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Aviation History
1935
1935 - 1049.PDF
MAY 9, 1935. FLIGHT. 495 the X.A.P. has an awkward habit of prodding things with umbrellas to find what they are made of, and in any case there were quite enough of the semi-initiated to supply that element of wonder and interest which well justified the trouble to which the R.Ae.S. and the co-operating firms had gone in lining up the exhibits and labelling everything for their benefit. It was even possible to read what the average aero plane would cost you to buy. It would have been difficult to find a more representative display. There was at least one example of everything, rang ing from the Carden-Baynes sailplane with its tea-cup-cylinder engine to fauna of the K.L.M. Douglas D.C.2 and Fairey Hendon '' calibre. Among the machines toeing the line there were (to men tion the chief examples) an Airspeed "Courier" and "Envoy," a brace of Avro "Commodores," several small De Havilland aeroplanes of various persuasions, including Miss Jean Batten's "Moth" and Lord Sempill's "Puss Moth," both with the dust of Australia, metaphorically speak ing, fresh in their intakes; large D.H. products, as repre sented by 86s and 89s of Railway Air Services; Miles '' Fal con " and "Hawk"; Percival "Gull"; a trio of Auto- giros; a Short "Scion"; a Spartan "Cruiser"; a Saro "Cloud"; Monospar S.T.10 and 12; B.A. "Eagle" (B.A. is henceforth the official designation of the British Aircraft Manufacturing Co.'s products); and the little Douglas-engined B.A.C. "Drone," which still drew its meed of eager public curiosity in spite of the even smaller Carden-Baynes counter- attraction. Alongside the Fairey " Hendon " (which, inci dentally, has now grown a nose "conservatory" and three- Sqn. Ldr. England (chief test pilot and commercial manager of Handley Page Ltd.) and Mr. Handley Page chat with two friends. Flight photograph.) bladed airscrews) was Farnborough's Northrop bomber, which the programme, perhaps sharing the international vogue of dissimulation, described as a "Northrop air liner." Still more types were to be found in the line-up of machines that were billed to show their paces in the air—in which element, perhaps, we may list them. Following the official reception by the President (Lt. Col. J. T. C. Moore-Brabazon) and Council, Fit. Lt. Clarkson opened the ball with his Pob- joy-engined Comper "Swift." He gave his usual polished performance, the most telling feature of which is a variety of rolls in, one might say, considerably more than three dimen sions. The gentlemanly hum of the little Pobjoy was followed by the thudding roar of the 560 h.p. " Panther VI " as Fit. Lt. Turner-Hughes pointed the A.VV. "Scimitar" groundward at full throttle and then flung it skyward to 2,000ft. or so. Every minute of his contribution was a joy to watch, perhaps none more so than a series of super wing-wagglings (or, if you prefer it, reversed half-rolls) across the aerodrome at 200ft. He finished up with a baker's dozen of consecutive rolls off the top of a loop made "straight off the ground." In music-hall parlance Turner-Hughes was a difficult turn for the next act on the bill to follow, but Fit. Lt. P. G. Lucas, in a Hawker "Hart" ("Kestrel VI"), did so right noblv; a particularly effective item was what a motorist might call a "top gear climb from a nearly standing start." In other words, Lucas flew leisurely across the aerodrome on a whiff of throttle, then pointed the " Hart's " nose sharply upward and opened right out; though less spectacular than the rocket busi ness, it was just as convincing.
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