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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0356.PDF
FLYING AT HENDON. A SERIOUS epidemic of aei-oioopitis b;oke out at Hendon on Thurs day afternoon of last week, which affected five well known Hendon pilots in a very pronounced manner, and it is expected that others will also succumb, A good attendance of visitors turned up to witness the usual exhibition and passenger flights, and with a light north easterly wind blowing the weather kept fine. At 3 o'clock, R. H. Carr came out on the G.-W. tractor biplane " Lizzie" and climbing to a height of 800 feet executed, much to everyone's surprise, a perfect loop, following it up with another one shortly after. These loops were well formed, Lizzie turning over in excellent style and, as we were informed later, very easily. About an hour afterwards, Carr went up again, and at the samealtitude made three more loops, making a total of five. At about the same time, F. W. Goodden ascended on the two-year old 45 h p. (Anzani) Caudron, and climb ing to a height of 1,500 feet, he also executed two loops in equally fine st) le. He repeated his performance about half an hour after wards, bringing his total of loops to four. This was not the end of the looping, however, for during the afternoon three more pilots were stricken with the ailment. These were J. L. Hall, Louis Noel, and L. A. Strange ; Hall ascended to a height of 1,000 feet on his 50 h.p. Avro, and made onecomple e loop, whilst Noel and Strange put up two loops each, piloting Lizzie, with the greatest possible ease. The total number of loops, therefore, made by the five stricken ones was 14. In addition to the above looping displays several exhibition and passenger flights were made by the various pilots, including Philippe Marty on the 80 h.p. Bleriot, W. Birchenough, and Strange on G.-W. 'buses, and Noel on the Maurice Farman. The first Spring meeting last Saturday was held under Spring conditions indeed, and although still somewhat wet under foot the fine weather brought up a laige number of visitors. The first to ascend was L. A. Strange on the 50 h.p. G.-W. 'bus No. 109, Philippe Marty with a passenger following shortly after on the 80 h.p. Bleriot, whilst Louis Noel on the Maurice Farman and W. Birchenough on the other G.-W. 'bus also took the air. Two loopers, F. W. Goodden en the 45 h.p. Caudron, and R. H. Carr on Lizzie, then ascended almost simultaneously. Goodden made the first loop at a height of about 1,000 ft., Carr making the next at a similar height, and a second one shortly after. Goodden made his second loop at about 800 ft., and then executed some fine spirals before landing. Carr put up a third loop at 700 ft., and also made some steeply banked spirals before landing. In the meanwhile J. L. Hall was up on his Avro, but did not join in the looping. A start was then made for the crosscountry handicap to Bittacy Hill and back four limes, the competitors being as follows : L. A. Strange, on the G.-W. 'bus 109 (6 mins. 7 sees.); W. Birchenough, on the other G.-W. 'bus (5 mins. 37 sees.); Louis Noel, on the Maurice Farman (3 mins.); R. H. Carr, on Lizzie (34 sees.); and Philippe Marty, with a passenger on the 80 h.p. Bleriot (scratch). Marty came home an easy first, with Noel, who flew very low on entering the aerodrome, 35 sees, behind. Strange went out of bis course on. his second lap and retired, whilst Birchenough also flew a wrong course and was not placed, so third place went to Carr, who was 19 sees, behind Noel. Immediately after the race, E. F. Norris went up on the G.-W. 'bus 109, and Goodden ascended once more and executed two more loops at 1,000 ft., whilst Marty and Noel took up a passenger each on the Bleriot and Maurice Farman respec tively. All interest was then centred round two new comers—Herr Thelen, the well-known German pilot, and the fine Albatros biplane. The latter is a magnificent piece of work, but as we deal with this machine in detail elsewhere in this issue, we will confine our remarks to its first public performances in the air at Hendon. After a pre liminary run of the engine Thelen took the machine up for a test flight, rising in splendid style after a run of some 20 yds. or so, and rapidly climbing to an altitude of over 1,000 ft. After remaining up for about 5 mins., during which he executed some very fine banked turns, he de scended, making an excellent landing, and pulling the machine up in a remarkable manner by means of the " plough " brake. He then made another flight with a passenger, climbing rapidly to a height of 1,500 feet and putting the machine through several evolutions ; this particular biplane appears to have a very gocd speed range, and flies in a particu'arly steady manner. After this flight the machine was returned to the hangar. The rest of the evening was devoted to further exhibition and passenger flights, put up by the following :—Hall on the Avro with passengers, R. J. Lillywhite, M. Osipenko, and Birchenough (with passengers) on G.-W. 'buses, Noel with passengers on the Maurice Farman, and Marty with passengers on the Bleriot. Carr gave another demonstration of looping on Lizzie, making three complete loops at heights varying from 1,000 to 800 feet. Later, Strange took over the same machine and made two well-formed loops at 600 and 500 feet respectively, Noel doing a vol pancake on the Maurice Farman near by during the last loop. On descending, Strange handed over Lizzie to Noel who made two very fine loops each at a height of 600 feet and almost over the same part of the aerodrome each time ; in all there fore, 14 loops were made during this afternoon. Just as the various- machines were being returned to the hangars, at 6.10 p.m., a Bleriot was seen approaching the aerodrome from the west. This proved to be Henri Salmet, who had been expected earlier in the afternoon, on the Daily Mail Bieriot which he had flown over from Paris. He was accompanied by T. Elder Hearn, who obtair_ed his pilot's certificate in Fiance some little time back, and both reported an exceedingly pleasant journey. They left Paris at 10 a.m. that morning, arriving at Folkestone at 2.30 p.m., where they stayed until4 o'clock when they resumed their journey. Great difficulty, however, was experienced in keep'ng a correct course to Hendon owing to the mist that enveloped various parts of the country, and their arrival at the aerodrome was thus considerably delayed. As it was too late in the evening to fly on to Manchester as had bt en originally intended, the machine was put up for the night, and as this was being done A. L. Barrs, who just recently ob tained his ticket at the Grahame-White School, made the last flight of the evening on a 35 h.p. Deperdussin monoplane. Crosscountry Handicap. Handicap.H^'pcap (16 miles ) m. s. Time, s. " Flight" Copyright. Herr Thelen in the cockpit of the Albatros. 356 . 1. Philippe Marty (80 Bleriotmonoplane) ... scratch 23 36 2. Louis Noel (70 h.p. M. Farman biplane) ... 3 o 24 n 3. R. H. Carr (50 h.p. G.-W. tractor biplane) ... ... o 34 24 30 W. Birchenough (50 h.p. G.-W. biplane) 5 37 L. A. Strange (50 h.p. G.-W. biplane) 6 7 Dull, rainy weather made matters very unpleasant for both visitors and pilots on Sunday afternoon, but despite the unfavourable conditions there was no lack either of visitors cr flying. Philippe Marty made several flights with passengers on the Bleriot, R. H. Carr put up some more looping on " Lizzie," Louis Noel took up several passengers (mostly of the fair sex) on the Maurice Farman, and executed vols faticakes, and L. A. Strange was busy on the G.-W. 'bus. It will be seen, therefore, that even rain will not damp the proceedings at Hendon. A 9-mile speed handicap will be the principal event for this (Saturday) afternoon's April meeting, which opens at 3.30 p.m.
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