Coventry Firsts

Hilaire Bernigaud, count de Chardonnet ... he opened a factory, Société de la Soie de Chardonnet ("Society of the Silk of Chardonnet") in Besançon, which in 1891 began to produce the world's first commercially made synthetic fibre, sometimes called Chardonnet silk to distinguish it from other forms of rayon.

In 2005, Coventry was the first to host the International Children's Games.

Thanks, Mick, I've added that one now. Coventry was the first UK city, not the first ever, but UK firsts are still firsts!

The other day, Paul Maddocks mentioned to me that Monty Python's first ever live stage show was tried out at the Belgrade Theatre. I hope they brought the parrot with them! This, of course, has been added to our list.

I've just added an obscure item to our Coventry Firsts list, which I hadn't been looking for. While researching our medieval defences, I looked up the word "spayer" (nowadays called a "sluice"), and realised that the OED gives Coventry the credit for giving the first recorded instance in print, back in 1450.

From the book "A Century of Coventry" by David McGrory. I have just read: 1946, The Armstrong Whitworth "Flying Wing". This futuristic concept FIRST produced by Coventrians. Over to you Rob.

I think that the Northrop flying wing in America or even the Horten in Germany were conceived earlier than Armstrong Whitworth's.

Hi Argon Been doing a bit of research and according to Wikipedia, Northrop had a project called XB-35 running in the very early 40's, for whatever reason this was canned in 1944 without anything getting in the air. There were 2 prototypes that were converted to a project called YB-49, one of which successfully flew on 22/10/1947. Don't know if Armstrong's flew before that (still looking).

According to this the first flight was November '47 Flying wing

Dunne D-8 tailless, first flight 1912...

If we are looking for a first perhaps the fact that an ejection seat bale out was I believe used for the first time in an emergency situation in the AW 52

Ooh, I like that! I have a leaky tap washer to deal with now, but I'll try to look into it later for details - unless someone beats me to it! Added!

Why oh why had I never thought to add the Safety Bicycle by J. K. Starley before now???