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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 1792.PDF
JULY 2, 1936. FLIGHT. (Right A sentry watches an aero plane probably older than himself —the Antoinette monoplane of 1909-1911. An almost perfect reconstruction —Mr. R. O. Shuttleworth's Bleriot, with a genuine three-cylinder Anzani engine. It took off and flew a short straight. *: ^::-i^f^mm^/^u^u^'-^:>:. ' . down from about 90 m.p.h. and finally had the controls taken from him. After this the instructor did an approach, to the accompaniment of patter, to show the pupil " how it really should be done." It culminated, unexpectedly enough, in the most sensational of "wheelers." "You're telling me!" squealed the delighted pupil in triumphant tones. An excel lent anti-climax. Fit. Lts. Bartlett and Donaldson, from Northolt, were the conspirators. A Rotarian Trio Formation flying on Autogiros must be rather more "open " than a corresponding formation on orthodox aeroplanes, the pilots cannot see each other's wing tips! For all that, the three pilots from the School of Army Co-operation managed to stay very close together during their take-off and provided an unusual and rather intriguing spectacle. Afterwards, while two of the Rotas, as the Autogiro is called in its military form, flew across the aerodrome a few inches up and at very low speed, the third flew over them at top speed, thus pro viding a good indication of the machine's speed range. An other " turn " was for two machines to fly across slowly while the third descended almost vertically. After landing, the three machines were turned out of the wind and the rotors stopped with military promptitude and precision. It certainly seems that the R.A.F. has learnt how to handle its Rotas. Fit. Lt. G. R. A. Elsmie, a C.F.S. instructor, next showed what a specialist in the art of inverted flying can do. Piloting an Avro Tutor, he went through more or less the whoit- gamut of aerobatics of which his machine was capable, adopt ing the inverted attitude as a sort of normal or neutral between each manceuvre. Especially pleasing were his turns—quite steeply banked—in the inverted position, and, finally, his per fectly executed half-rolling circuit of the aerodrome making, perhaps, a thirty-degree turn alternately on his back and. in the normal flying positions to complete the circle. The only criticism can be that the item was too lengthy, for only the initiated could have appreciated every one of the items in his repertoire. Picking up messages and dropping supplies is such a regular feature at each Display that people are apt to forget the high degree of skill needed to bring these events off with success. No. 4 (Army Co-operation) Squadron flew their Audaxes with skill and judgment. For once the loud-speakers did not help out the interest of the event, for it was a case in which a little bit of a story would have livened things up. In warfare, and sometimes on manceuvres, wireless may fail, and then the A.C. squadrons fall back on their skill with their hooks to keep in touch with the ground troops. The infantry at Hendon might have wanted badly to know who was firing at them from Mill Hill, or they might have been short of beer and ammunition and so besought the Audaxes to come to their relief. It is worth remembering that once the Chitral Relief Column was actually fed with supplies dropped from aeroplanes. The Qauntlet's Bow There can never have been a machine with control qualities quite like those of the Gauntlet, and Fit. Lt. Broadhurst's in dividual show was made all the more impressive by the fact that he could talk clearly and continuously to the spectators, who, consequently, must have felt almost as if they were actually taking part in the various manceuvres. By way of gaining height the pilot did four half loops and (Left) The Farman Horice—so called because it combined the features of the Henry and the Maurice. (Right) The reconstructed Wright biplane (seen being taxied along in front of the enclosures) was not too perfect a replica of the original.
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