Skegness Magazine

1913

A SKEGNESS woman helped to make history back in 1913 when she was invited to take a flight with air ace Mr B. C. Hucks. For Miss Nora Burley, now 82, of Cecil Ave, was one of two passengers taken 2,500 up above the resort, the first time the pilot had taken two in his cockpit.

The event took place on August 21 at the former football ground on Richmond Drive.
Miss Burley explained, “B. C. Hucks was keen to make history, so my father being lightweight said he would like to take one of his daughters
up, and I was the lucky one out of the four.
“And so that gave him the history of taking two in his cockpit, and the first child up. My mother was with relations, but clinging to a post until we came down.
“It was very exciting but I was not at all nervous at eight years old.”
Mr Hucks also achieved fame as the first British man to loop the loop after he saw Bleriot do it at Buc in France.
To perform this feat he had to undergo special training which included him being strapped upside down in a chair for several minutes at a time.
He died in 1918 from influenza.