“Matthews’ claim to have devised a ray that could make aircraft fall from the sky provoked a sensation”
The 11am flight to Paris from Croydon Aerodrome on Tuesday 27 May 1924 made national headlines. True, it was an ordinary scheduled service – but one of the passengers was far from ordinary. The following morning, readers up and down the country learned of a desperate chase to prevent inventor Harry Grindell Matthews from leaving Britain – taking with him the secrets of his purported ‘Death Ray’.
According to these newspaper accounts, this thrilling episode involved a high-speed chase in a hired car by shareholders armed with an injunction, who sped to the airfield – arriving just in time to watch the plane lift off and soar away. In truth, it was more Keystone…
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Bbc History (Digital) - 1 Issue, October 2024