Preston Watson

[6] On 30 June 1915 he was killed when the Caudron G.3 aeroplane he was flying disintegrated in flight and crashed in Dunlye Field, a few miles from the Cross-in-Hand Hotel near Heathfield, Sussex.

This originated from his younger brother James Watson, who brought it to the public's greater attention in an article published in the Manchester Guardian newspaper in December 1953.

Young Preston possessed an analytical mind, and quite often, he, according to the Sunday, 27 October 1984 edition of The Courier and Advertiser newspaper; ...would sometimes sit overlooking the Firth of Tay and watch seagulls in flight.

[2] His brother James Yeaman Watson was to later recount in the December 1955 issue of Aeronautics magazine that; [Preston] studied the flight of gulls, caught many of them, put small weights on their heads, glued their wings into the position he wished, and was frequently seen by passers-by dropping them over the road bridge, which crossed the railway line at the west end of the Dundee Esplanade.According to the late Mr James Manson, who worked as a labourer with Watson's father's food produce business, Messrs Watson and Philip, Preston built small model aeroplanes and dropped them from the bridge at Ninewells.

[13] Accepted in its entirety on 8 October 1908, by that time Watson's ideas on what constituted successful flight, and specifically how lift was achieved had changed dramatically from his patent.

Applied for on 1 January 1909, the complete specification is dated 23 July 1909 and was left with the Patent Office a day later and accepted on 16 December that year.

Exactly when he completed his first aeroplane is not known, but on page 400 in the 2 November 1909 issue of The Aero magazine is the following statement: At the secluded little village of Forgandenny, Perthshire, near Preston, A. Watson, a well-known motorist of Dundee, has built a machine to his own designs.

[2] Although somewhat neglected by aviation historians, Preston Watson's aeronautical experiments are contemporary with those of better known British pioneers, such as Alliott Verdon Roe and Geoffrey de Havilland.

The normal pressure of the [main plane] is thus inclined out of the vertical and gives rise to a horizontal component pulling the [aircraft] to one side of the line of flight."

Prompted by Charles Gibbs-Smith, when analysed by aerodynamic experts at the Royal Aeronautical Society in the late 1950s, it was found that the rocking wing had a significant disadvantage; it had the effect of a single combined aileron and rudder.

[1][2] Despite this however, the rocking wing means of lateral control as Watson proposed it, although it had no precedent in aviation's fledgling years, its influence and impact on history have proven to be negligible.

Despite the fitting of the Dutheil Chalmers engine, Preston Watson's No.1 aeroplane remained firmly earthbound, and he placed it in store in a shed on the property of Mr James Bell at Rossie, Forgandenney, about 25 miles west of Dundee.

The two aircraft shared the same dimensions, wing plan and box kite tail surfaces, although the "A" frame centre section of the No.2 differed slightly from the No.1 in bracing details.

[15] A number of accounts state that Preston, his younger brother James and Archie Dickie, who had allegedly gone to Paris to secure a Dutheil Chalmers engine from Alberto Santos-Dumont for Watson's previous aeroplane, all flew the machine at Errol at this time.

The pictures published in the 15 May 1914 issue of Flight magazine, which captions the images as having been taken in 1912 have been mis-quoted by James as having been taken in 1908, but the No.2 was built in 1910 and its 30 hp Humber engine was not produced until that year.

Its wings were of conventional design; the bracing struts were fitted with streamlined aerofoil shaped fairings, made from aluminium or wood and covered in fabric, canvas according to Manson, which was sewn into place by himself.

Mr Summerfield recalled that the No.3 handled well once he had gotten used to the novel means of control, but the machine was ruled out of the competition, "...for no apparent reason...", as recorded in the 3 July 1914 issue of Flight.

In the book British Aircraft before the Great War (Schiffer, Atglen, PA 2001), the authors offer the following reason for the No.3's disqualification: "...the pilot was classified as a novice and excluded.

One positive consequence of his entry was that his theories became known to a wider audience after the article in Flight magazine that year, where he went into detail about his rocking wing method of control.

In a letter to his wife Beatrice, written presumably in the later months of 1914, published in Alistair W. Blair and Alistair Smith's book The Pioneer Flying Achievements of Preston Watson, Preston explains a meeting with Lithuanian born Leo Anatole Jouques, employed by the War Office to manufacture aeroplanes under licence by his firm Jouques Aviation Works at Willesden, London, and apparently well connected, who suggested to him he might be able to assist him with a commission with the Royal Aircraft Factory at Farnborough.

At the bottom of page 145 in the 26 February 1915 issue of Flight is a photograph of students and instructors of the London and Provincial School; Watson can be seen wearing a leather flying cap standing next to a sheepish looking Clive Collett, later Captain Clive Franklin Collett MC, Great War fighter ace from Spring Creek near Blenheim, New Zealand and the first member of the Royal Flying Corps to parachute out of an aeroplane.

[2] On 30 June 1915, Flight sub-Lieutenant Preston Watson of the Royal Naval Air Service was flying Caudron G.3 3266 between Eastchurch in Kent and Eastbourne, East Sussex, England when his aeroplane "suddenly dived from a great height to the ground", and crashed in Dunlye Field, a few miles from the Cross-in-Hand Hotel near Heathfield.

[2][8] What actually happened to cause the Caudron to crash has never been fully explained; some hypothesised that the aircraft suffered structural failure, since a wing was found in an adjoining field.

[2][8] Preston Watson's achievements, although not spectacular are today regarded with scepticism because of the erroneous claims of powered-flight-before-the-Wrights in the summer of 1903 that originated from his younger brother James.

Following this, James Watson approached the Royal Aeronautical Society via a joint dinner with the Royal Aero Club at the Dorchester Hotel, London, commemorating 50 years since the Wright Brothers' first powered flight on 17 December 1903, with evidence, including photographs and eye-witness accounts that Preston Watson flew a powered aeroplane before the Wright Brothers.

In an interview he gave in 1961, Milne remembered that Watson constructed his glider in, "...late 1903 or early 1904", at the time he and Preston, "...were attending physics classes at University College [Dundee].

[2] Evidently however, he had demonstrated an interest in aviation before 1908, based on the fact that he had published a patent for flying machines a year earlier, but examining these draws the conclusion that his ideas at that time were way off the mark when it came to an understanding of what constituted a successful aircraft.

[2][9]In the 15 May 1914 issue of Flight magazine, Preston Watson himself stated that, in his own words, "these gentlemen, the Wrights, were the first to fly in a practical way", and at no time during his life did he ever contradict that statement.

[2] The unearthing of factual accounts of Watson's activities has not prevented a flood of articles and further re-assertions of the discredited stories in newspapers and magazines since James first made his assertions, however.

During the 100th anniversary year of the Wrights' first powered flights, reporters took up the story and published "their" exclusive in the local press, recycling the same James Watson quotes and statements between them.