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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1927.PDF
JULY 7, 1938. FLIGHT. The curious part about it was that though a handicap race of this character is quite difficult to follow, a large number of people were seen to be taking a special and methodical interest in following the placings of the different machines in their different laps, so that by the time the first five laps of the course had been com pleted the more energetic layman, at least, had discovered exactly what it was all about. One of the only criticisms which can reasonably be made concerns the long- Giles Guthrie, who brought his Mew Gull into second place at 220.5 m.p.h. argued problem of the correct and sensible minimum handicap speed. This was 140 m.p.h., and it meant both that the entry was limited and that a few of the competitors suffered rather badly by comparison towards the end of the race. However, only one finished the course at a speed actually below the minimum, and his nearest competitor, in point of slow ness, finished half a dozen places higher in the list. Except for Hensliaw's runaway win— and Messrs. Dancy and Rowarth, after all, could only estimate the effect of the various drastic changes which had been made to his Mew Gull—the finishing times were very close indeed. There was a difference of a good deal less than three minutes between the second and the sixth man home, yet the course was one of more than 1,000 miles—a fact which was difficult to appreciate when the fastest machines were each making the fifty-mile circuits in a good deal less than a quarter of an hour. One or two quite considerable changes were made at the last minute in the pro visional handicapping, following the in spection of the machines on Friday. (Right) L. H. T. Cliff (Miles Hawk Major), third at 146.25 m.p.h. His passenger is Mrs. Cliff. (Below) A general view at Hatfield. This year the reserved enclosure was greatly extended. THE AWARDS. THE KINGS CUP, presented by His Majesty the King—Alex Henshaw, winner at 236.25 m.p.h. in Percival Mew Gull (D.H. Gipsy Six R.) CASH PRIZES, presented by Lord Wakefield of Hythe ;— (1) £800.—Alex Henshaw (who also receives £300 for the fastest actual time). (2) £400.—Giles Guthrie, Perci val Mew Gull (D.H. Gipsv Six Series II), 220.5 m.p.h. (3) £200.—L. H. T. Cliff, Miles Hawk Major (D.H. Gipsy- Major), 146.25 m.p.h. (4) £100—G. de Havilland, Junr., T.K.2 (D.H. Gipsy Major), 180.5 m.p.h. (5) £50.—T. W. Morton, B. A. Double Eagle (Two D.H. Gipsy Major), 160 m.p.h. Lord Wakefield also presents £150 for distribution as souvenir prizes among all pilots complet ing the course. Among the machines concerned was, of course, Heushaw's, which had to give away another i\ minutes. Others were S. T. Lowe's Gipsy Comper (which, fol lowing the inevitable application of wheel strut and control surface gap fairing de vices, had been brought into line with the other Gipsy Swift which was flown, not by any means for the first time, by Fit. Lt. H. J. Wilson) and L. H. T. Cliff's Old Etonian Miles Hawk Major, which had to wait on the line for another three minutes, eventually leaving with C. H. Tutt's Pobjoy Comper. Another machine was scratched at the last minute. During a take-off on the even ing before the race Fit. Lt. C. S. Stani- land had trailed the starboard wing-tip of his Comet and had thereby destroyed about a foot of the structure. The machine had bounced off the ground over a bump before it had gained a sufficiency of flying speed and Staniland, no doubt in an effort to save the undercarriage,
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