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Aviation History
1928
1928 - 1044.PDF
NOVEMBER 8, 1928 was reading incorrectly, and that the system itself wassailright. Then followed more delays while depressions from the Atlantic and secondaries chased each other across theBritish Isles, until at last, on Saturday, November 3, a ridge of high pressure shed its benign influence on these islands.D'Arcy Greig took advantage of it to make his final test flight on N 220. He found that all was well except thepropeller. The engine over-revved, and the smoke and fumes caused him some inconvenience. The propeller wastherefore changed for another which, I understand, was of similar pitch to that used on the machine in the race. Evento the lay mind it does not seem right that there should be uncertainty about the propeller on the very eve of such a veryimportant event as an attempt on the high-speed record of the world. I understand that at Calshot there is a wholeseries of Fairey airscrews which will, in due course, be tested out on the racing seaplanes ; but it does seem a terrible pitythat the arrangements had not permitted this testing to be done in the summer when the weather was good. It may bethat no other propeller would have given better results than the one used. I am not in a position to say, because I do notknow what propeller was used by Kinkead in the flight on the day before his death. On that flight his air speed indi-cator was reading at about 330 m.p.h. The instrument was believed to be reading low, and, of course, Kinkead was notgetting the highest possible speed out of his machine. He than 11 m.p.h. The sea was almost glassy, but not quite so.At 1 p.m. N 220 was wheeled out of its shed, and after various preliminaries and final consultations with Mr. Jackson,the engine was run up at 1.17 p.m. for about 10 minutes by Mr. Smith of the Napier firm. All was found to be O.K.and the engine was then stopped. It was not the intention on this occasion to taxi out for a couple of miles, throwing upspray and risking a chance of the plugs giving up. As at Venice, the engine was to be started when the machinewas in position to take off by a starter in a small boat. D'Arcy Greig climbed into the cockpit, the machine was launched,and a motor boat towed it and the small boat out into Southampton Water, heading south. There were 35 gallonsof petrol in the float when the engine was run up, and at the last moment four more were put in as a precaution, becausethe pilot had announced his intention of flying the course six times. The rules say that any four consecutive flightsover the course may be taken for the record. The 39 gallons would give enough for over half-an-hour's flying, as well as therunning up. When the machine was in position, the small boat camealongside, and the starter was connected with the engine This operation took about 20 minutes, and it was 2 p.m. whenthe propeller began to revolve. The pilot taxied away from the launch, but did not rev. his engine very vigorously,and the petrol supply system did not get into working older MILESO I Z 3 4 5' 6 SOUTHAMPTON PORTSMOUTH NEWPORT THE ATTEMPT ON THE WORLD'S SPEED RECORD : On the left, a sketch map of the speed course over Southampton Water, showing timing posts, etc., and on the right a general map of the district. hoped with full throttle and after a dive to attain a speedof 340 or more m.p.h. It was for this reason that everyone was so disappointed when D'Arcy Greig could not managemore than 322-63 m.p.h. on his best course. Some slight modifications were made to the machine.The heads of the rivets in the floats were not flush, but the same air intake ports were closed as in Kinkead's machine,and superfluous inter-float wires were removed. On Saturday night it rained fairly hard, and the cars whichkept arriving at the Montagu Arms hotel at Beaulieu at all hours throughout the night were in a very draggledcondition. Official time-keepers and others were possibly quite relieved when at 6 a.m. on Sunday, November 4, thehotel porter brought news that a mist lay over Calshot and there was no need to be there at dawn. Probably this factwas less welcome to the party of sportsmen who drove straight to Calshot air station during the night, and, having nopasses for admission, slept the rest of the night in their cars outside the gate. Mr. Jackson, the meteorologicalofficer at Calshot, is a perfectly uncanny prophet of local weather conditions, and hie announced that theweather would clear about noon, and that flying should be possible any time after that. Sure enough, it came topass. Most people who mattered arrived at the air station about 10 a.m. and found the Isle of Wight perfectlyinvisible. But in a couple of hours a horizon was growing up on all sides. The wind was due south, blowing at not more at once. After about 2 minutes the engine stopped, thelaunch had to come up again, and the business of connecting the starter had to be gone through once more. This time itdid not take so long, and by 2.13 p.m. the engine was really working. D'Arcy Greig went away in a long hydroplaningrun, and at 2.15 the seaplane lifted off the water. All the spectators on Calshot Castle were immensely relieved, because,although the visibility at the time was perfectly stereoscopic, a nasty looking mass of clouds was coming over the horizonto the south, and seemed to be rather in a hurry. The pilot climbed at once to the permissible height ol400 m. (about 1,300 ft.) over Cowes, turned east over Ryde, swung into the direction of the course, and then commencedto dive. The best angle of dive had been worked out for him at the R.A.E. at Farnborough, but with so little practice itwas astonishing that he should have been as accurate as he was in flattening out 500 m. short of the line. His dive was amost remarkable sight, and to describe it one is almost forced to use that overworked word so dear to the popular press" thrilling." Everyone held his breath as the little triangle of spots in the sky darted down to the water, taking shape as itcame until the outlines of the supermarine were revealed to the eye. The piercing but not unmusical note of the racingNapier grew shriller and shriller until the whole atmosphere was full of its resonance. Suddenly, gracefully, easily, withperfect judgment, the seaplane flattened out over the buoy which marked the beginning of the 500 m., and flashed past 966
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