Rolls-Royce celebrates 110 year anniversary of Charles Stewart Rolls’ world’s first non-stop double crossing of the
English Channel by aeroplaneAviation pioneer completed the round trip from Dover to Sangatte and back on 2 June 1910Rolls’ record-breaking return flight came less than a year after Louis Blériot made the first one-way Channel crossingFlight proved to be Rolls’ last great aeronautical achievement, coming only a month before his tragic death at the age
of 32
At 6.30 pm on 2 June 1910, aviation pioneer Charles Stewart Rolls took off alone in his flimsy biplane from Swingate
aerodrome, near Dover, to achieve the world’s first non-stop double crossing of the English Channel by aeroplane.
He had been waiting in frustration for over a week, his departure repeatedly frustrated by high winds, fog or mechanical
problems with the machine. But finally, conditions were perfectly calm and clear. Among the spectators on the cliffs
were Rolls’ parents, Lord and Lady Llangattock, and his sister and brother-in-law, Sir John and Lady Shelley.
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, Rolls reached an altitude of 900 feet and a speed of “quite forty miles an
hour” as he approached the coast of France. By 7.15 pm, he was flying over the small French town of Sangatte, where the
present-day Channel Tunnel emerges. Leaning out of his aeroplane, he threw overboard three weighted envelopes, each
containing the message: ‘Greetings to the Auto Club of France...Dropped from a Wright aeroplane crossing from England to
France. C. S. Rolls, June 1910. P.S. Vive l’Entente’’
He then turned northward and set a course for the English coast. At 8.00 pm, he was back in Dover where, the Daily
Telegraph reported, “the sea front, cliffs and piers were thronged with people, all in the most intense state of
excitement.” Rolls rewarded them in typically flamboyant style, by flying in circles around the outer towers of the
town’s medieval castle. “I decided that, as I had plenty of petrol and my engines were working splendidly, I would
encircle the Castle, although it would lengthen my flight considerably,” he told the Telegraph correspondent. The crowd
loved it. This was more than mere entertainment: they knew they were present at a moment of history.
In an adventure lasting 95 minutes, Rolls had achieved two immortal landmarks. He had become both the first Englishman
to fly an aeroplane across the English Channel, and the first aviator ever to fly non-stop from England to France and
back again.
The flight caused a sensation and made Rolls an instant national celebrity. The recently-crowned King George V sent a
personal telegram – “The Queen and I heartily congratulate you on your splendid Cross-Channel flight. George R.I.” The
Aero Clubs of both England and France presented him with special awards. London’s famous Madame Tussauds even began
making a waxwork of him. Flight Magazine, meanwhile, lauded his Corinthian spirit, loftily assuring its readers that
Rolls had made the crossing not in the name of “merely winning souvenirs” and “without the smallest monetary inducement”
– a claim that may have rankled somewhat with Rolls, who had spent almost a third of a million pounds (at today’s
prices) of his own money on flying in the first half of 1910 alone. It was perhaps with this in mind that he wryly
remarked: “It is the only time I have succeeded in taking ten gallons of fuel in and out of France without paying duty.”
It is a sign of how quickly aviation and aeroplanes were developing that Rolls’ record-breaking flight came less than a
year after Louis Blériot had stunned the world with the first powered flight from France to England in July 1909. Rolls
made his double crossing in a Wright Flyer, designed by Wilbur and Orville Wright, who had recorded the world’s very
first flight in a heavier-than-air machine just seven years earlier in 1903.
This timescale underlines the truly perilous nature of Rolls’ adventure. His aeroplane, built from wood and fabric
braced with spars and wires, had a wingspan of just 12 metres (40 feet) and weighed only 457kg (1008lb) including the
engine – about the same weight as a grand piano. The physical dangers of crossing the sea in so primitive a machine are
obvious; it seems Rolls himself decided to attempt the return trip only when he was actually over Sangatte and reassured
himself everything was working well.
His sole concessions to safety were a lifejacket for himself, and four large buoyancy bags filled with compressed air
lashed to the machine’s undercarriage. The Daily Telegraph noted laconically: “Happily, there was no need to test their
efficacy.”
But Rolls was as experienced as he was daring. His flying career spanned what was then virtually the entire history of
aviation. Born in 1877, Rolls had been fascinated by engines since his schooldays – he went on to earn a degree in
Mechanical & Applied Science from Trinity College, Cambridge – and was captivated by flying from its inception. He was a founding
member of the Royal Aero Club, initially as a balloonist, making over 170 flights and winning the Gordon Bennett Gold
Medal in 1903 for the longest sustained time aloft. In the spring of 1909, when the Wright brothers came to England from
America as a guests of the Royal Aero Club, Rolls acted as their official host. A year later, he became only the second
person in Britain to be awarded an aeroplane pilot’s licence.
After their historic first meeting in 1904, Rolls tried to persuade Henry Royce to build an aeroplane. He failed – one
can only speculate as to what marvels might have resulted had he succeeded – but undeterred, Rolls bought a Wright Flyer
in which he made more than 200 flights.
Tragically, it was in such a machine that Rolls met his death just a month after his cross-Channel feat. On 12 July
1910, during a competition at Bournemouth, the tail-piece broke off and the aircraft plunged to the ground from a height
of 100 feet, crashing close to the crowded grandstand in a tangle of spars and canvas. Rolls sustained a fractured skull
and was pronounced dead at the scene; he was only the twelfth person in history to be killed in a flying accident, and
the first Briton to lose his life in a powered aircraft. He was just a few weeks short of his 33rd birthday.
Although Rolls is vastly more famous today for his automotive achievements, his contribution to aviation was immense and
important. In April 1912, a statue commemorating his double Channel crossing was erected in Guilford Gardens on Dover’s
seafront; it now stands in Marine Parade Gardens, where it was rededicated on 2 June 1995 by the then Chairman of the
Rolls-Royce Heritage Trust.
Torsten Müller-Ötvös, Chief Executive Officer, Rolls-Royce Motor Cars, said: “Charles Rolls combined a fine technical
mind with a bold, adventurous spirit; it is no wonder that aviation and motoring held such powerful, almost magical
attractions for him. He was a true pioneer in both fields, instrumental in the development of aeroplanes and motor cars
with his record-breaking feats.”
He added: “Rolls challenged the limits of what was believed possible and, as his cross-Channel flight demonstrated,
dared to venture beyond them. In so doing, he took technology and human ambition into wholly new territory. That he
achieved so much in so short a life is extraordinary and inspiring. His imagination and courage are still very much
alive in our company more than a century later.”
And he concludes: “It seems particularly appropriate to remember his remarkable flight this year. Apart from the
historical significance of the 110th anniversary, it comes at a time when we still face severe restrictions on our
freedom to travel and explore. It encourages us to keep looking outwards, over the horizon, and dreaming of adventures
we’ll take in the future – a reminder that anything is possible.”