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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1584.PDF
MAY 25, 1939 EMPIRE AIR DAY 527 Record Crowds at 62 Service and 16 Civil Aerodromes EMPIRE Air Day, gaining added lustre because this is the majority year of the Royal Air Force and because the public consciousness is now wide awake to the importance of the Third Service, was such a success that it almost defeated its own object. From almost every one of the 62 Ser vice stations and 16 civil aerodromes open to the public came tales of record crowds. At some of the London centres, if nowhere else, the car invasion was so heavy that traffic-bound visitors gave up hope of reaching their goal and fought their ways home again. Here and there, it seems, organisation of the displays slipped up, partly owing to the unprecedented influx of visitors and partly to the high-pressure training and expansion which the Royal Air Force is undergoing. In the circum stances, to anyone with any knowledge of the amplitude of the expansion, it is little short of miraculous that the Ser vice should be able to stage this vast show at all; nor must we omit to give credit to the hard work of what theatre- land calls the " house manager "—in this case the Air League of the British Empire. Sir Kingsley Wood, Secretary of State of Air, accompanied by Capt. Balfour (Under-Secretary) and Air Chief Marshal Sir Cyril Newall, Chief of the Air Staff, made an extensive air tour of the stations during the Day. Formations of Blenheims, Spitfires, Hurricanes, Battles and other aircraft visited a large number of stations in turn, and the organisation of their flying schedules must have been a Herculean task in itself. Sqn. Ldr. G. H. Stainforth, of Schneider Trophy fame, flew in a Spit fire from Netheravon, Wilts, to Evanton, Ross-shire, and back. Though he made six calls at aerodromes en route, he com pleted the 1,070-mile journey in 3 hr. 5 min. flying time. This year, happily, there was an almost entire absence of accidents. There was one nasty crash involving a Lysander at Ringway, Manchester, but nothing more serious than mild boundary-demolishing anywhere else. Probably the worst casualties were suffered by the secrecy regulations in which the R.A.F. is now shrouding itself. The whereabouts and equipment of squadrons is now supposed to be more or less an official mystery, but time and again on Saturday both programmes and loud speaker announcements let the squadron cat out of the station bag. In the following pages are a cross-sec tion of the Day; some reports from typical stations picked at random: — HENDON [ JKE gladiators returning to a crum-x -' bling ancestral arena three Hurri canes swept over waiting Hendon. Scrounging" flying kit in the crew- room was a distraction, but we were able to appreciate the Hurricanes' first-rate ^"t^kitez.:^ \J-*W '^f ;l: V f .-*•; , . texf^ •H /wn Over a crowd reminiscent of R.A.F. Display days—A.A.F. Blenheims taking-off at Hendon. high-speed formation work and per sistent, spirited "shootings up." While taxi-ing out in a Blenheim of an Auxiliary fighter squadron we admired the effortless slow rolls of a camouflaged Gauntlet. But when our Squadron- Leader pilot pushed open the throttles of the twin Mercuries and we were pressed into our seat by that almost arrow-like acceleration, our interest centred on our own contribution to the programme: we were off (there were three in the forma tion) to engage six raiding Blenheims. Clumps of faces followed our swift, low passage over the enclosures as the Blen heims drew their wheels into the bulbous nacelles and nosed up into the gathering grey murk. The Squadron Leader spoke intermittently into his microphone mask as we searched for our quarry, but we could hear or see little until he ordered '' prepare for attack '' and we glimpsed a green and brown half-dozen Blenheims some hundreds of feet below. The wheel went over and the control column for ward and we were staring through our nose transparency at our swift drab targets set out in plan below. The A.S.I, needle was soon up in the 280 neighbourhood, though the Mercuries were operating at comparatively low boost. Actually we reached about 300 m.p.h. before swinging out, up and away from the raiders in what seemed like a variety of Immelman turn, the "G" dragging at our temples. Back on the straight and level our consorts, which had followed us into the fray, were soon rejoined in formation, but we had lost the raiders. The Squad ron Leader became intent on the land scape and managed to spot them in the afternoon greyness! We dipped again, this time a shallower, longer approach but equally accurate. Tipping our wings derisively past the vertical, we rejoined formation and motored in for the landing. [Another member of Flight's staff flew in one of the raiding Blenheims. His impressions follow.—ED.] Flying in Vic formation at about 2,500ft., we cruised around gently, circling Hemel Hempstead, St. Albans, Radlett and Redbourne. We then pre pared to bomb Hendon Aerodrome. From the rear turret one searched the sky for the defensive interceptors, which were almost certainly lurking above. Approaching Hendon from a south westerly direction, and when our posi tion was just over Radlett, three de fending Blenheims in Vic formation came into view a few miles behind. They caught up with us slowly, flying about 1,500ft. above. By the time we reached Mill Hill they were almost overhead and presently changed to echelon and pre pared to attack. In quick succession they peeled off, diving almost vertically at our tails at terrific speed. In turn they dropped down until momentarily obscured by the tailplane, only to pull out and shoot up behind us at less than 50 yards range, finally rolling practically over on their backs high above. For a second or two their undersides made a perfect target for our rear gun. The fighters formed up again as we turned on the London side of the aerodrome to fly back again over our objective. A second attack was made right over the aerodrome, and this time the fighters all pulled out on our port side, zooming up again practically together and again exposing themselves to our rear guns at quite close range. As they pulled out we saw our No. 4, the outside man on the starboard side, drop out of formation and slide away behind. We had "lost" a machine and crew, but not before they had dropped their bombs on the objective. MARTLESHAM T HIS year's display on Martlesharn , Heath, which marked the 21st anni versary of the Royal Air Force, was par-
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