Night Flying at Hendon [unknown artist], lithograph

From 1910 to 1968 Hendon airfield operated as an important centre for civil and military aviation.

Following the first flight from Hendon, in 1910, for the London to Manchester air race, in 1911 Claude Grahame-White purchased the London Aerodrome from which he soon hosted regular air races and public events, attracting visitors from across London. 26 September 1912 marked Hendon’s first night flying event – a daring display of air power and flying skill, and a mesmerising light spectacle, which attracted 10,000 visitors. A critic for Flight magazine wrote: ‘If anyone had said three years ago that it was possible to sit in a London suburb at ten o’clock at night and watch electrically-lighted aerial motors perform over one’s head, he would probably have been put down as a harmless, but very mad, lunatic’. Purchased in 1988. Artist copyright: expired / RAF Museum.