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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 2037.PDF
io8 FLIGHT. JULY 23, I(J36 fourth place, with the rest of the field at minute intervals. Before the race tor the Portsmouth Air Trophy, spec tators watched demonstrations by Mr. Colman with the well known Envoy, by Mr. Seth-Smith's Monospar, and by Mr. Fk-ld-Richard's Cub—watched them, that is to say, at intervals between chasing air-borne buns, plates of bread-and-butter, and hats. Provided that one held on, the tea was excellent and quickly served. During the lulls the labours of an orchestra, too, could be clearly heard ar.d appreciated. The musicians were working en thusiastically in very difficult conditions. The great point about the second event was that the machines could be seen throughout the race, which was held over a triangular circuit between the railway triangle to the north of the airport, Thorney Island, and the water tower on Ilayling Island. However, this irritated the more enthusiastic followers, because the part of the ccuise which was nearest to the airport was far enough away to prevent spectators from discovering which cf the two Moths and Swifts were in the lead on each of the three circuits. The irritation is explained by the fact that one cf the Moths belonged to the Club and was flown again by the instructor, and that one of the Swifts was owned and flown by Capt. Luxmore, of the P.S.I.O.W.A., and had previously been owned by Mr. Errington, of the Air speed Company, who is now in South Africa with the Envoys. Very few people know that this Swift was also owned once upon a time by Mr. Alban Ali, and is the heroine of his book, The Scarlet Angel. Probably very little of the original Angel survives in "—TF." However, it appeared that the field was holding its original order and closing up in a manner which might result in the perfect line-abreast handicap finish. At the TORTSIWOUTH AIR Filot. 1. Field-Richards. 2. F/OCloustou... 3. Kit. lit. Williams 4. C. H. Tutt ... 0. F. L. Luxmore (i. Sir C. Lose ... 7. J. V. K. Watson 8. S. T. Lowe ... Machine Taylor Cub Aeronca D.H. Moth D.II. Moth Comper Swift Percival Vega Gull D.ll. Puss Moth .. Comper Swift TROPHY Handicap Allow ance. m. s. 18 5 14 a 8 2 7 42 3 4G Ser. 4 8 3 4 Flying Time. in. B. 30 2fl 27 i 21 e 20 47 10 50 13 31 17 42 10 3!) Speed. end of the second lap the starting order was still appar ently unchanged, but everybody hoped that the laster piiots would be in the picture on the last lap. The finish, forgetting the winner, who beat the handi- cappers to the extent of half a minute, was as close as anyone could wish. Over a thirty-five-mile course the whole field arrived under a blanket of one and a quarter minutes, and two pairs cf competitors crossed the line within a second ot one another. These were the two Moths, Fit. Lt. Wiliiams in the lead, and the Germ Puss Moth, with Mr. Lowe's Swift, in that order. Mr. Field- Richards averaged 69 m.p.h., and the scratch man, Sir Charles Rose, some 155 m.p.h., though he only managed to scrape into sixth position. An intimate knowledge of the district appeared to make all the difference over such a short course. Fit. Lt. Williams just held his lead, and Capt. Luxmore was very little slower than Mr. Lowa, who had given him a start of forty-two seconds And then the rain. CORRESPONDENCE 7 he I.dilot coes not hold Mmselj responsible Jor the views expressed by correspondents. The names and addresses of the writers, not necessarily Jor publication, must in all cases accompany letters intended for publication in these columns. THE NEW AIR COMBAT CAPT. NORMAN MACMILLAN'S article on air fighting in last week's issue sets one thinking deeply. Much of what he says is obviously fundamental. It is only in a land campaign that fighter is likely to meet fighter; but if there ever is another land war we must be prepared for a revival of the dog fight. In an air campaign the combats will be between fighter and bomber, and then the dog fight is at least improbable. Even in that case a single bomber may be cut oil from its formation and attacked by two or more fighters; in which case one would get a tactical situation not altogether unlike the fight of the Overstrand against the Furies at Hendon, though it may well be that the actual attack of the fighters and the attempts of the bomber to escape will be quite different from what was seen at the display. The first dictum of Capt. Macmillan which invites discussion is that the fighter's " object is less than half done if he can not prevent the bomber from reaching his objective." That was not the doctrine expounded by the A.O.C. Fighting Area (Air Marshal Joubert de la Ferte) to Press correspondents at the last Air Exercises. He laid it down that his object was to inflict casualties when and where he could. No one expects or hopes that any one given raid can be prevented from reaching its objective. The object of the fighters must be to stop all raiding in as short a time as possible. The Air Marshal considered a case of an enemy squadron of twelve bombers scheduled to inake four raids a week, ff his fighters (or guns) could shoot down one bomber en each raid, in three weeks that squadron would have suffered ioo per cent, casual ties Even allowing for replacements and reinforcements, it may well be asked how long any raiding force could tolerate casualties en that scale. Then, coming to Capt. Macmillan's picture of the fight of the future, one would like to ask some questions. Allowing that both fighters and bombers are armed with canons, and pre suming that the bomber (unwilling to sacrifice bomb load) carries fewer guns than the fighter carries, is it to be supposed that the guns of the fighter will have a longer range than those of the bomber ? The answer to that question would obviously be the principal factor governing the tactics of the fighters. Presuming similar guns on both sides, though with the fighters carrying more of them, one would like to ash Capt. Macmillan why the fighters should not attack the bombers from behind, according to the tactics now (or recently) accepted as correct for Gauntlets. What object is served by attacking from the beam where deflection of fire has its greatest effect ? Of course, that drawback would affect both sides equally; but the fighters, having the greater need to inflict casualties, would feel the disadvantage more acutely. Again, why, if the fighters did attack from the beam in line astern, should tliat force the bombers to adopt a similar formation ? Capt. Macmillan can doubtless give good answers to these questions, but he did not explain his reasons in his article; and I for one should very much like to know his reasons. London, W.i TENDERFOOT "SQUADRON HERALDRY " IN connection with your note on " Squadron Ihiaklry on page 3 of your issue" of July 2, may I P°int "ut it is the shape, and not the number, of the arches on a crown that determines whether it is Imperial or Royal Two passages from The English Regalia and Crow). Jeive s, by E. F. Twining, M B.E., make this quite clear. On pag1 24, describing the traditional St. Edward's Crown of Log head, he says, " . . the arches are depressed at the ^eD . this indicating a Royal and not an Imperial Crown, on page 20, dealing with the Imperial Crown of State, following occurs: * While following the design _;^ e traditional English Crowns, it assumes the Imperial s \^ by what are known as Imperial Arches. These an ies .^ not depressed at the centre bnc slope upwards to toe 1 on intersection." . [0|. The Crown used for the new R.A.F. squadron baug - ^_ lows the latter description and is, therefore, correc:t y scribed as an Imperial Crown W. A. REVN London, W.9.
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