Grace's Guide To British Industrial History

Registered UK Charity (No. 115342)

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 162,257 pages of information and 244,498 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Grace's Guide is the leading source of historical information on industry and manufacturing in Britain. This web publication contains 147,919 pages of information and 233,587 images on early companies, their products and the people who designed and built them.

Charles Horace Watkins

From Graces Guide

Charles Horace Watkins (1884-1976) was an aviation pioneer who built the first engine-powered aeroplane in Wales, a red monoplane called the Robin Goch.

Watkins was born in 1884 to Samuel and Lydia (Dutton) Watkins of Cardiff.

He designed and constructed a small monoplane between 1907-09 at Maindy in Cardiff and claimed he flew the plane over short distances in 1910, followed by longer flights later, although none of these claims have official verification.

As the flight of William Frost at Saundersfoot in 1896 was never officially recorded, then Watkins effort may have been the first official heavier-than-air flight in Wales.

The plane is now preserved at the National Waterfront Museum in Swansea.

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