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Andrew Blain Baird

Blacksmith who attempted the first heavier-than-air powered flight in Scotland.

Plaque Inscription

Andrew Blain Baird
Blacksmith & aviation pioneer
1862–1951
In this Drill Hall in 1910 built an aircraft in which he made the first attempted all-Scottish heavier than air powered flight

Old, sepia-toned portrait photograph of Andrew Baird. He is well dressed with dark hair and a large moustache.
Portrait photograph of Andrew Blain Baird, courtesy of the Baird family.

Location

Broadcroft Ln, Rothesay, Isle of Bute

Category

Engineering

Year

2015

On 11 September 1910, Andrew Blain Bird made Scottish aviation history when he attempted the country’s first heavier-than-air powered flight.

The Baird monoplane was taken by horse-drawn wagon from Baird’s workshop in Rothesay on the Isle of Bute to Ettrick Bay, where a crowd had gathered in anticipation. Baird’s plane did get off the ground but only for a matter of moments before hitting the ground sharply. Nonetheless, history had been made and Baird has been celebrated on Bute ever since.

Baird became an apprentice to a blacksmith in Sandhead, the Galloway village where he was born, before moving to Lismore to work as a lighthouse keeper, then to the Clyde shipyards as an ironworker. He finally set up on his own as a blacksmith in Rothesay, Isle of Bute in 1887, when he was 25.

Amid the excitement generated by the Wright brothers’ first flight in 1903, Baird became fascinated by the possibilities of flying, visiting Blackpool for Aviation Week in 1909 and corresponding with aviators in France and the USA.

Baird built the monoplane with the help of friends while his wife, Euphemia, sewed the silk for the wings. The plane featured a complex tubular steel frame at the front and a rear section made from bamboo and more tubular steel.

Aside from aviation, Baird was known for his innovations, making several improvements to the plough and constructing a very fine pair of ornamental gates at one entrance to Bute’s Mount Stuart estate.

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