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The Oakington Monoplane
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Thanks to Nick Harrison of Oakington for the following The Oakington monoplane was built in 1909 by two Oakington residents, Grose and Feary, in an attempt to win the prize of £1,000 offered by the Daily Mail for the first all British aeroplane to fly a circular mile. [The prize mirrored the 50,000 francs offered by Henri Deutsch de la Meurth in France for the first circular kilometre. Oakington is a small village in Cambridgeshire, UK. - webmaster.] The Oakington Monoplane had a four cylinder air cooled engine of 20 HP - built by The Advance Motor Manufacturing Co. of Northampton. The propeller by Handley Page of London, and the chassis was constructed by H.V. Quinsee of East Road, Cambridge. The monoplane was designed to carry the pilot and one passenger. In the first trial it was tethered to a tree and villagers helped to push it after it was allowed to career across the fields, but it never flew. A mark II was constructed and later exhibited in a marquee in a field at Oakington (admission 6d). It was eventually dismantled and taken to the De Havilland works at Hatfield.
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