page_title: Gustav Hamel
section_title: 1910-11
hierarchical_section_title: Gustav Hamel / Aviation career / 1910-11
caption_attribution_description: English: Photograph of sheet music
context_page_description: Gustav Wilhelm Hamel was a pioneer British aviator. He was prominent in the early history of aviation in Britain, and in particular that of Hendon airfield, where Claude Graham-White was energetically developing and promoting flying.
context_section_description: He learned to fly at the Blériot school at Pau, France in 1910 : after observing his first flight Louis Blériot commented that he had never seen a pilot with such natural ability.  He obtained Aéro-Club de France's certificate no. 358 on 3 February 1911 and the Royal Aero Club's Aviator's certificate no. 64 on 14 February. In March he won first prize in a race from Hendon to Brooklands and back, and on 14 April 1911  he flew from Brooklands to Hendon in a record 17 minutes.  In May he was one of the pilots who took part in a demonstration of flying to various members of the government, where he demonstrated the usefulness of aircraft for carrying dispatches by flying a message to Aldershot and returning with a reply. The 64 mi (103 km) round trip took two hours, much of this time due to difficulty in starting his engine for the return journey.  In July 1911 he was one of the British representatives in the competition for the Gordon Bennett Trophy but crashed shortly after takeoff, fortunately without injury.  Later that month he competed in the Daily Mail Circuit of Britain race, reaching Thornhill, north of Dumfries, before  retiring after a forced landing due to engine problems in which he was slightly injured.
  An item in the magazine Flight, of 26 August 1911, covered Hamel's unsuccessful attempt to convey newspapers from Hendon to Southend the previous Saturday.
  It appears that the publisher sponsored this event as a publicity stunt. 
  However, heavy weather forced his aircraft down at Hammersmith in West London.
  On Saturday 9 September 1911 Hamel flew a Blériot XI the 19 miles between Hendon and Windsor in 18 minutes to deliver the first official airmail carried in Great Britain. He carried one bag of mail with 300-400 letters, about 800 postcards and a few newspapers weighing 23Ib and arrived safely at Windsor around 5.13pm. Included was a postcard he had written en route.  The centenary of the event was marked by the Royal Mail with the issue of a set of commemorative postage stamps on 9 September 2011.
  On 12 October 1911 Hamel made his first cross-channel flight when he ferried a new Bleriot monoplane from Boulogne to Wembley. This was the first of 21 cross channel flight that he was to make.
caption: Sheet music cover, c.1911
exif: {}