In 1910, an aeroplane was designed and built by George & Jobling, a Newcastle motor engineering firm with premises behind the Central Station in what used to be Robert Stephenson’s locomotive works. Arthur George was the driving spirit. As an engineer he put great emphasis on lightness, which was evident in the design of his aeroplane. His aeroplane was built by two car mechanics, Billy O’Hara and Artie Walker. The aeroplane was quite successful by the standards of the day. It resembled the contemporary Voisin and Farman, but was an original design not a copy. Before it flew, it was shown at the Aero and Motor Boat Exhibition at Olympia from March 11 to 19, 19 10. The contemporary aviation press gave it high praise for the quality of its workmanship and the ingenuity of its design.
Its maiden flight was at the Royal Aero Club airfield at Eastchurch on Sheppey in May 1910. By September 1910 George was “flying faultlessly covering 7 or 8 miles on Monday and Tuesday 4th and 5th, and carried a passenger on Tuesday evening. On Wednesday 6th he gained his certificate in fine style.” His certificate was No 19. Alliott Verdon Roe got No 18.
Back home on Tyneside, however, the Freemen of Newcastle refused Mr George permission to fly from the Town Moor, but he was able to operate from Gosforth Park race course nearby. His longest flight at Eastchurch had been 14 minutes, but he beat this at Gosforth with one of 18 minutes, by which time he had amassed over 300 miles (483km) in the air. (At an average of 35mph [56km/h] and 15 minutes per flight, this would represent about nine flying hours composed of 35 to 40 separate flights.) It is believed that during the autumn of 1910 the aeroplane was exhibited in Paris and several provisional orders were obtained for copies.
Unfortunately, in October 1910 George had an accident. “The machine ran about 150 yards and rose to about 60 feet. After a half mile he was making a wide sweep to get back to the shed when he struck an air pocket. The machine dropped into the golf course and capsized into a bunker. Mr George was unhurt but the propeller and landing gear were smashed.”
No doubt the aeroplane could have been repaired and flown again, but it seems to have been at this point that George & Jobling’s bank manager refused finance for any more aviation work. So the aeroplane was dismantled. During World War One all the sections and parts were thrown out except the propeller and the patented control column. Ironically the firm then went on to build aircraft components as part of the war effort.
No drawings have been traced, but many details can he found in contemporary journals. It was a biplane with a span of 30ft (9m) and a length of 30ft. Wing area was 426sq ft (39m2), with a chord of 5ft 6in (1.67m), plus 15in (38cm) extra chord at the trailing edge of the warping wing tips. The gap was 5ft (1.5m). Like the Farman, it had a forward elevator and a fixed horizontal tailplane (to the trailing edge of which a small auxiliary elevator was later added). The wing section was ‘single surfaced’, that is to say the ribs were like narrow hockey sticks with top and bottom curves parallel.
The structure was a typical birdcage of struts and bracing wires, but very well fashioned and light in weight. The principal struts were American elm and the smaller ones spruce, all carefully hollowed out. The wings were in three sections with the outer panels detachable for transport. The whole airframe, not counting the engine, but including the steel tube undercarriage, weighed only 412 lb (187kg).
The engine was a 60hp (44kW) four cylinder Green, water cooled. With a stroke of 146mm and bore of 140mm was nearly 9 litres, but it ran at only 1,200rpm. It weighed 250 lb (113kg) and cost £350, some three years’ wages for an average man in 1910. It is believed that George intended to replace the Green with a Gnome rotary, but funds ran out. During the initial flights it gave 280 lb (127kg) static thrust. The radiators were designed by George himself and consisted of a double series of longitudinal copper tubes forming the lower part of the centre section.
The propeller was also made by George & Jobling. Its diameter was 9ft (2.7m) with a pitch of 10ft (3m), and it was geared down 2:1 from the engine by a chain. It was mounted on a stationary axle on struts on the engine mountings so that it was entirely independent of the airframe structure, and could be removed by a single nut like a sports car wheel. The first chain shed rollers copiously but was replaced by a better one.
All up weight, including fuel and the ‘driver’ (as he was described), was 862 lb (391kg). This gave a wing loading of 2.6 lb/sq.ft. Its maximum speed was said to be 48 mph (77km/h).

George & Jobling patented the shock absorbing undercarriage in 1909 while the machine was still on the drawing board, but of more interest was the patent for the control column. This “combined all motions for the control of the machine by one hand but each motion independent of the others.” The rudder was operated by a handwheel, with the geometry of the pulley cables so designed that the stick could be moved fore and aft or sideways for elevator and banking without affecting the rudder and vice versa. Incidentally, the rudder appears from photographs to have a balance area ahead of the hinge fine. This principle had long been applied to ship’s rudders to reduce steering effort. The tailwheel was linked to the rudder for taxiing.
The front elevator was worked by a pushrod, and as already mentioned, a supplementary moving surface was added to the tail after the first flights. Lateral control was by wing warping, but with the interesting addition of some sort of aileron surfaces midway between the upper and lower wings which moved in conjunction with the flexible wings themselves. Whether they were intended as the primary lateral controls supplemented by the wing warping or vice versa is not clear, nor can their effectiveness be judged.

Span: 30′
Length: 31′
Weight allup: 862 lb
Speed: 48 mph

John Gaunt’s first biplane (1910) and his monoplane (1911) both crashed during attempts to get airborne, but biplane no.2 ‘Baby’ was much more successful. It had a lower wingspan which was somewhat less than that of the upper wingspan. The wings and interplane struts formed a single bay structure with additional pairs of interplane struts close to the fuselage in place of cabane struts, and an outward-leaning single strut on each side from the lower wingtip to the overhanging upper plane. The wings were unusual for the time, being covered not with fabric but thin plywood sheets. These were sewn together through eyelets inserted into them. Lateral control was provided by wing warping.

The fuselage was rectangular in cross-section and tapered towards the tail. A deep chord tailplane with highly swept leading edges and a pair of elevators with rounded trailing edges was mounted on top. At least part of the rudder projected below the fuselage. It was protected from the ground by a long tailskid, mounted well below the fuselage on a long post which also extended above the fuselage and appears, in a photograph, to have carried a small flag. The pilot’s open cockpit was positioned close to the trailing edge of the wing, which had a large cutout to improve visibility. The main undercarriage was built around a central skid, mounted on a pair of transverse V-struts to the fuselage. The two landing wheels were mounted on a split axle, attached to the skid.

The Baby was powered by a 30 hp (22 kW) Alvaston twin-cylinder, horizontally-opposed, water-cooled engine in the nose. It drove a two-blade propeller and was cooled by a pair of rectangular radiators, mounted longitudinally on the top edges of the fuselage, between the engine and the pilot, with their top edges attached to the lower surface of the upper wing.

John Gaunt flew his aircraft successfully for the first time on 12 June 1911 from his base on Southport sands in Lancashire, England. On 23 June, he covered a total of about seven miles, still flying mostly in straight lines. In the first week of July, he increased the distance covered, despite a member of the crowd he had attracted, who, unnoticed, bent one elevator out of shape and almost caused a crash. By 24 July, he had achieved flights of 30 minutes and reached an altitude of 300 ft (100 m). On 4 August, he made his first cautious turn but turns on windy days remained a problem into early September. That month, the Baby was flown successfully by another pilot, W.S Leveson-Gower, who posed no problems for the aircraft despite weighing 70 lb (32 kg) more than Gaunt.

It seems the aircraft flew again in the summer of 1912, but that a crash on 22 August ended its career.

Powerplant: 1 × Alvaston 2-cylinder horizontally opposed, water-cooled
Propeller: 2-blade Gaunt, 7 ft 0 in (2.13 m) diameter
Wing area: 208 sq ft (19.3 m2)
Empty weight: 600 lb (272 kg)
Maximum speed: 50 mph (80 km/h, 43 kn)
Stall speed: 35 mph (56 km/h, 30 kn)
Crew: one