Bland

L. Bland

History

Lilian Emily Bland was born on 22 September 1878 in Maidstone, Kent, the daughter of John Humphrey Bland and Emily Charlotte Bland (née Madden). She was a British aviator who, in 1910-11, became one of the first women in the world to design, build, and fly an aircraft.

Around the turn of the century, Bland began working as a sports journalist and press photographer for various London newspapers; she lived an unconventional lifestyle for the period; smoking, wearing trousers, hunting, shooting, and fishing.

Her father being of Anglo-Irish gentry, in 1900 she and her father moved to Tobercorran House in Carnmoney, north of Belfast, the home of her fathers’ widowed sister. Most sources state that this was following the death of her mother, but Emily Bland is recorded as dying on 27 February 1906 in Cannes, France. It seems likely to this author that Emily had moved there for health reasons.

Bland continued her photographic work, spending days on remote Scottish islands photographing seabirds, which increased her fascination with flying. In 1909, inspired by a postcard of the Blériot monoplane, Bland decided to take up flying, which involved building a machine herself. Bland successfully built a flyable model biplane, and from this, she progressed to a full-scale glider, which was built from spruce, bamboo and canvas, and completed early in 1910. The resulting, satirically named Mayfly, was tested by gliding it from Carnmoney Hill, being progressively strengthened and tested with heavier loads, until Bland felt it was strong enough to take an engine. She ordered a light 20 horsepower two-stroke engine from A. V. Roe and Co., and after some delays brought it to Carnmoney in July. In August of 1910, Lilian Bland piloted her first successful flight of the Mayfly, Ireland's first powered biplane.

Bland's excitement and enthusiasm at her success produced a completely opposite reaction in her father: he was greatly upset, and offered to buy her a motor car if she would give up this unbecoming and dangerous business of flying. She had proved her ability and, knowing that the Mayfly was under-powered with its present engine, and that it was a costly hobby, acceded. Eventually the engine was sold and the airframe was given away as a glider to a boys' club.

Lilian Bland was to take no further part in aviation. Her father having bought her the promised car, she taught herself to drive, and before long was running a Ford agency in Belfast, but again family disapproval of such "unladylike" activities resulted in her accepting an offer of marriage from a cousin, Lieutenant Charles Loftus Bland, and emigrating to Canada. Lilian spent the next several years making a life for her daughter and husband in Quatsino, on the Northern part of Vancouver Island, British Columbia, raising livestock, farming, making wine, and selling goods. In 1917 Mary Madden, Lilian's cousin on her mothers' side, joined Charles and Lilian to work on the homestead in exchange for pay. In 1921 Lilian, Charles, and Mary all moved to California, where they purchased a farm and lived for 3 years in the small town of Calistoga in Napa County. They returned to Quatsino sound in 1925 via automobile with Mary’s son Jack Bland.

In 1929 Lilian’s daughter Pat passed away from a Tetanus infection and in 1932 Lilian and Charles separated; Lilian stayed on the homestead until 1934, then returned to England to spend some years at Penshurst, Kent, where she became a landscape gardener, before retiring to Penzance, Cornwall in 1955. Lilian Emily Bland died on 11 May 1971.

Company References

Project Data

Name	Year	Status	Qty	Description	References
Mayfly	1910	Proto	1	1S glider	1,2,3,4
Mayfly	1910	Proto	(1)	1S, 1E biplane	1,2,3,4
Mayfly 2	1911	Proj	0	1S, 1E biplane	1

Project References

British Aircraft Before The Great War, Michael H. Goodall and Albert E. Tagg (Schiffer Publishing Ltd., 2001)
British Aircraft 1809-1914, Peter Lewis (Putnam, 1962)
Flight 17 Dec 1910
Flight 23 Jan 1964

Production Details and Type Description

Mayfly Glider
Single seat biplane glider with front and rear bamboo booms. The forward booms were rectangular in plan, triangular in side elevation, and carried elevators that could be moved differentially, while the rear booms were triangular in plan, rectangular in side elevation and carried a single rudder without a fin. The fabric covered, equal span wings were without sweep or stagger; unbalanced ailerons were fitted below the top wing. The main spars were of ash, the curve of the wing tips being steam bent, with ribs and stanchions of spruce. The undercarriage consisted of a simple pair of curved ash skids.

Specification
Span	Length	Height	Wing Area	Empty Wt	Max AUW
27 ft 6 in			200 sq ft		200 lb
8.38 m			18.58 m2		91 kg

One aircraft only : no c/n or registration.

Mayfly Biplane
Single seat pusher biplane with front and rear, near parallel, booms that were triangular in side elevation, mounted on a tricycle subframe with skids. The wider spaced forward booms carried elevators that could be moved differentially, while the rear carried smaller elevators, an even smaller fixed tailplane, plus centrally mounted fin and rudder. The fabric covered, equal span wings were without sweep or stagger; unbalanced ailerons were fitted below the top wing. The main spars were of ash, the curve of the wing tips being steam bent. The ribs and stanchions were of spruce, the forward and aft booms of bamboo, while a central framework mounting the engine, fuel tank and a sling-type pilots seat was of American elm. Front and rear elevator control consisted of a bicycle handle bar, while the ailerons were controlled by the back of the seat, leaning to the right pulling down the right-hand aileron and vice versa. The rudder control was worked by pedals. The undercarriage consisted of a simple pair of curved ash skids, with two wheels and a cross-axle spanning between them. A third wheel was centrally located to prevent tipping over on landing. One 20 h.p. A. V. Roe two-stroke engine.

Specification
Span	Length	Height	Wing Area	Empty Wt	Max AUW
27 ft 7 in	23 ft	9 ft 10 in	250 sq ft
8.41 m	7.01 m	3 m	23.23 m2