Pioneers

On Wednesday evening we had a talk at our church Men's Group about "The Barnwell Brothers - Scotland's Forgotten Aviators". The speaker mentioned during his talk that there was a monument to Harold & Frank Barnwell at Causewayhead in Stirling so, intrigued by their story, I took a bus over there this morning and got my blip for the day.

Following the first powered and controlled flight by the Wright Brothers in 1903, Frank Barnwell, who along with his brother was an engineer, visited them in the USA. On 28th July 1909 with Harold at the controls, they succeeded in making the first powered flight in Scotland with Prototype No.3, a biplane they had designed and built, near Stirling .

The monument depicts Prototype No.6, a monoplane which reached a height of 50 feet and flew for 600 yards on 14th January 1911.

Both moved to England shortly thereafter to continue their careers in aviation: Harold to Brooklands in Surrey and Frank to Bristol.