Norman Conquest

Early flight and WWI airfields

Speaking in an exclusive interview for the Association, Vic described his love of early flight and airfields. Vic discovered, secured and brought back to life a WWI airfield at Rendcomb in Gloucestershire – right down to researching the type of grass seed mix used in the 1910s. It had fallen into disuse and was being used as farmland when he became aware of it after his wife, Anne, bought a second hand book which mentioned it.

Norman Conquest describes the negotiations with the farmer who didn’t want to part with his fields, convincing friends to invest (such as Nick Mason, drummer for Pink Floyd), and the building of hangars, restoration and moving in.

Early pioneers of flight in the UK

Vic has a fascination with early aircraft pioneers and Rendcomb brings him in touch with them. He says:

“It’s a very important historic airfield because the first zeppelin that was shot down over Hornchurch was shot down by Captain Leefe Robinson. He became a megastar overnight because this zeppelin burst into flames, and the BBC put a news bulletin out quickly: ‘Look out of your windows, look out of your windows.’ And it was spiraling down slowly. Next day His Majesty The King sent for him and he got the Victoria Cross. He then came here [to Rendcomb] and was training and instructing. The first 18 Bristol fighters were delivered here, and he managed to get all 18 out to France, to the Western Front. He was shot down on his first flight, not killed, but shot down over enemy lines by the Red Baron and captured. He had a really hard time in prisoner of war camp because they knew he was a hero. He did get home after the war, but he was one of those millions of people who died of influenza. A very sad story.

“And then the other real ace was a man called Keith Park.  [Air Chief Marshal] Sir Keith was in charge of running the Battle of Britain in WWII. In WWI he had been an ace himself; he was a pilot over in France and the Western Front. He got shot in the leg and he came back to the UK to recuperate, and then he came to this airfield as a flying instructor.

“And it was the first time there were the sheds here and women were working, overhauling the engines and sewing the fabric and doing exactly the same jobs as the men. I’m sure they didn’t get paid the same.

“I do love that period of aviation because those early flyers before the First World War, they are like superheroes to me.

You had people like Charles Rolls, and the first air show in England was at Doncaster in 1908, I think. You know the guy that bought Hendon aerodrome, Claude-Grahame-White? He used to get huge crowds watching flying. And when the Wright brothers first came to France, to Lamar, all the royalty from every country in the world went to see them – and they were superheroes. I mean seeing an aeroplane fly then was even more exciting than any rock and roller or film star, or spaceman or whatever now; they were superhero guys, those early aviators.”

The chapter dedicated to Vic’s heroes also talks about the lives of Masayuki, a kamikaze pilot, Glen Curtiss, an American designer, engineer and barn stormer, and Dominic Bruce of the RAF, who made 17 attempts to escape from WWII prisoner of war camps.

Watch Vic Norman talking about discovering that there had been a WWI airfield at Rendcomb in Gloucestershire, and about scraping together the money to buy it in the video below.