Baden Fletcher Smyth Baden-Powell (22 May 1860 – 3 October 1937) was a British military aviation pioneer, and President of the Royal Aeronautical Society from 1900 to 1907.Past Presidents, Royal Aeronautical Society (Retrieved 17 Oct 2016).
Family Baden was the youngest child of the Rev. Prof. Baden Powell, and the youngest brother of Warington Baden-Powell, George Baden-Powell, Frank Baden-Powell, Robert Baden-Powell and Agnes Baden-Powell.
His mother, Henrietta Grace nee Smyth, was a daughter of Admiral William Henry Smyth, and was the third wife of Rev. Prof. Baden Powell (the previous two having died). She was a gifted musician and artist, but when her husband died she was left with eight small children - Baden only three weeks old - and four older step-children, so she had to be "tough". Baden did not marry - his mother was quite brutal in trying to keep her children and herself as a family."Baden-Powell" by Tim Jeal Baden was god-father to, among others, his brother's daughter Betty Clay nee Baden-Powell.
Military
Baden-Powell was commissioned a Lieutenant in the Scots Guards on 29 July 1882, and served with the Guards Camel Regiment in the Nile Expedition (1884–85) in Egypt and Sudan. Promotion to Captain followed on 5 February 1896, and to Major on 24 June 1899.
Baden-Powell was one of the first to see the use of aviation in a military context.Hugh Driver. The Birth of Military Aviation: Britain, 1903-1914. page 185 at google books"The Tatler" No. 107, 15 July 1903, page 85 He was a military aviation pioneer, see below.
Baden-Powell served with the 1st battalion of his regiment in South Africa during the Second Boer War, and was present at the battles of Belmont (23 November 1899), Modder River (28 November 1899), and Magersfontein (11 Dec 1899). He was in the Relief Column that in May 1900 relieved the siege of Mafeking, where his elder brother was in command.Hart´s army list, 1903 A month after the end of the war in late May 1902, Baden-Powell returned to Britain with his regiment in the SS Tagus.
In 1915, aged 55, he was a Censor at Boulogne.The entry for 17 Feb 1915 in the Diary of his sister-in-law, Olave B-P
Aviation and inventions Baden-Powell joined the army at 22; within a year he was lecturing on military uses of lighter-than-air flight. He was one of several notables expressing interest in the Aeronautical Navigation Conference at the 1893 World's Fair. In 1894, Baden-Powell made the first British military balloon flight. Baden-Powell wrote an article including "What will the good citizens of London say when they see a hostile dynamite-carrying aerostat hovering over St. Paul's?" He wrote to Lord Kelvin, who replied that he had "not a molecule of faith" in flight.
Baden-Powell became a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society (elected in 1891) and a Fellow and, in 1900, President of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He also wrote, "Ballooning as a Sport", published in 1907 by William Blackwood and Sons.Ballooning as a Sport, for sale on eBay UK.
With his sister Agnes, they built and flew in their own hot-air balloons, man-carrying kites,Cosmopolitan Magazine, April 1899 gliders and powered aircraft. He invented a twelve-foot man-carrying kite that he flew at Whitton Park, Hounslow, England,McClure's Magazine and later a three-kite system that he called the Levitor.Pelham, D.; The Penguin Book of Kites, Penguin 1976 He helped Marconi in Newfoundland in his efforts to transmit and receive radio messages across the Atlantic, using Baden-Powell's man-carrying kite to lift the radio aerial.
Baden-Powell also developed a collapsible military bicycle. He obtained one of the first British patents for a television system, "An electrical method of reproducing distant scenes visually", published 19 April 1921 (GB161706)."L'impact de la roue à miroirs, 1910-1920", Site "Histoire de la télévision", https://www.histv.net/impact-de-la-roue-a-miroir-1920-194 And he contributed to the Encyclopædia Britannica entry on 'kite-flying'.
Patents Patent GB-1903-26821 Patent GB-1906-6443 Patent GB-1907-9691 Patent GB-1895-17683 Kites, Filed 23 September 1895 Patent DE-1896-88995 Kites for lifting loads
Bibliography Books :- 1892: "In savage isles and settled lands. Malaysia, Australasia and Polynesia, 1888-1891", published by R.Bentley and Son, London.Baden Fletcher Smyth Baden-Powell. 1892. Malaysia, Australasia and Polynesia, 1888-1891. At archive.org.) Among other incidents, Baden-Powell recounts a visit to Batavia (now Jakarta), where he was a guest at a dinner party hosted by a leading local magnate, Khouw Yauw Kie, Kapitein der Chinezen. 1903: War in practice 1909: Practical aerodynamics and the theory of the aeroplane. A résumé of the principles evolved by past experiments
Articles :- 1883, Military Ballooning 1887, How I learnt ballooning - Journal: Temple Bar 1894, On the action of a bird's wing - Journal: Aeronautics 1895, Air-car or man-lifting kite - Journal: National Review 1897, A new engine of war--Captain Baden-Powell's war kite - Journal: Daily Mail 1897, Conquest of the air - Journal: United Service Magazine 1897, New Suggestions for Aerial Exploration - Journal: Aeronautical Journal 1897, Present state of aeronautics - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1897, The conquest of the air - Journal: United Service Magazine) 1897, New Suggestions for Aerial Exploration 1898, Exploration of the Free Air - a discussion between Baden-Powell and Abbott Lawrence Rotch 1898, An aluminium balloon - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1898, Kites, their theory and practice - Journal: Scient. Amer. Suppl. 1898, Balloons for geographical research - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1898, Gliding machine (Simple title: Gliding machine, Journal: Aër. Journ. 1898, Kites (Simple title: Kites, Journal: Aër. Journ. 1898, Kites: Their theory and practice - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1898, Die Verwendung von Drachen zum Aufheben von Menschen [The use of kites to pick up people] - Journal: Ill. Aër. Mitt.) 1898, Théorie pratique des cerfs-volants - Journal: L'Aéronaute 1899, War kites (Simple title: War kites, - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1900, The secretary bird and his flight - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1902 Recent aeronautical progress and the future of aerial navigation - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1902, Recent aeronautical progress, and deductions to be drawn therefrom, regarding the future of aerial navigation - Journal: Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 1902 Smithsonian, Recent aeronautical progress and the future of aerial navigation - Journal: Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 1902, The war balloon in South Africa - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1903, Progress with airships - Journal: Report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution 1903, Recent aeronautical progress, and deductions to be drawn therefrom, regarding the future of aerial navigation - Journal: Scient. Amer. Suppl. 1903, The future of aerial navigation - Journal: Aer. World 1904, Aeroplane experiments at the Crystal Palace - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1904, Experiments with aerial screw propellers - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1904, The development of the aëroplane - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1905, Aeronautical competitions at the St. Louis Exhibition - Journal: Aër. Journ.) 1905, Progress with airships in 1904 - Journal: Knowl. Illus. Scient. News 1906, The Gordon-Bennett race. Some technical features of the competing balloons - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1907, Aerial navigation - Journal: Journ. Soc. of Arts 1907, Ballooning as a sport 1907, Practical aerodynamics and the theory of aeroplanes - Journal: Knowl. Illus. Scient. News 1907, The exploration of the air (Simple title: The exploration of the air, Journal: Aër. Journ.) 1908, A trip with Wilbur Wright - Journal: Aeronautics 1908, Experiments with 'Dipping' planes - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1908, Friction of the air (Simple title: Friction of the air, Journal: Aeronautics 1908, Friction of the air. Skin friction a factor in aerial navigation - Journal: Scient. Amer. Suppl. 1908, Problem of aerial navigation; reply to Simon Newcomb - Journal: Living Age 1908, The problem of aerial navigation - Journal: Nineteenth Century 1909, Aeronautics (Simple title: Aeronautics 1909, Experiences with the Wright machine - Journal: Aër. Journ. 1909, Flight and the right to fly - Journal: Flight 1909, Knowledge and Illustrated Scientific News - Journal: Scientific News
Scouting Baden-Powell was the first who brought flying-based activities into Scouting in the form of kite and model aeroplane building. He can be considered the founder of Air ScoutingThe Early History of Air Scouting at scoutguidehistoricalsociety.com even though he thought it was hardly feasible to have special 'Air Scouts'.(Baden Baden-Powell in Scouter July, 1932) "...it has been suggested that Air Scouts should be organised in the same way as Sea Scouts. Though the air is 'ever with us', access to aerodromes is not common and though Sea Scouts can mess about 'in any old boat', a Scout is unlikely to be able to get access to an aeroplane, and even if he did he would not be able to fly it. ...it seems hardly feasible to have special 'Air Scouts', yet a great deal may be accomplished by troops specialising in air-work... I shall always be pleased to give what advice I can."
Baden-Powell was President and later District Commissioner of a North London District, was District Commissioner of Sevenoaks District, Kent between 1918 and 1935, and was Headquarters Commissioner for Aviation from 1923, until his death in 1937.
Notes
External links
Biography on pinetreeweb The Engines of Our Ingenuity No. 1233: Baden Baden-Powell Pictures of the High Flying Competition of the Royal Aeronautical Society in 1903