The militarisation of aerial theatre: air displays and airmindedness in Britain and Australia between the world wars

ABSTRACT

Aerial theatre, the use of aviation spectacle to project images of future warfare, national power and technological prowess, was a key method for creating an airminded public in the early twentieth century. The most significant and influential form of aerial theatre in interwar Britain was the Royal Air Force Display at Hendon, in which military aircraft put on impressive flying performances before large crowds, including an elaborate set-piece acting out a battle scenario with an imaginary enemy. Hendon was emulated by other air displays in Britain and in Australia, even civilian ones. Indeed, the inability of the much smaller Royal Australian Air Force to regularly project spectacle on the scale of Hendon across a much larger nation created a gap which civilian aviation organisations then tried to fill. Hendon thus helped to propagate a militarised civilian aerial theatre, and hence airmindedness, in both Britain and Australia.

KEYWORDS:

• Aviation
• interwar
• spectacle
• Hendon

Acknowledgements

For their advice and assistance, the author would like to thank Stephen Grose, James Kightly, Richard Scully, Rowan Thompson and Nathan Wise.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1. Edmonds, “How Australians Were Made Airminded,” 184. For other definitions, see Palmer, Dictatorship of the Air, 2–3; and Corn, The Winged Gospel, vii.

2. See generally Van Riper, Imagining Flight; and The Spectacle of Flight.

3. Corn, The Winged Gospel, 29–50.

4. Holman, “Dreaming War,” 181–183. See also Fritzsche, A Nation of Fliers, 4–5.

5. Holman, The Next War in the Air.

6. Adey, Aerial Life, 22.

7. Courtwright, Sky as Frontier, 127–128.

8. In particular, see Wohl, A Passion for Wings; and The Spectacle of Flight.

9. Adey, “Ten Thousand Lads with Shining Eyes,” 66.

10. Millward, Women in British Imperial Airspace, 29.

11. Gunning, ‘The Cinema of Attraction[s]’.

12. Edgerton, England and the Aeroplane.

13. Edmonds, “How Australians Were Made Airminded”.

14. Kaplan, Aerial Aftermaths, 69–71.

15. For key precedents, see Adey, Aerial Life, 57–67; Myerly, “The Eye Must Entrap the Mind”; Rech, “A Critical Geopolitics of Space and Spectacle,” 537; and Rüger, The Great Naval Game.

16. Hallion, Taking Flight, 47–60.

17. Rech, “A Critical Geopolitics of RAF Recruitment,” 114–118.

18. Observer, 10 May 1925, 13. All newspapers published in London, unless otherwise obvious.

19. For example Brant, Balloon Madness, 73.

20. Holmes, Falling Upwards, 52–79.

21. Ibid., 24–25; and Richards, The Golden Age of Pantomime, 19–26.

22. Hallion, Taking Flight, 268.

23. Fritzsche, A Nation of Fliers, 13.

24. Pirie, “British Air Shows in South Africa,” 49.

25. Oliver, Hendon Aerodrome, 17–28; and Horrall, Popular Culture in London, 87–88.

26. Paris, Winged Warfare.

27. Wells, The War in the Air; and Wallace, Claude Grahame-White, 171–174.

28. Morrow, The Great War in the Air.

29. Paris, “The Rise of the Airmen”; Holman, The Next War in the Air, 35–54.

30. Jarrett (ed.), Biplane to Monoplane.

31. Fearon, “The Growth of Aviation in Britain,” 24–28.

32. Overy, The Birth of the RAF; and Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, 17–31.

33. Ferris, Men, Money and Diplomacy, 83–88; and Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, 59–78.

34. Adey, Aerial Life, 57.

35. Pisano, “The Greatest Show Not on Earth,” 51–59.

36. Ibid., 64–66.

37. The Age (Melbourne), 24 October 1934, 1.

38. For example Molkentin, Flying the Southern Cross, 149, 154, 160.

39. Lincolnshire Echo (Lincoln), 6 July 1935, 1; and Van Riper, Imagining Flight, 44.

40. Fritzsche, A Nation of Fliers, 208; and Dodd and Wiggam, “Civil Defence as a Harbinger of War,” 143.

41. On the RAF Display see Omissi, “The Hendon Air Pageant”; Oliver, Hendon Aerodrome; and Adey, Aerial Life, 57–66. Until 1925 it was known as the RAF Aerial Pageant.

42. Flight, 8 July 1920, 705; and Watson, The Royal Air Force at Home, 16.

43. Myerly, “The Eye Must Entrap the Mind”; and Rüger, The Great Naval Game.

44. Richards, Imperialism and Music, 219; and Rüger, The Great Naval Game, 257–261, 267–270.

45. Bartie et al., “And Those Who Live”; and Deer, Culture in Camouflage, 66.

46. This changed after the Battle of Britain: Campion, The Battle of Britain.

47. Hobsbawm and Ranger, eds, The Invention of Tradition.

48. Ferris, Men, Money and Diplomacy, 83–88.

49. For the following, see Flight, 7 July 1927, 452–460.

50. Flight, 1 July 1937, 10.

51. Flight, 7 July 1927, 460.

52. Ibid.

53. Ibid.

54. Ibid.

55. Belfast News-Letter, 31 May 1927, 6.

56. Flight, 7 July 1927, 459, 460.

57. For example Illustrated London News, 6 July 1935, 10.

58. Leeds Mercury, 28 June 1937, 7; and Illustrated Sporting and Dramatic News, 7 May 1937, 26.

59. Flight, 27 June 1935, 726.

60. Western Daily Press (Bristol), 4 July 1927, 10.

61. Flight, 27 June 1935, 727; Omissi, “The Hendon Air Pageant,” 209; and Law, The Experience of Suburban Modernity, 67.

62. Flight, 27 June 1935, 727; and Law, The Experience of Suburban Modernity, 67–68.

63. For example “The Sky their Stage,” British Pathé newsreel 691.23, 30 June 1930, https://www.britishpathe.com/video/the-sky-their-stage/.

64. Morley, “The Screen’s Threatening Skies,” 110–114.

65. For example Citizen (Gloucester), 2 July 1927, 6.

66. Western Daily Press (Yeovil), 4 July 1927, 10.

67. Evening Telegraph and Post (Dundee), 4 July 1927, 2.

68. Nottingham Evening Post, 13 July 1935, 6.

69. Flight, 27 January 1938, 93; Oliver, Hendon Aerodrome, 110.

70. Pirie, “British Air Shows in South Africa,” 53; and Grundlingh, “The King’s Afrikaners,” 335–356.

71. Saint-Amour, “On the Partiality of Total War,” 445.

72. Omissi, “The Hendon Air Pageant,” 110; Wohl, The Spectacle of Flight, 86, 88.

73. Rüger, The Great Naval Game, 198–250.

74. James, The Paladins, 249.

75. Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, 81–118, 186–187.

76. Higham, Britain’s Imperial Air Routes, 356.

77. Edmonds, Flight in Australia, 67–68, 159.

78. Gillison, Royal Australian Air Force, 14.

79. Flight, 27 June 1930, 719; and Williams, “The Upper Class and Aeroplane Sport,” 461.

80. Edmonds, Australia Takes Wing, 85–87; and Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, 289–290.

81. Myerscough, “Airport Provision in the Inter-War Years”.

82. Ibid., 64.

83. Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, 119; and Edmonds, Australia Takes Wing, 68–69.

84. Millward, Women in British Imperial Airspace, 26; and Pirie, “British Air Shows in South Africa,” 54–55.

85. British Newspaper Archive, https://www.britishnewspaperarchive.co.uk/.

86. Leeds Mercury, 26 May 1934, 7.

87. Daily Mail (Hull), 22 June 1933, 9; and Seabridge, “Blackpool’s Aerodromes,” 43.

88. Myerscough, “Airport Provision in the Inter-War Years,” 57.

89. FitzSimons, Charles Henry Brown; and Age (Melbourne), 4 May 1911, 8.

90. Edmonds, Australia Takes Wing, 56–57.

91. Milln, 1919–1941.

92. Trove Digitised Newspapers, https://trove.nla.gov.au/newspaper/.

93. Western Mail (Perth), 10 October 1929, 26.

94. Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, 399–403. On the Peace Loan mock combat over Adelaide, see Adelaide Chronicle, 11 September 1920, 34; and Wellington, Exhibiting War, 197–198.

95. Age (Melbourne), 15 December 1924, 10.

96. Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, 49.

97. Grand Anzac Military Tattoo, 1935, 25–26.

98. Border Watch (Mt Gambier), 13 November 1934, 1; Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, 402.

99. Argus (Melbourne), 11 April 1938, 3.

100. Sun (Sydney), 23 April 1938, 3.

101. West Australian (Perth), 2 April 1928, 17.

102. Flying in New South Wales (Sydney), Xmas 1938, 5.

103. Adey, Aerial Life, 60–61; and Thompson, “The Air League of the British Empire”.

104. For example Evening Telegraph and Post (Dundee), 4 July 1927, 2.

105. Omissi, Air Power and Colonial Control; and Satia, “The Defense of Inhumanity”.

106. The Times, 25 June 1927, 12.

107. For example Saint-Amour, “On the Partiality of Total War,” 441. However, in only four years (1922, 1923, 1927 and 1930) was there a clearly defined ‘colonial’ scenario; in nearly all of the other cases, the enemy was another industrialised power.

108. The Times, 2 July 1927, 13.

109. Holman, The Next War in the Air, 51–54.

110. Adey, Aerial Life, 65–66.

111. See Endnote 108, 13.

112. Devon and Exeter Daily Gazette (Exeter), 4 July 1927, 8.

113. See Endnote 108, 13.

114. See Endnote 67, 2.

115. Holman, “The Air Panic of 1935”; and Morley, “The Screen’s Threatening Skies,” 113–114.

116. Tamworth Herald, 16 June 1928, 5.

117. Yorkshire Post (Leeds), 9 July 1928, 12.

118. Daily Mail (Hull), 11 October 1929, 15.

119. The Scotsman (Edinburgh), 11 October 1929, 6.

120. See Endnote 118, 15.

121. Daily Mail (Hull), 10 May 1932, 6.

122. Yorkshire Post (Leeds), 15 August 1931, 9; Folkestone Herald, 7 May 1932, 9.

123. Thompson, “The Air League of the British Empire”.

124. Argus (Melbourne), 11 April 1938, 1.

125. Ibid.

126. Ibid.

127. Ibid.

128. Weekly Times (Melbourne), 20 December 1924, 6.

129. Sydney Morning Herald, 27 April 1938, 15.

130. Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, 405.

131. Ibid., 405–406; and McCarthy, “An Air Force Fit for Air Displays?” 43.

132. Milln, 1919–1941, 170–191.

133. Mail (Adelaide), 19 December 1936, 1.

134. Ibid.

135. Flying in New South Wales (Sydney), Xmas 1938, 6.

136. Flying in New South Wales (Sydney), January–February 1937, 3.

137. Advertiser (Adelaide), 26 December 1931, 10.

138. Advocate (Burnie), 27 May 1935, 8.

139. Coulthard-Clark, The Third Brother, 181–182.

140. Stanley, Invading Australia, 43–63.

141. Meaher, The Australian Road to Singapore.

142. Biddle, Rhetoric and Reality in Air Warfare, 69–127.

143. Holman, The Next War in the Air, 55–80.

144. McIlraith and Connolly, Invasion from the Air; Holman, The Next War in the Air, 203–219.

145. Sunderland Echo and Shipping Gazette, 5 February 1937, 12; Evening Despatch (Birmingham), 19 May 1939, 11.

146. Belfast News-letter, 29 July 1939, 11.

147. Kenworthy, Will Civilisation Crash? 186.

148. Ibid., 187.

149. Flight, 30 June 1927, 431.

150. McCarthy, “Democratizing British Foreign Policy”. For examples of protests against (and at) Hendon, see Omissi, “The Hendon Air Pageant,” 214.

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Brett Holman

Brett Holman is a historian in the School of Humanities, Arts and Social Sciences at the University of New England, Armidale, Australia. His book, The Next War in the Air: Britain’s Fear of the Bomber, 1908–1941, was published by Ashgate in 2014 and reissued by Routledge in paperback in 2017. He is a partner investigator on the Australian Research Council Linkage Project LP160101232 ‘Heritage of the Air: How aviation transformed Australia’. His research blog is Airminded: https://airminded.org.