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Aviation History
1935
1935 - 1357.PDF
HESTON NOCTURNE Floodlit Flying at Night Display Organised by the Household Brigade Flying Club AT Heston on Wednesday night of last week quite a num ber of people awoke for the first time to the realisation i of just how far nocturnal aeronautics have progressed since benighted R.F.C. pilots first landed alongside " L's " of flaming petrol buckets. The occasion was the Household Brigade Flying Club's Night Flying Display, and no one can doubt that everybody (each body with at least one motor car, if the jam in the narrow road outside was any criterion) in the big crowd was duly impressed. By way of an overture Capt. V. H. Baker (chief instructor to Airwork, Ltd., and the organising club) demonstrated de- mande et reponse between his Avro "Cadet" and the con trol tower, and then took off along, and subsequently landed along, the modern equivalent of petrol buckets—a line of Haig portable neon lights, which, being accumulator fed, are suffi cient unto themselves. The Chance floodlight on the control tower having suddenly turned night into day (optically, if not thermometrically), Mr. Lindsay Everard's " Dragon " and " Leopard Moth," in the respective hands of Lt. C. Phillips, R.N. (Ret.) and Mr. P. G. Reiss, proceeded to demonstrate that instrument's utility, with and without the shadow-bar. Then the stage was plunged into darkness again that Mr. A. Coleman, of Airspeed, Ltd.. might prove the effectiveness of landing lights in the leading edge of an " Envoy's " wing. Tak ing off along its own beam, the Envoy '' made a circuit, then Mr. Coleman brought it in and put it down very nicely after a finely judged, low approach over the south-west corner. It was a neat piece of flying, and the odd wisps of mist blowing along on the wind must have made it a trickier business than it otherwise would have been. A small section of the big crowd—taken by the control- tower floodlight. Those in the foreground are marking time —on Heston's big clock. (Flight photographs.) Fit. Lt. Clarkson then took a "Moth " up to 2,000 ft., a couple of searchlights were directed on to him by the 26th (London) Anti-Aircraft Searchlight Battalion, and he pro ceeded to aerobat in tne beams—a very pretty spectacle. The searchlights were next trained on an Autogiro flown by Mr. Brie and one was led to muse that one of these machines with dark-coloured rotor blades would offer a difficult target for a light. Mr. Brie made his customary vertical landing. During the final flying item democratic hot dogs grew cold and plutocratic champagne grew warm, for all eyes were on the " Cadet " which Capt. Baker crazy-flew round the aero drome in the floodlight. Mostly carried out well below 100 ft., it would have been an inspiring enough show in daylight; here it was simply terrific, and how the pilot managed to see during his swift transitions from light to darkness passes understanding. A club prize-presentation of the Madocks Cup, Non-Serving Members' Cup and Lady Members' Cup (awards for a landing competition) next took place, then all four Chance floodlights were switched on as a finale, and joy-rides to see the lights o' London rounded off the evening.
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