Great links and the film is a fantastic find - excellent!
Back to Dover Aero Club - it must have been set up early in 1911 as it was clearly operating by June 1911 at the time of the air race. As the air race started on Sunday 18th June 1911 the film sequences must have been shot on the 15-17th June as the competitors arrived.
Could the building in the background be any help in identifying the location of the airfield? It looks like a church to me.
Here is an extract from Flight from May 11th 1912:
"The Dover Aero Club is now associated with the Royal Aero
Club. This Club has its own Flying Ground at Whitfield, about
two miles outside Dover ; the ground affords an excellent alighting
place for cross-Channel flights. There are already two excellent
sheds erected, and full particulars as to rents, &c., can be obtained
from the Secretary, Capt. W. P. Marley, II, Marine Parade,
Dover. 166, Piccadilly."
A formal Club House had ben built at Whitfield just in time for the air race. from Flight June 22nd 1911:
"New Club House for Dover Aero Club.
THERE was a large attendance of well-known people on
Wednesday of last week at the Whitfield aerodrome, Dover, when
the Marquis Camden, Lord Lieutenant of Kent and president of the
Dover Aero Club, formally opened new headquarters for the club.
In inaugurating the proceedings, Commander Forster, R.N., chairman
of the club, pointed out the importance of aviation from a
national point of view, and the good work which could be done by
aero clubs in stirring up enthusiasm among amateurs. He then
handed the key to the Marquis Camden, who opened the door; and
this ceremony having been performed, and the band meanwhile
playing the National Anthem, the president said that, although
many of them at the present time had no wish to venture in an
aeroplane, they should remember that it was only a little time since
that they thought the same thing about motor cars. He believed
that before many years the art of flying would be brought to such a
pitch of perfection that everybody would be able to venture into
the air."
Not Whitfield, but hopefully of interest to Scotchie is this record of a landing at the barracks at the Western Heights. from September 2nd 1911:
"BOULOGNE TO FOLKESTONE AND BACK.
IT is becoming a matter of just ordinary interest now to fly the
Channel, therefore beyond quite a short paragraph here and there in
the lay Press, little notice has been taken of Pourpe's week-end
flight from Boulogne to Folkestone and back. For some time he
has been wishing to try the trip, and, opportunity serving as soon as
he had finished his engagements at Boulogne, without any shouting
he made a dash for British soil. Flying at a height of about 500
metres, he crossed the Channel quite easily, but, owing to haze,
made too easterly a course and arrived at Dover instead of Folkestone.
He circled above the Castle, and then landed in the Barrack
Square on the Western Heights. He had left Boulogne at 6.25
and landed at Dover at 7.5 in the evening.
At 5.30 on the
following morning, with the assistance of an officer of the Roya)
Irish Rifles and Mr. Eric Snepp, of the Dover Aero Club, he
restarted, and after making a circle above the cliffs at Dover,
headed off in the direction of Folkestone, landing there on the Golf
Links near Shorncliffe Station.
He then visited Folkestone in order
to deliver to the French Consul a letter in Esperanto he had brought
from the Engineer of the Boulogne Harbour Board, the letter
pointing out the advantages of this weird language for aviators. By
9.38, having returned to Shorncliffe, he was in the air again on his
way back to Boulogne, following in the track of a steamer which
had left Folkestone at 8.50, and landing on the East Sands at
Boulogne at 10.10 a.m., a matter of 32 minutes for the 30 miles."
