Charles Easterbrook reports:-
After a half hour of informal greetings and chatter , 15 (+9 apologies for absence) members received an interesting talk of the short lasting life of Haldon Airfield on the 770 foot Haldon Moor above Teignmouth given by Ian Handford, Chairman of the Torbay Civic Society .
Bill Parkinson served as a Royal Navy engineer in WW 1 and as a civilian taught himself to fly , qualifying in 1918.
After the war he started the ” Agra Engineering ” company in Teignmouth , but also gave private flights and pilot tuition himself .
In the 1920’s there were a number of private grass landing strips on Haldon Moor .In the late 1920’s Bill leased a large area of heather and grass flat land on the moor where , aided by the local Hoare family of banking renown , he built a hanger facilty and leased two Avro aeroplanes which increased activities .
During 1927 he gave a private flight to a young 15 year old teenager , Whitney Willard Straight , who took up flying, getting his A licence before he was 17 . He was the son of the wealthy american Dorothy Elmhirst who had recently bought Dartington Hall at Totnes with her English husband . She was “nee ” Payne Whitney and then Mrs Straight , both sources of wealth .
There were some commercial flights , being a stop on the Cardiff to Plymouth route , and fewer flights to Croydon airport for London . But being at 770 feet it was prone to closure from rain and from wind .
The young Mr Straight bought the airfield in 1931 which propered holding the ” Teignmouth Air Show ” annually with crowds of 7,000 . Starting in 1932 the show included “The Teignmouth Air Race ” , which was a ” Point to Point ” event of a circuit around Devon..
Bill Parkinson proved to be a good aero engineer , so his Agra Company prospered , then in the mid 1930’s he became the manager of the new Exeter Airport with its tarmac runways .
War in 1939 saw all civilian flying stopped , which closed Haldon Airfield , with the Admiralty buying it for training in 1941 .
Haldon never opened again , because Exeter airfield had been greatly expanded by the RAF over the war years , so all flying business went there . Besides Whitney Straight had also bought shares in Exeter .
He , Air Commodore Whitney Willard Straight had a good war in the RAF , becoming CBE , MC , DFC , FRSA , FRGS .
The websites give interesting reading of his war and his subsequent top jobs in aviation .
Reported and embroidered by Charles Easterbrook
Pictures above and below were researched and supplied by Tony Taft
Paignton Probus Club 