Honour for Scotland's answer to the Wright Brothers

THE brothers who made Scotland’s first powered flight almost a century ago are to be commemorated for the first time next week.

Harold and Frank Barnwell, from Stirling, were Britain’s answer to the Wright brothers. They made some of the most significant developments in aeronautical history.

They achieved the first powered flight in Scotland in 1909, when they travelled 80 metres over a field in the shadow of the Wallace Monument.

A sculpture of their award-winning biplane will be unveiled next Wednesday to mark their achievements. The silver granite sculpture - with a one-metre wingspan - will be on permanent display at Causewayhead, Stirling, yards from the site of the Grampian Motor and Engineering Company, which the brothers ran to fund their aviation work.

Stirling historian Craig Mair said yesterday: "If the Americans had the Wright brothers, Scotland had Harold and Frank Barnwell. They built an aircraft hangar in Stirling and put together their first full-sized aeroplane in 1908, though the engine was not powerful enough for it to take off.

"Then, on Wednesday 28 July, 1909, their next design made its first flight, Harold piloting the plane more than 80 metres at an altitude of about four metres over a field in Stirling. It crashed nose-first into the ground, but Harold was delighted.

"The following year, the brothers’ next design managed around 600 metres, this time with Frank piloting.

"The flight was such a success that in January 1911 Harold took the same plane out again to attempt a flight over Bridge of Allan.

"He turned too sharply and crashed into a field but he had already created a new record as the first Scottish plane to fly more than a mile."

The Barnwell brothers’

impact on the development of aviation extended to the Second World War, when the Blenheim and Beaufort bombers Frank Barnwell designed helped win vital victories over Germany.

Both brothers died in separate flying accidents, in machines of their own design.

Frank Barnwell is still widely regarded as one of the most innovative aircraft designers of all time. During the First World War he was charged with designing an answer to Germany’s deadly Fokker E-type aircraft, which was destroying Britain’s cumbersome BE2s on the Western Front.

He designed the Scout biplane, produced from 1915 in Bristol, an economical aircraft that weighed only 950lb, including the pilot and three hours worth of fuel.

He also designed the high-speed "Britain First" bomber in 1933, predecessor to the Blenheim bomber. His last design, in a career that had helped aviation progress from "stick and string" construction to the powerful all-metal monoplane, was the Beaufort torpedo bomber, which first flew 11 weeks after his death.

The sculpture will be set on a three-metre tall cairn and surrounded by a flower garden and public benches.

The Grampian Motor and Engineering Company closed in 2003 and developers Bett Homes are now building housing on the site. The company has donated 2,000 towards the cost of the memorial.

Iain Sinclair, Causwayhead Community Council’s project director, who initiated the sculpture plan, said: "With the closure of the Grampian Engineering Works last year, the last tangible connection between the Barnwells and Causwayhead has gone.

"It is important that the part the brothers played in the development of manned flight should be remembered and marked."