23-590: The Royal Aero Club ( RAeC ) is the national co-ordinating body for air sport in the United Kingdom . It was founded in 1901 as the Aero Club of Great Britain , being granted the title of the "Royal Aero Club" in 1910. The Aero Club was founded in 1901 by Frank Hedges Butler , his daughter Vera and the Hon Charles Rolls (one of the founders of Rolls-Royce ), partly inspired by the Aero Club of France . It
46-666: A more regulatory role. It had a clubhouse at 119 Piccadilly , which it retained until 1961. The club was granted its Royal prefix on 15 February 1910. From 1910 the club issued Aviators Certificates, which were internationally recognised under the Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (the FAI) to which the club was the UK representative. The club is the governing body in the UK for air sports, as well as for records and competitions. The club established its first flying ground on
69-491: A number of mainly vintage and one-off types which remain under BGA control. British Glider pilots did not need a glider pilot licence awarded by the CAA until 2018. The BGA-issued Gliding Certificate (aka Glider Pilot Certificate) is being phased out, in favour of a new Sailplane Pilot Licence (SPL). These will still be issued by the BGA, under Delegated Authority from the CAA. The SPL
92-545: A result, the BGA still has the authority that it assumed to manage most aspects of gliding in the UK. Instructors and pilots are trained to BGA standards; annual inspections of gliders are done by engineers authorised by the BGA, whose qualifications are accepted by the Civil Aviation Authority (CAA); and minor accidents are investigated by the BGA alone. Since September 2008 all gliders have a full CAA registration and airworthiness checks to EASA standards, except for
115-493: A stretch of marshland at Shellbeach near Leysdown on the Isle of Sheppey in early 1909. A nearby farmhouse, Mussell Manor (now called Muswell Manor) became the flying ground clubhouse, and club members could construct their own sheds to accommodate their aircraft. Among the first occupants of the ground were Short Brothers . Two of the brothers, Eustace and Oswald , had previously made balloons for Aero Club members and been appointed
138-668: Is officially recognised as the first flight by a British pilot in Britain. The same week the Wright brothers visited the Aero Club flying ground at Shellbeach. After inspecting the Short Brothers' factory, a photograph was taken outside Mussell Manor of the Wright Brothers with all of the early British aviation pioneers to commemorate their visit to Britain. In October 1909, the club recognised
161-532: Is specified in UK Part-SFCL. The SPL is an ICAO -compliant licence which can be used abroad. Existing Gliding Certificates can be converted to an SPL. The BGA also issues the Glider Pilot Licence, which is not compliant with Part-SFCL and is being phased out. An elected Executive Committee of twelve is responsible for running the BGA. There are nine sub-committees covering the BGA's functions: Although
184-635: The Blackpool Aviation Week , making it Britain's first official air show . On 30 October Moore-Brabazon was also the first to cover a mile (closed circuit) in a British aeroplane, flying the Short Biplane No. 2 , and so winning a prize of £1,000 offered by the Daily Mail newspaper. On 4 November 1909, he decided to take up a piglet, which he named Icarus the Second, as a passenger, thereby disproving
207-734: The Switzerland -based Fédération Aéronautique Internationale (FAI) and nationally by aero clubs such as the National Aeronautics Association (NAA) and the Royal Aero Club (RAeC). The FAI has separate commissions for each air sport. For example, the commission for ballooning is the Commission Internationale de l'Aérostation (CIA). Sports within the categories of air sports and their respective commissions are as follows: Other aerial activities not governed by
230-443: The BGA has full-time staff much routine work for the committees is, or have been, almost full-time activities for some BGA volunteers. Examples of major additional activities have been the monitoring proposed European legislation and the evaluation proposals by the CAA to fit transponders on all gliders. The BGA also publishes a bi-monthly magazine, Sailplane & Gliding . The seven Scottish gliding clubs whilst remaining under
253-566: The Comedy Restaurant in London on 4 December 1929 for anybody who was interested. Fifty-six people attended and a committee was formed. Shortly after the BGA was founded to start the sport of gliding in the UK. Clubs were soon established throughout the country, many of which disappeared just as quickly, though some still remain today. Initially the BGA had individual members and funded some clubs, but it soon changed to being an association of
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#1732844534535276-554: The FAI rules: British Gliding Association The British Gliding Association ( BGA ) is the governing body for gliding in the United Kingdom. Gliding in the United Kingdom operates through 80 gliding clubs (both civilian and service) which have 2,310 gliders and 9,462 full flying members (including service personnel), though a further 17,000 people have gliding air-experience flights each year. A gliding event first occurred in
299-715: The Secretariat based at the Leicester premises of the British Gliding Association . Today the Royal Aero Club continues to be the national governing and coordinating body of air sport and recreational flying. The governing bodies of the various forms of sporting aviation (for example British Aerobatic Association ) are all members of the Royal Aero Club, which is the UK governing body for international sporting purposes. The Royal Aero Club also acts to support and protect
322-566: The UK on a hill at Itford in East Sussex in 1922. The meeting was largely a publicity stunt by the Daily Mail newspaper which had offered a prize of one thousand pounds for the longest flight. However little gliding happened in the UK for several years after until reports of long flights in thunderstorms in Germany appeared in The Aeroplane magazine. Douglas Culver suggested a lunch meeting at
345-573: The United Service and Royal Aero Club merged with the Naval and Military Club and on 1 August 1975 the Royal Aero Club of the United Kingdom was officially launched and endowed with all its awards, library and memorabilia and took the place of the Aviation Council. By 1977, the club had ceased to be a members club but continued to carry out the function previously carried out by its Aviation Council, with
368-600: The adage that "pigs can't fly". It moved the next year to nearby Eastchurch , where the Royal Navy had established a flying school. Until 1911 the British Military did not have any pilot training facilities. As a result, most early military pilots were trained by members of the club and many became members. By the end of the First World War, more than 6,300 military pilots had taken RAeC Aviator's Certificates. After
391-659: The aegis of the BGA have also formed the Scottish Gliding Association to liaise with the local and national authorities in Scotland. The BGA coordinates junior gliding in the UK, including the designation of Junior Gliding Centres and national competitions in the UK, for pilots up to 25 years of age. The BGA employs a Chief Executive (Pete Stratten) who is based at the Leicester headquarters with five administrative staff. The Association also employs two National Coaches,
414-458: The club: The Britannia Trophy is presented by the Royal Aero Club for aviators accomplishing the most meritorious performance in aviation during the previous year. Air sport The term " air sports " covers a range of aerial activities, including air racing , aerobatics , aeromodelling , hang gliding , human-powered aircraft , parachuting , paragliding, soaring, and skydiving . Many air sports are regulated internationally by
437-493: The clubs with no individual members. Today the clubs pay an annual subscription to the BGA on behalf of their members. The patron of the BGA was Prince Philip who was introduced to the sport by a former chairman, Peter Scott . When the BGA was formed, it assumed responsibility for British gliding and the British government has not seen the need to change a system of self-regulation, because it has been effective and economical. As
460-678: The loss of its Piccadilly clubhouse in 1961, the club was lodged at the Lansdowne Club at 9 Fitzmaurice Place until 1968. It then moved for a short spell to the Junior Carlton Club 's modern building at 94 Pall Mall . In June 1973 the club merged with the United Service Club and moved into its premises at 116 Pall Mall. All its aviation-related activities were then transferred to the Aviation Council (United Service and Royal Aero Club) Ltd incorporated on 15 February 1973. In June 1975,
483-476: The official engineers of the Aero Club. They had also enlisted their eldest brother, Horace, when they decided to begin constructing heavier-than-air aircraft. They acquired a licence to build copies of the Wright aircraft and set up the first aircraft production line in the world at Leysdown. On 1 May 1909 John Moore-Brabazon (later Lord Brabazon of Tara) made a flight of 500 yards in his Voisin at Shellbeach. This
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#1732844534535506-527: The rights of recreational pilots in the context of national and international regulation. The following were the first ten people to gain their aviator certificates from the Royal Aero Club: The first women to be awarded their aviator certificates from the Royal Aero Club were Hilda Hewlett on 29 August 1911( certificate No.122 ) followed by Cheridah de Beauvoir Stocks (certificate No. 153) on 7 November 1911. A number of air races were organised by
529-505: Was initially concerned more with ballooning but after the demonstrations of heavier-than-air flight made by the Wright Brothers in France in 1908, it embraced the aeroplane . The original club constitution declared that it was dedicated to 'the encouragement of aero auto-mobilism and ballooning as a sport.' As founded, it was primarily a London gentlemen's club , but gradually moved on to
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