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Aviation History
1926
1926 - 0707.PDF
SEPTEMBER 30, 1926 THE LANCASHIRE AIR PAGEANT Meeting at Woodford an Unqualified Success THE Lancashire Aero Club celebrated its first anniversary (the Club having commenced active flying on September 29, 1925) by holding at the Woodford Aerodrome, outside Manchester, on Sunday last, September 26, an air pageant and air race meeting under the competition rules of the Royal Aero Club of Great Britain. From every point of view the meeting was a success. It is estimated that something like 20,000 people visited the aerodrome for the meeting, and, although it is to be feared, from the point of view of the coffers of the club, that not all of these paid their entrance fee, the club has undoubtedly gained a very substantial addition to its funds. And richly it deserved it. Not only was the meeting well planned and well organised, but purely as one of the light 'plane clubs the Lancashire Aero Club has, in its one year of existence, done some extremely valuable work for the cause of aviation. Sunday's meeting was one of which any club might have been justly proud, and upon the S.E.5, and the Avro " Gosport " fitted with the new 100 h.p. Avro " Alpha " engine. In this connection it is, we think, worth placing on record the fact that Mr. Bert Hinkler, accompanied by Mr. R. J. Parrott, made the flight from Hamble to Woodford aerodrome in 2J hours in the Avro " Avian." This machine, by the way, has had its wing span reduced since the Lympne competition, the span now being 26 ft. as against the 32 ft. of the Lympne wings. The machine is, of course, considerably faster with the smaller wings, and the rough estimate which we made in FLIGHT last week of 105 m.p.h. appears to have been exceeded. Mr. Parrott informed us that most of the way up from Hamble the " Avian " was cruising at, roughly, 90 m.p.h. on half- throttle. A very welcome newcomer at Woodford was the Avro Gosport " with the new Avro " Alpha " engine. This engine, a five-cylinder radial air-cooled, has been developed THE LANCASHIRE AIR PAGEANT [•'FLIGHT" PhotographsAbove the machines parked close to the enclosures, and below, the parade past the spectators. the success of which the Club's energetic and popular chairman, Mr. John Leeming, and his fellow-workers are to be heartily congratulated. " On to Manchester " Not the least gratifying side of the meeting was the manner in which aeroplanes of all sorts, but mostly of low power, arrived from all over England on the day before the meeting. Saturday, it may be remembered, was one of the worst days we have had for a long time. In spite of strong winds, rain, poor visibility, thunderstorms and the like, these little aeroplanes fought their way from Newcastle, Leeds, Stag Lane, Croydon, and Hamble to the Woodford Aerodrome, in Cheshire, in order to take part in the meeting. It would be difficult to find a better illustration of the progress which has been made in low-power flying of recent years than this converging of light 'planes upon Manchester, not with fabulous prizes as the potential reward, but purely in order to take part in a meeting which had been scheduled, and which nobody wished to miss if it could possibly be avoided. Naturally enough, the de Havilland " Moths," the standard type of the light 'plane clubs, were in the majority, but a number of other machines also attended, such as the Black- burn " Bluebird " with Armstrong-Siddeley " Genet " engine, the Avro " Avian " with the same type of engine, the De Havilland " Genet-Moth," the Nimbus-Martinsyde, at the Manchester works of A. V. Roe and Co. during the last year or so, and, although at the moment it has not yet passed its Air Ministry type tests, there is no reason whatever to doubt that it will soon do so. The history of the engine is interesting, but only a very brief reference to it can be made here. Wishing to have available for use in the new Avro " Gosport " an engine of about 100 h.p., simple and cheap to build and to maintain, work was commenced on a five-cylinder radial. But a single engine was constructed for a start, and this was naturally run a good deal, both on the test bench and in Avro aeroplanes. One does not possess actual figures relating to the number of hours so run, but they were con- siderable. When the engine showed promise of good reliable running, it was decided that one very good way of finding out any " weak spots " that might exist would be to submit it to the Air Ministry type tests, not with any idea of attempting to pass the tests, but purely " to see what would happen." The " Alpha," as the new Avro engine is to be named, continued to run, and it was not until it was on its eighty-third hour's running that anything went wrong. Then a split- pin sheared and a nut came adrift—truly not a serious breakdown as far as the engine itself goes—and further running had to be deferred. When it is recalled that but a single engine was built, was experimented with on the test bench and in the air, and then ran for 83 hours under type-test 631
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