ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 16804
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| Date: | Thursday 7 August 1913 |
| Time: | day |
| Type: | Cody VI Floatplane |
| Owner/operator: | Samuel Franklin Cody |
| Registration: | Unregistered |
| MSN: | 1 |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 2 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Ball Hill, Laffans Plain, Cove Common, Farnborough, Hampshire -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Test |
| Departure airport: | Farnborough Aerodrome, Farnborough, Hampshire |
| Confidence Rating: |  Information is only available from news, social media or unofficial sources |
The Cody VI aircraft was completed in July 1913, and made its maiden flight as a land plane on 14 July 1913. It was fitted with its floats and carried out flotation tests on the Basingstoke Canal at Mytchett on 30 July. The floats were then removed and replaced again by skids and wheels for more flight trials
On 7 August 1913, as he was test flying his latest design, the Cody VI Floatplane, when it broke up at 200 feet (61 metres) over Ball Hill, Laffans Plain, Cove Common, Farnborough, Hampshire. Samuel Franklin Cody and his passenger, the cricketer William Evans, were killed. Cody's stepson, Leon King had given up his place on the flight to Evans. The two men, not strapped in, were thrown out of the aircraft, and the Royal Aero Club accident investigation concluded that the accident was due to "inherent structural weakness", and suggested that the two might have survived the crash if they had been strapped in.
Cody was buried with full military honours in the Aldershot Military Cemetery; the funeral procession drew an estimated crowd of 100,000. William Evans funeral was held on 13 August 1913 at St Peter's Church in Tadley in Hampshire. Large crowds attended, drawn there because of the tragic circumstances of his death. His body had been cremated, an unusual choice at that time, but perhaps due to the horrific injuries his body had received during the flying accident. The casket containing his ashes was buried in a grave beside that of his grandmother, Emma Evans, who had died in 1911. Leon King, Cody's stepson, was among the mourners, as were Evans's family and friends. The prayers of committal were read by the Rev L.P. Phelps, from Oriel College, Oxford, which Evans had left only eight years before.
Adjacent to Cody's own grave marker is a memorial to his only son, Samuel Franklin Leslie Cody, born Basel, Switzerland 1895, who joined the Royal Flying Corps and was killed in Belgium on 23 January 1917 while serving with 41 Squadron.
Sources:
1. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_Franklin_Cody#Death
2. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cody_Floatplane
3. https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1913/1913%20-%201014.html
4. https://www.flightglobal.com/pdfarchive/view/1913/1913%20-%200868.html
5. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-hampshire-23591409
6. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/William_Evans_%28English_cricketer%29#Death
7. http://www.rcawsey.co.uk/Acc1916.htm
8. http://sussexhistoryforum.co.uk/index.php?topic=16991.0
9. http://www.sfcody.org.uk/aero.html
Media:
Cody aircraft mark VIB Hydroplane on the Basingstoke Canal in 1913, S.F. Cody at the controls.
Wreckage of S.F.Cody's biplane after the crash: 
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 27-Mar-2008 11:33 | Bleiente | Added |
| 05-Feb-2009 04:41 | cowdery | Updated |
| 11-Feb-2017 18:59 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Aircraft type, Registration, Operator, Departure airport, Source, Embed code, Narrative] |
| 11-Feb-2017 19:00 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Embed code] |
| 17-Nov-2018 23:56 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Location, Source, Narrative] |
| 17-Nov-2018 23:58 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Embed code] |
| 19-Nov-2018 21:23 | Dr.John Smith | Updated [Time, Cn, Location, Narrative] |
| 07-Apr-2020 16:20 | Anon. | Updated [Narrative] |
| 20-Jul-2020 00:35 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [Source, Narrative] |
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