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Aviation History
1933
1933 - 0058.PDF
FLIGHT, JULY 13, 1933 This year the Royal Aero Club decided to drop the circuit-of-Britain idea, in which it usually hap pened that an unwieldy number of entrants was reduced to manageable proportions before the finish by faulty navigation, and other mishaps, minor and major. They decided to weed out the field them selves by flying the race in a number of fairly short rounds, with so many heats to each round. Thus it was intended to keep up the interest all day by providing 13 separate races, all of which might have fairly close finishes, culminating in a final round of only eight machines, which should do two laps of an even shorter course and so show up twice on the home aerodrome. The general opinion is that the new arrangement was a pronounced success. All the organisation con cerned with starting the machines off on the various heats was as good as it could be. There were some fairly close finishes in early heats, and the final really almost excused those journalists who may have de scribed it as thrilling. We are definitely of the opinion that the plan of rounds and heats should be repeated in future years. It is a good plan as a basis for further improvements. Certainly further improvements can be made, and should be made, if the race is to fulfil the purpose for which we believe that the King gave his cup. In the first place, if the race is to be held in the London area, the committee should make sure that the date fixed for the race is not the same day as the finals at Henley and Wimbledon. It is impos sible to judge how many people would have come to see the King's Cup if they had not been attracted elsewhere by contests which are bound to be more spectacular than long-distance air racing. If the aeroplanes merely raced round pylons, as in old days, air racing could hold its own even with dirt- track racing, but that means risk of collisions, and we have unhappy memories of a certain meeting at Bournemouth. As it was, on Saturday a very great number of cars arrived at Hatfield, but they did not seem to disgorge a very large crowd of people. It was noticed that a very considerable number of the cars turned up at the time when the final heat was likely to be starting. That is significant. The early rounds had only a limited interest, but the final showed promise of becoming a really popular event, if the committee will only observe the signs and take action on them. A suggestion has even been made in some quarters that the preliminary rounds should be worked off on a previous day, on which the public would not be expected to attend, while the final might be made the big event of a second day which should be a real festival of flying. We cannot say that this idea appeals to us. For one thing, as the King's Cup comes not long after the R.A.F. Displaj', any flying exhibition which might be got up to pad out the interest of the cup final, would be bound to suffer by comparison with the Display, and, in fact, would not attract many people to the aerodrome. We prefer another sug gestion, to the effect that the preliminary rounds could be made more attractive if the course for each heat were more or less star-shaped, with the machines coming back two or three times to round pylons on the aerodrome. On .Saturday the double lapping of the short course did make a very interest ing spectacle. This might be developed. In any case, pains should be taken to announce beforehand the time at which the final heat will start, and this time should be rigidly adhered to. A considerable number of people will evidently drive out to see an exciting final lap, though they may not feel inclined to spend a whole day on the aerodrome—at least if the preliminary heats are to be as unspectacular as they were last Saturday. A better suggestion is that the heats of the first round only should be flown off on the day before. When the results of the first heats were in, we sug gest that some care should be expended in arranging the machines in the heats of the second round, so that the same pilots should not race against each other in successive rounds. It would also be a good plan to " seed " pilots who had made up on their handicaps in the first round. These " seeded " pilots could be distributed among the heats in the second round, to improve the chance of a good final. As each pilot would naturally want to be " seeded," he would try to win his first heat and would have no temptation to spare his engine by scraping home in the fourth place. The most important alteration which we wish to suggest is that the race should not, as a rule, be flown in the London area. It has been abundantly proved that the London public will not come to see such racing as the King's Cup has hitherto provided. On the other hand, the great cities of the Midlands and North, Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds, New castle, Glasgow, and others have shown that large crowds will go out to aerodromes to watch the machines arrive and depart. Perhaps the enthusiasm is less now than it was in 1922, but still those cities have shown an enthusiasm which London has never displayed. The wisest policy, we feel sure, would be for the Aero Club to take each of those great cities in turn and hold the King's Cup there, making it as attractive as the heat-and-round system, with more appearances over the aerodrorrie, can make it. Let us leave the blase Londoner to his own manifold devices. If the King's Cup is held at Manchester, then it would not matter if the date did clash with the finals at Henley and Wimbledon. Once the Cup was flown at Hucknall Torkard, and a large crowd attended. Why was this plan dropped? Still greater interest can be expected further north. Liverpool has just celebrated the opening of its municipal aero drome, and that city would surely feel it a great compliment if the next King's Cup were to be flown there. There is much healthy rivalry among some of the Northern cities, and whichever were chosen as the venue for a particular year would be sure to do its utmost to display greater interest than its rivals had shown. We think it our duty to voice one " grouse " of a more or less personal nature. On Saturday at Hat field the arrangements for the convenience of the Press were not conspicuously good. This probably mattered less to the members of the staff of FLIGHT than to the representatives of daily papers, who, after all, with proper facilities, help to spread the gospel of flying. In most previous years the Press Stewards have been most helpful in obtaining for the journalists all the information which they could desire. This year it is a little surprising that the King's Cup race received any worthy showing in the daily Press. 684
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