Pioneering aviators were largely ignorant of the laws of stability and control and really did fly ‘by the seat of their pants’. Their task was not eased by the aircraft of the day which, like this Bristol Boxkite, were often unstable and underpowered.

В безветренную ясную погоду Фонд устраивает полеты некоторых хрупких самолетов коллекции, включая реплику Bristol Boxkite, построенную для съемок фильма "Воздушные приключения".

The Shuttleworth Trust's Bristol Boxkite replica flying at Old Warden.

A Bristol Boxkite replica, in which the pilot had no protection at all.

Bristol beginnings are shown here, which shows Graham Gilmour flying a Bristol "Box-kite" from the Haslar sea wall in 1911.

The Shuttleworth Trust's Bristol Boxkite reproduction catches the sunlight at Old Warden, October 31, 1976.

The Shuttleworth Bristol Boxkite reproduction taking off from Old Warden on August 30, 1981.

A striking perspective of Shuttleworth's Bristol Boxkite. The camera was mounted on the front port outer interplane strut!

AN EARLY "PUSHER": One of the Bristol "Box Kites" with Gnome rotary engine, on which many early pilots were trained.

Bristol Boxkite No 12A of 1911, fitted with a 50 h.p. seven-cylinder Gnome Omega.

Early streamlining: a “Box Kite” with a cowling over the pilot’s legs.

Самолеты Boxkite применялись в собственных летных школах компании "Bristol", а также использовались в качестве учебных в британских ВМС. Адмиралтейство разместило свои машины в Истчерче, Чингфорде и на других авиабазах флота.

Bristol Boxkite at Point Cook, Australia in 1914, demonstrating its very thin wing.

AN EARLY MILITARY MACHINE: THE BRISTOL "BOX KITE" RESEMBLED IN A GENERAL WAY THE FARMANS OF THE SAME PERIOD. IT WAS FITTED WITH A GNOME ROTARY ENGINE DRIVING A PUSHER AIRSCREW. MANY EARLY PILOTS WERE TRAINED ON THIS TYPE OF MACHINE.

A Bristol "Box kite," also with Gnome engine. In this machine the occupants were unprotected.

Flying “straights” over the banked racing circuit at Brooklands, Surrey, on a Bristol Boxkite in 1911.

A Bristol Boxkite passes over Stonehenge at sunrise on June 21, 1913.

A cross-country race in progress at Brooklands during the summer of 1913

The first Bristol aeroplane - the “Box Kite,” with 50 h.p. Gnome rotary engine, constructed by the British and Colonial Aeroplane Co., which eventually became the present Bristol Aeroplane and Motor Co. They were very similar to the Henry Farman, and large numbers were built and used for training purposes.

A LINK WITH THE PAST. When I was turning out some drawers the other day the enclosed photo came to light. Perhaps it may be of interest to you.
One fine July morning in 1911, and about 7 a.m., some of us, students, who were on the top floor of the Agricultural College at Uckfield, Sussex, were surprised to hear, what was then, the unaccustomed noise of two rotary motors. Looking out of a window we saw two biplanes, one of which is the subject of the photograph. This one promptly did a forced landing in a field nearby. Its pilot and passengers sitting "pick-a-back" were Messrs. Pizey and Fleming. The accompanying machine, a Bristol of the same type, and piloted solo by Mr. Gordon England, whose flying kit consisted of a cap reversed and an ordinary lounge suit with layers of newspaper under the waistcoat (!) did a perfect landing on Uckfield recreation ground at rear of college. Our principal invited the airmen to have breakfast at the college, which they did, and later in the day we had the pleasure of repairing parts of the damaged left wing in the carpenter's shop. This repair was apparently sufficiently airworthy to allow of the machine being flown away the next morning.
A. BERTOLACCI, Worthing. late R.A.F. November 18, 1929.

Bristol Boxkite подготовлен к полету в Салисбери-Плэйн, маневры британской армии в сентябре 1910 года. Данный самолет выполнил первый полет в Великобритании в военных целях, произведя в ходе учений разведку.
Bristol Boxkite before a demonstration flight in November 1910.

Bristol (Prier) monoplanes and Bristol Boxkites at the Bristol Flying School at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain in 1911.

Early aviation in India; a Bristol “Box Kite” was demonstrated in 1911 by Henri Jullerot.

Bristol Boxkite представлял собой облагороженную копию биплана Анри фармана с мотором Gnome мощностью 50 л.с. На снимке: лейтенанта Эрика Харрисона поздравляет армейский офицер после полета 1 марта 1914 года на Boxkite.

Henri Jullerot sits at the controls of a Bristol Boxkite with Stanley White perching on the wing beside him, on the occasion of a flight from Durdham Down in Bristol in November 1910. Jullerot had joined the company as a test pilot shortly before, and was despatched to India with two Boxkites as a demonstration pilot that December.

Eric Gordon England seated at the controls of a Bristol Box kite at the same company’s flying school at Larkhill on Salisbury Plain, where he was an instructor. Other notable early aviators here are, from left, standing: Lt Ercole; Lt Antonini; Sehor Campana; Lt Moore RN; Lt Bower RN: Lt Athol Wyness-Stuart; Pierre Prier and Henri Jullerot.

England (nearest camera) and two colleagues pose with a Bristol Boxkite.

Merriam (standing with arms crossed) and some of his early pupils with a Bristol Boxkite at Brooklands in 1911. Sitting in the pilot’s seat is fellow Bristol flying school instructor Collyns Pizey, who took Merriam for his first flight. In 1913 Pizey was appointed to the British Naval Mission to Greece, where he died of dysentery in 1915.

Perched among copious struts and wires, Merriam poses in a Bristol Boxkite at Brooklands in 1911. TOP RIGHT Merriam’s 1914 Royal Aero Club Competitors’ Register Certificate for air-racing.

The Bristol Boxkite was typical of the early pusher biplanes without cockpits. It had conventional rudder pedals and a side-mounted stick (there is nothing new ...).

Teaching an old dog new tricks - Frederick Warren Merriam (left) and fellow aviation pioneer Harold Barnwell with furry friend in a Bristol Boxkite at Brooklands. Merriam's own caption to the photograph reads: “First bulldog to fly, 1912. Barnwell holding the dog while I piloted. It is generally known that once a bulldog digs his teeth into one it doesn’t let go... this was in my mind and although rather restless at first he soon got used to the sensation and seemed to enjoy his novel experience”.

During trials on Salisbury Plain on 27 September 1910, Robert Loraine sent a morse wireless message "Enemy in sight" while flying a Bristol Boxkite. It was received over a quarter of a mile away. The only earlier recorded airborne wireless transmission took place one month before, in Canada.

Close-up of the "drivers" seat on a "period" Bristol Boxkite. The engine is a 50 h.p. Gnome rotary.

Gnome applications. The 1911 Bristol Boxkite used a 50 h.p. Omega driving a pusher propeller.

Standard power for the Bristol Boxkite was the 50 h.p. Gnome.

Frederick Warren Merriam, one of Britain’s original "magnificent men”, beside a Bristol Boxkite at Larkhill in 1913.

Ray Tootall’s evocative portrayal of a young woman about to make a passenger flight in a Boxkite, possibly at Hendon.

An appealing study of a Bristol Boxkite entitled On Gossamer Wing, painted by Alan Feamley.

Here’s one of the pioneer planes that used to attract such eager crowds during the summer of 1912. It is conducting some early wireless tests from the air. Even then (while airmen were still blazing a sky trail across the counties) Marconi service was planning ahead; foreseeing developments in the future. To-day, when air routes take a continent in their stride, naturally it is still Marconi Wireless Equipment that leads the way.