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Claude Grahame White, 1910

Claude Grahame White (August 21, 1879 – August 19, 1959) was an English pioneer of aviation, and the first to make a night flight, during the Daily Mail sponsored London to Manchester race in 1910.

Claude Grahame White was born in Bursledon, Hampshire in 1879. He was apprenticed as an engineer and later started his own motor engineering company. In 1909 he learned to fly in France, and became one of the first Englishmen to qualify as a pilot.

On October 14, 1910 while in Washington, D.C. Grahame-White flew his Farman biplane over the city and landed on Executive Avenue near the White House. Rather than being arrested Claude was celebrated for the fete by the newspapers. His noted achievements though were centred in the commercialisation of aeronautics. He was also involved in promoting the military application of air power before the First World War with a campaign called "Wake Up Britain", and experimented with fitting various weapons and bombs to planes. During the war itself he mounted the first aerial defence of a city.

In 1911 he established a teaching school at Hendon, which quickly became Hendon Aerodrome. The Aerodrome was lent to the Admiralty (1916), and eventually taken over by the RAF in 1919. Grahame White's aerodrome was purchased by the RAF in 1925, after a long and protracted legal struggle. After this he lost his interest in aviation, eventually moving to Nice in his old age, where he died.

In 1911 a company was formed to cover his aviation interests, including the aerodromes and developed some aircraft. One of the designers was John Dudley North who would become Boulton & Paul's chief designer.

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