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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 1253.PDF
MAY 13, 1937. FLIGHT. 469 to ooze performance. Interspersed with the prevalent ecstatic eulogies one over heard remarks on the outboard Vickers gun in the starboard leading edge, the external bomb racks and the difficulty in detecting the rivets on the upper wing surfaces. Fit. Lt. Christopher Staniland "up," this newest Fairey projectile roared away into a sky which would have appalled lesser mortals, made a circuit or so and came rolling across the threatening gloom iri a most dramatically defiant manner. Staniland fans were not disappointed. On one occasion the in defatigable "Chris" approached with the Merlin wide open, -throttled back sharply, eased the " P.4 " on to its back and rolled out in awe-inspiring silence. After standing all afternoon .with its cowlings propped wide up- to allow -the curious to inspect " The smallest and lightest 135 h.p. engine—280 lb." (vide accompanying ' notice), the Miles Whitney Straight with Mava engine was taken off by Fit. Lt. (" Schneider ") Atcherley, who proceeded to show just what that claim-implied. Mr Brian Allen followed with the Tipsy monoplane (34 h.p. Sprite), giving at an average height of ten "feet a dis play that was crazy-flying in all but name. If not graceful, his violent al ternations between opposite vertical turns, his wing-rockings and his swish- tailings were at least excellent testi mony to both the manoeuvrability and the strength of this pretty little single- seater. The next turn was that extremely un conventional Dutch visitor, the Schelde- musch pusher biplane (40 h.p. Praga flat twin), with its three-wheel under carriage, ultra-short tail cocked high aloft even when on the ground, and Handley-Page-slotted wings. Having disabused our minds of the idea that we were watching the Hordern-Richmond (in spite of the loudspeaker's contention to that effect—one of Mr. W. Courtenay's few lapses in an otherwise characteristic ally informative commentary) we settled down to enjoy a quite remarkable demonstration. The designer, Mynheer Slot (felicitous name !), took every imaginable sort of liberty with it—or what would have been liberties with an orthodox aero plane, pointing his nose almost vertically skyward straight off the ground, the sub sequent stall instantly becoming an in nocuous sink of a few feet before flying speed was regained. It was completely convincing. A Light Twin Next, Mr. Field-Richards showed how sprightly is the cabin two-seater Porter- field on the 70 h.p. of its Le Blond radial, and Mr. E. G. Hordern charmed everyone with the quiet agility of the three-seater Hordern-Richmond Auto- plane (two 37 h.p. Continental flat fours), which is one of those aeroplanes which. look so much prettier in real life than they do in photographs. And if anyone doubted the merits of its un conventional control system, in which a wheel does the work of the rudder bar, he had only to watch Mr. Hordern's straight flight followed by a turn, the whole thing carried out at an altitude of some three feet, first the fuselage and then the starboard wing-tip unerringly maintaining that height above e th sward. Tea- over, and K.L.M.'s Douglas D.C.3 and the British Airways Lockheed Electra having taken their respective booming and snarling departures, Mr. Kirwan in the Aeronca and Mr. Kronfeld in his new Super Drone gave a duet, the latter displaying his "hands off" tech nique. This" latest Drone, with 32 h.p. Carden engine, differs noticeably from its predecessors, principally in having a roomier cockpit and an N-strut mount- This photograph of the Scheldemusch is unusual in depicting an aeroplane with three slots, one on each wing tip and a third at the controls 1 Mynheer Slot, the designer, was the pilot. ing arrangement of centre section and engine housing. Mr. R. A. C. Brie gave his now famous display on the C.30 Autogiro (140 h.p. Genet), but for once this re markable machine's performance was overshadowed (and Mr. Brie would be the first to forgive that statement) by the first public appearance of the Hafner Gyroplane (85 h.p. Pobjoy), in the hands of F/O. Clouston. From an up- and-off start almost suggestive of the jump-start Autogiro, the Hafner pro ceeded to display the manoeuvrability which its independent-incidence rotor system bestows. F/O. Clouston made a long series of steeply banked and really tight turns, and then proceeded to do more or less the same thing with one wheel on the grass. Everyone must have been convinced that the Hafner A.R. Ill is anything but a flash in the autorota- tive pan. Mr. Hordern returned to the fray with one of his typically restrained and quiet demonstrations on the Heston Phoenix— which is just the way such a nice aero plane should be demonstrated—and Mr. Kronfeld did the kiwi act with his ground trainer. Cheerful in spite of the rain—some personalities at the Garden Party. (Left to right) Mr. George Dowty admits an undercarriage failure ; Mr. Handley Page with Dr. and Mrs Lachrnann ; Messrs. Preston and Folland, whose teamwork is finding new outlets ; and Mr. Martin (of the Martin-Baker combination) with Lt.-Col. Darby.
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