Robin Longbottom on how an aero club event sparked national interest

WOOFA Bank lies on the eastern edge of Silsden Moor, running north to south along the skyline and rising to a height of almost one thousand feet.

On Saturday, May 23, 1931, it became a scene of nationwide interest when an aero club pageant was held there.

Towards the close of the 1920s a new craze called gliding, or sail-planing, took the nation by storm and clubs sprung up across the country. It first became popular on the continent, particularly in Germany. Enthusiasts designed and built their own planes and those that were particularly successful were put into commercial production. By 1930 gliders were being made in England and a new plane could be bought for £100 and made for much less.

One of the country’s leading promoters of the new craze was Joseph Lyons & Co Ltd, who were famous for their brand of cakes and London tea rooms. In 1931 they brought Herr Hans Krause, the “sail-plane expert”, over from Germany. He arrived with two of his machines and whilst touring the country was booked by the Ilkley Gliding Club to give a demonstration at Woofa Bank. With the expectation that large numbers of enthusiasts would arrive by motor car, the club engaged the Automobile Association to prepare routes from Leeds and Bradford and to sign and patrol them. Entrance onto the flying ground was free but there was a charge of one shilling for parking.

Herr Krause brought a new type of glider, the West Preussen, referred to as the 'cloud yacht', and a more standard Falke glider. Planes were launched by manpower and an elastic rope, or bungee. The rope was laid out in a V shape and the apex was attached to a hook under the nose of the plane. Up to 20 volunteers, ten on each side, then took up the rope whilst another volunteer held on to the tail of the plane to keep it stationary. The volunteers then ran forward and when the pilot decided that the rope had reached maximum tension, he shouted for the man holding the tail to let go. The machine was then propelled into the air.

The West Preussen was the first glider to be catapulted into the sky. Herr Krause was at the controls, and it rose to a height of some 200 feet. However, after making a couple of successful passes over Woofa Bank, his plane appeared to stall then went into a spin and nosedived to the ground. To the amazement of the crowd, Herr Krause climbed out of the wreckage completely unscathed. Undeterred by the crash he then declared that he would go up in the Falke, but a doctor, who came forward from the onlookers, dissuaded him from doing so.

Members of the Ilkley, Bradford and Leeds gliding clubs then assembled their planes and took to the air. Twenty-year-old Hedley Crabtree, Ilkley’s honorary instructor, went up in the club's Zogling, a German-designed high wing, cable braced machine in which the pilot sat precariously exposed to the elements. After a successful flight, Crabtree caused some alarm when it appeared he was going to crash into a wall as he came to land. However, a mishap was narrowly avoided at the last minute when he managed to lift the plane and land it successfully. Members from the other clubs also made several excellent glides before landing in the fields below from where enthusiastic volunteers carried the planes back to the top of Woofa Bank for flights to be repeated.

Only a few events took place at Woofa Bank, and gliding clubs eventually relocated their activities to Sutton Bank, near Thirsk, where the Yorkshire Gliding Club meets to this day.