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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0664.PDF
FLIGHT, JULY 5, 1934 |E have had fifteen Royal Air Force Dis- plays, and the first fourteen of them passed without any accident of conse- quence. That is a marvellous record, and speaks volumes for the great skill of the Royal Air Force and for the degree of safety which can be attained in flying which looks, to the uninitiated, highly risky. Unfortunately, this record was broken on Saturday, when there was a crash in which Sqd. Ldr. Stanley B. Collett, the commanding officer of No. 600 (City of London) (Bomber) Squadron of the Auxiliary Air Force, lost his life, and F/O. R. F. G. Lea was slightly injured. But for this tragedy, the Display of 1934 was a great success. Weather is a great factor in all open- air functions in England, and on Saturday things could not have been better and brighter. The sun shone out; but there was a cooling breeze—in fact, it was a perfect June day. A distinctly new note was struck by the arrival by air of the Prince of Wales, who came as the representative of H.M. the King and therefore flew the Royal Standard. With that flair for doing just the right thing at the right time, which makes the Prince such a peculiarly worthy member of the Royal House, His Royal Highness arrived at Hendon by REFUELLING : A demonstration of mid-air fuel supply. The " Tanker," a Vickers " Virginia," has dropped its pipe line, and the observer of the " Wapiti " has just secured the end. (FLIGHT Photo.) 666 THE FIFTEENTH ROYAL AIR F Ideal weather helps the I Success. On Saturday th ruination of the Year's Servi air in his own private " Viastra." People often read in the papers that the Prince travels by air, but very few have actually seen him doing so. On Saturday a vast crowd had the evidence of their own eyes that he really does fly in his own machine. By this action the Prince must have made thousands of con- verts to the cause of air travel. As for the performance, it is hard for those who have seen all the 15 Displays not to become slightly hypercritical. The standard set in early years was so high, that when one sees something which is really very good, one is inclined to reflect that it was not quite up to the same pitch of excellence achieved in 192—? Judged by the standard of past years, we should say that the Display of 1934 was well up to the average, but not above it. The absence of anti- quated types of aeroplane (barring the "Virginias") was welcome, and the selection of flying boats, in particular, showed progress. We hope more , squadrons will soon be equipped with some of these modern types. Perhaps the most striking episode of the whole Display was the performance of the C.30 Autogiro in Army co-operation work. There we really seemed to be peeping into the future. Some of the syn- chronised events were synchronised too far to the South, behind the backs of most of the spectators. They would
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