Piggotts and Rockets

The story of Piggott Brothers adventure into powered flight has already been recorded in this journal. A company that had enjoyed such a long history needed to continue to be innovative to prosper. George Bromley, of Stanford Rivers, related to me the story one example of this forward-looking approach. George further credits Bob Littler as the source of the tale.

Before the Second World War Piggotts made display fireworks at their premises, the old workhouse in Stanford Rivers, and the idea occurred that these fireworks could be used in some search and rescue missions. Rockets could possibly be used to carry a line to the shore from a vessel heading towards rocks, with the initial line being used to draw a heavier line subsequently maybe. Piggotts set about the task and a large rocket was designed and built with the broad shape looking much like the usual rocket with a. stick for stabilisation.

Now Piggotts were a commercial, cost-conscious company, a business philosophy that had ensured their long-term survival, but perhaps the trials of the rocket were financed at the niggardly end of their project expenditures. Indeed, maybe events would later prove that there were no proper proving trials. Nevertheless in due course, a group of 'dignitaries', believed to be military personnel, were invited to attend a trial of the rocket on a four-acre field behind the workhouse. A tent was erected to provide shelter for the group, yet still enable sight of the rocket launch and flight.

The rocket, now a safe distance from the tent, rested in a cradle pointing gently skywards. The line or thin rope that the rocket was to carry was carefully attached to the rocket and coiled a few yards (the old measures being more appropriate here) behind the rocket cradle. It was a late enhancement to introduce a standard tin bath into the system. Unsophisticated, the bath was of the sort that would have been in contemporary use as a family tub on a Friday night. It was hoped that the bath would facilitate the uncoiling of the rope ensuring a flight free of impediment. As convention, the bath was equipped with protruding handles for easy portability when not filled with water as on a Friday.

Was the bath perhaps a feature dictated by considerations of health and safety? In the actual demonstration, the rope was carefully coiled in the bath. It is not known whether this improvement was the subject of any specific testing; probably not, you might later conclude, but it is important to realise that the handles had not been removed and remained prominently on the rim of the bath.

After the lighting of the blue touch paper, or whatever ignition method was used, the rocket took off without a hitch. It is understood that when the rocket was at a height of about 50 feet and downrange about 150 feet, the line snagged on one of the handles of the bath. The forward momentum of the rocket was suddenly and effectively curtailed. Not permitted to follow its intended direction, the rocket searched around for an alternative. Most convenient, from the point of view of the rocket, was to head back to the launch pad. This was in fact the path that the vehicle selected from the limited set of alternatives available.

It would have been immediately realised by the company present that this route back to the launch area also coincided with the route to the tent. The return of the rocket would have been quicker than that of the outward journey since the rocket would not have been pulling the full length of the line, and it would have been lighter with some fuel now spent. Alarm bells rang but time was short! Spectators, restricted within the confines of the tent walls, probably panicked, quite understandably since the rocket heading towards them was large, fast and by this time, hotter than it was a few moments previously.