Frank Barnwell

Frank Sowter Barnwell (1880 - August 2 1938) was an aeronautical engineer, who performed the first powered flight in Scotland and later went on to a career as an aircraft designer.

Barnwell was educated at Fettes College in Edinburgh and the University of Glasgow. [http://www.aviationarchive.org.uk/stories/pages.php?enum=GE130&pnum=0&maxp=2 Aviation archive] ] From 1898 to 1904 he worked for Fairfield Shipbuilding before going abroad for two years. In 1906 he joined his brother Harold in business and established the Grampian Motors & Engineering Company in Stirling where between 1908 and 1909 they set about building a prototype aeroplane. In 1909 Harold piloted the first powered flight in Scotland, in a field in Causewayhead under the Wallace Monument. Frank Barnwell went on to become chief engineer for what became the Bristol Aeroplane Company in Bristol, UK, designing aircraft including the Bristol F.2 Fighter and the later Bristol Blenheim.

Barnwell was killed in a plane crash in 1938. [ [http://www.raf.mod.uk/history_old/blen2.html RAF History] ] A small monument to the brothers' pioneering achievement has been erected at Causewayhead roundabout.

References

Gutman, J. "Bristol F2 Fighter Aces of World War 1". Osprey Publishing 2007. ISBN 978-1-84603-201-1

External links

* [http://www.raf.mod.uk/history_old/blen2.html RAF history article on Barnwell's role in the Bristol Blenheim]
* [http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=427912005 Story from The Scotsman on the memorial]