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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1928.PDF
6 FLIGHT. JULY 7, 1938. had endeavoured to hold it in the sky. For a few seconds it was dropping from one wheel to the other alternately, and at too great an angle to gather further speed in time to prevent an expensive catastrophe. F/O Clous- ton, who has had at least as much ex perience as anybody else with the type and with this machine in particular, was an unhappy spectator of the affair. Early Prophecies With the wind blowing from the north west on Saturday, the competitors had to turn through ninety degrees on to the first leg of the course and after they had crossed the boundary. There were no excitements and at the end of the first five laps,' when all the machines had come in for refuelling, it was already possible to start an attempt to prophesy the result. It seemed that F/O C. Hughesdon, with the C.W. Cygnet, had as good a chance as anybody amongst the pilots of slower machines, but L. H. T. Cliff, flying with Mrs. Cliff, had suddenly, in laps 4 and 5, jumped up two places with the Hawk, and T. W. Morton, flying the B.A. Double Eagle, had also overtaken each of the two Gipsy Swifts and was closing in on Sqn. Ldr. E. C. T. Edwards with the Cirrus Major Gull. Considering the size of his ma chine, Morton's handling of the Double Eagle was particularly good to watch; his turns were really tight yet his con trol movements were delightfully smooth. Observers elsewhere on the course say that he was flying, at least on the up wind leg, lower than any other pilot in the race. His accuracy was mirrored in the times for each of his five laps; except on his last series, when he travelled, like everyone else, a little faster, there was not more than 10 seconds difference. Incidentally, he was beating his handi cap speed by 3 m.p.h., while Hughes don was also up 3 m.p.h. and Cliff was Morton, in the Double Eagle, approaches for one of his close looks at the Buntingford pylon. He finished fifth. (Above) Geoffrey de Havilland in the T.K.2, which finished fourth. Note the lap counter, operated by poking out one of its eyes on each lap. (Left) Capt. Percival's Mew Gull—which fin ished sixth;—from an unusual viewpoint. up by more than 4 m.p.h. The story was becoming plainer. Lowe was another prospective leader, but he had, unfortunately enough, suf fered a dead cut, owing to some fuel vapour lock trouble when he was near Luton on his fifth lap. He had lost several minutes (and was overtaken by Morton) while circling the aerodrome there in case the engine failed a second time. All seemed to be well again, but when he was refuelled at the end of this lap he was careful to see that the job was done to allow for the suspected fault in the feed from one of his tanks. He suffered no further trouble, and it is unlikely that the time lost would have made much difference to the final plac- ings, since a full three minutes separated him and his immediate forerunner, Hugh esdon. The similarity in the speed obtain- *JL. ing devices on C. H. Tutt'sComper Swift, which was previously owned by Lowe, and the latter's recently acquired Gipsy Swift was both interesting and signifi cant. Once again Mr. Cross had been at work, and Lowe's failure to obtain a place was amply recompensed by the performance of Henshaw's Mew Gull, which had been in Gravesend training quarters, in all, for about four months. Unexpected Speed Meanwhile, various amateur time keepers had been at work lap by lap. In the early stages Hughesdon had been loudly acclaimed as a probable winner, but as soon as the back markers had got into the air (which was some time after the limit men had come in after complet ing their first five laps) it was realised at once that Henshaw's Mew Gull was travelling very much faster than it should. Speeds varying between 230 and 250 m.p.h. were obtained by various methods, the times being given to the nearest minute—and a minute per lap made a difference of 5 m.p.h. at that speed. But even when, after five laps, the official speed was given as " merely " 236.5 m.p.h. the race was virtually over. The machine was 3 m.p.h. faster than Capt. E. W. Percival's, which started 8J minutes later, and was beating its handicap speed by nearly 14 m.p.h. Apparently Percival's Mew Gull, which is now fitted with a constant speed air screw, was not, at the particular setting
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