Can you identify this aircraft?

[StevieD]

Hello.

 

I'm usually in WW2 so this is my first time here.

 

This is a bit of a long shot. Below is a photograph from my village in South Yorkshire. It's not dated but I could be WW1 or a few years after.

 

Can anyone identify the aircraft? Poor resolution I know but any ideas would be welcome.

 

Many thanks.

 

 

[John Masters]

Can you post a closeup?  

[StevieD]

1 hour ago, John Masters said:

Can you post a closeup?  

I've tried to enlarge the plane but the image degrades so much it doesn't tell you any more

[wombat]

Is it even a plane and not a scratch on the plate? 

 

Its vaguely plane shaped, sure, but if it’s a real aircraft the pitch angle seems ambitious for the time, unless they’ve been caught in the act of aerobatics. And the “wings” seem far too far forward for any reasonable centre of lift.

[dogsbody]

Is that a biplane tail on that aircraft? I know there was something like that way back in the early days of aviation, but I can't remember what it was.

 

 

 

Chris

[Torbjorn]

4 hours ago, wombat said:

Is it even a plane and not a scratch on the plate? 

 

Its vaguely plane shaped, sure, but if it’s a real aircraft the pitch angle seems ambitious for the time, unless they’ve been caught in the act of aerobatics. And the “wings” seem far too far forward for any reasonable centre of lift.

 

 

Can we be sure it’s flying from left to right? Maybe it’s a canard contraption. Is it possible the picture is pre-war?

Edited February 8, 2021 by Torbjorn

[ckw]

I think its a piece of dirt. Aside from anything else, the edges are very sharp which seems unlikely with the sort of shutter speeds available. 

 

Cheers

 

Colin

[cosmosman]

Is it some debris caught in the tram overhead power cables ?

[StevieD]

Thanks for your efforts on this. Yes, it could be something caught in the tram wires but odd it’s so ‘plane shaped.’

 

My only other thoughts (and with reference to the early days of aviation) is to do with the Fitzwilliams at nearby Wentworth Woodhouse. The Earl was the richest man in Britain and an early air enthusiast. It’s believed he held the country's first ‘air meet’ only a few years after the Wright Brothers flight. As the estate is at most five miles from Worsbrough, I wondered whether there was a connection. 

 

Smedley, the photographer, was a young miner who joined the Army Medical Corps in WW1. So it may be this is post war. I suppose we’ll never know…. 

 

Thanks for your interest!