying".
Paulhan didn't come back. He only spent some hours in Paris, before
going to the Cologne meeting, which was to open on September 30th.
Count van der Burch, the vice president of the organizing committee,
declared that he had decided to buy Delagrange's plane and start
flying himself. In the darkness of the evening Coanda finished building
the launching-pylon for his glider. The first crates containing the
"Zodiac III" arrived during the day, but any flights before
the weekend seemed unlikely.
Sommer declared that he would give up flying after the meeting. He
stated that the deaths of Lefebvre and Ferber had deeply impressed his
friends and family, who had convinced him to give up this sport, which
had already created so many martyrs. In the future he would focus on
the family's felt manufacturing business, which had suffered from
his flying activities. He had sold his plane to Belgians Daniel Kinet
and Marcel Grammont earlier during the meeting.
Wednesday 29 September
At six o'clock in the morning Coanda made a first effort to fly his
glider, but the weight couldn't give the plane enough speed and it
simply dropped off its trolley, throwing off the pilot and breaking
some rigging wires. The launching apparatus didn't look practical.
The plane didn't sit well on its trolley and the pylon didn't
inspire confidence, with the weight falling uncontrolled and risking to
hit the structure.
Later in the morning the bad weather returned, so flying was impossible
until four o'clock, when Delagrange made two flights, each of two
laps. He then gathered the timekeepers in order to try for the record
for the shortest take-off. On his second attempt he managed to lift off
in 49.4 meters, thus beating Alberto Santos-Dumont's previous
record, set in his new Demoiselle, by 14 meters. He flew another lap,
to the ovations of the spectators, before the rain forced him down
again. During the day Delagrange's mechanic Georges Prévoteau left
Spa with one of the Blériots in order to prepare for Delagrange's
participation in the Cologne meeting.
Thursday 30 September
The Belgian Foreign Minister Julien Davignon and Minister of War
General Hellebaut visited the airfield. When the wind calmed down
Delagrange flew two laps and Le Blon three. Delagrange also tried to
beat his take-off record from the previous day, but only managed 51
metres.
Friday 1 October
Violent winds made flights impossible. The tarpaulins that covered the
big hangar for the airship "Zodiac III" threatened to fly
away, and the fire brigade and all other available hands were required
to hold down the cables that attached them.
Saturday 2 October
Sommer had finally repaired his Farman and made two fine flights of
totally fifteen laps. Delagrange and Le Blon made short flights in
their Blériots. Delagrange also rolled out his old Voisin, which had
finally received the new propeller that had gone missing on the Belgian
railways, but a wheel broke, the right wing touched the ground breaking
the vertical surface at the wing tip. The Druet brothers tried to make
a flight in their biplane, but failed. Count de la Vaulx finally made a
flight in "Zodiac III", passing the German border, which is
only some 20 kilometres away. Expectations were high for the final
Sunday, when the contests would be decided.
Sunday 3 October
However, the Ardennes weather struck again on the Sunday. The rain kept
falling and the wind threatened the hangars. Count de la Vaulx had to
deflate his airship, a loss of hydrogen for 1,400 francs. Even though
they had been given access to the hangar area in order to be able to
see the machines from close, the increasingly frustrated crowds
manifested their displeasure and some incidents occurred. In the
evening a dinner was held for the flyers. During the night between
Sunday and Monday the wind got even worse and brought down the hangars
of "Zodiac III". On the following night the hangar of the
Spoo-Naert ornithoptre was also brought down.
This was the end of the meeting. Delagrange had won the prizes for
total flying time and speed, while Le Blon won the prize for the
longest non-stop flight.
Conclusion
The Spa meeting was unanimously reported as well-organized, but the few
flyers at the weather-troubled meeting didn't achieve anything of
greater importance and it appears that the focus on competitive
activities was not very strong. Some of the press blamed it on the fact
that flyers were salaried and did not receive any prize money. The
total time flown during the two weeks was less than three hours. The
"Zodiac III", only made one seventeen-minute flight, which
must have been a big disappointment for the organizers who had paid the
enormous sum of 30,000 francs for its participation. The tethered
balloon never flew. On the other hand, it was calculated that the event
had attracted around 100,000 visitors to the Spa-Francorchamps area.
The big star of the meeting was Delagrange, of whom Frantz Reichel of
"Le Figaro" wrote lyrically: "Delagrange is in
admirable form. He is marvellously master of his monoplane, which he
throws over the sky with a remarkable security, authority and style.
His flight is light, fast, elegant and so purposeful that it is like a
bird jumping into space. He does not take off gradually, he takes to
the air in one magnificent movement" … "Delagrange leaped
into the air, wings spread, like a dragonfly, hovering in the splendid
sky in a flight of rare beauty"