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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1897.PDF
-624 Jfo @Exn? JUNE 22, 1939 H.M.S. Burnaston receives a Skua : the educative deck-landing demonstration given at Derby. ' Flight " photograph. the control officer with his signalling "bats." F01 the sake of demonstration, one of the pilots made his approach with under carriage retracted, so that the deck con trol officer had a chance of showing how the last-second '' do not land '' signals are made, while the main signal boards were removed from time to time, so in forming the next pilot that the '' deck '' was not clear for his landing. Altogether, a most educative ten minutes for the mere land pilot and others—and a demonstration of near-perfect spot land ings. There was very little natural wind and none of the artificial variety. Formation Perfection At the risk of spoiling the effect by the use of too many superlatives, it must still be said that the twelve Supermarine Spitfire pilots, who opened the R.A F. section of the display, put up an a^rsost unbelievably accurate formation flying show. The lines could not have been straighter and the distances more even if they had been drawn and measured in the sky. Unfortunately, we are not able, nowadays, to give a squadron's number or home station. This one really does deserve to be excepted from the Air Ministry rule. Whether the pilots were flying in Tee-formation, in a Vic of squares, a square of Vies, in a line ahead of Vies or in an echelon of Vies, the effect was aesthetically perfect. The low-bombing formations of the Fairey Battles and the supply-dropping show of the Westland Lysanders probably did not receive their due amount of attention and praise after the Skuas and the Spitfires. The crowd, in fact, had to wait for an individual display by Fit. Lt. R. C. Reynell, one of the Haw ker test team, with a special Hurricane, before being raised to the same heights of excitement. This Hurricane, in white with civil registration, has a c.p. or c.s. airscrew and may be described as the demonstrator successor to the old Super Fury. From the moment of take-off it could be seen that this Hurricane was different. Fit. Lt. Reynell opened with a long power dive ending in more successive up ward rolls than we had believed possible and a half-loop, from which the Hurri cane was aileron-turned in a vertical dive. As he pulled out a " condensation " plume from the port wingtip could be distinctly seen, and it certainly added to the effect. Not so spectacular, but more essentially effective were his absolutely vertical high-speed turns round the in side of the aerodrome boundary. We have definitely never seen one of these modern fighters flick-rolled before—or flown inverted at such a low altitude. Curiously enough, the Merlin continued to function in this attitude, and only cut properly when Fit. Lt. Reynell rolled the Hurricane very deliberately back to normal. In the meantime, several of the more modern Service types had been individu ally demonstrated, including a normal short-nosed Bristol Blenheim, a Handley Page Hampden, an Armstrong Whit- worth Whitley, another Hurricane (this time with Service markings) and a Vickers Wellington, the crew of which had won the sealed-time arrival com petition. Three barrage balloons were after wards allowed to " fly" and the speed at which they were both released and, later, hauled in by winches was quite impressive. Unfortunately, the wind, in the intervals of sunshine and storm, was extremely changeable and fitful so that for most of the period of demonstration all three balloons were pointing in various directions and the stabiliser bags hung more or less limply. The show was put on by No. 1 Balloon Training Unit. For some temporarily unknown reason, the Gloster Gauntlet, which was to be used for an individual aerobatic display, was not flown. The Civil Show Of the civil machines there was a very fair demonstration selection—and, un usually enough, there were not too many to bore the multitude. Right at the be ginning of the afternoon, immediately after the airport had been opened, three Taylorcraft arrived from Leicester, the leader with a coloured streamer attached to it's tail-wheel, and this particular machine was flung somewhat frighten- ingly about the sky at low altitude. The pilot—presumably Mr. Wynne-Ey ton, the Taylorcraft test pilot—certainly showed that this aeroplane will do all the normal aerobatics without undue loss of height. Most spectacular were his sudden turns which, with the slipstream, gave the streamer something to think about. After the Service displays Mr. Alex Henshaw flew his special Mew Gull in his usually smooth style with upward rolls to choice, and Mr. D. M. Bay took a Percival Vega Gull around the sky rather more gently, as befitted a four seater cabin machine. As at the R.Ae.S. Garden Party, three Tipsys, flown by Mr. Brian Allen, Mr. E. D. Ward and Sqn. Ldr. E. F. Mole, played follow-my- leader round the aerodrome boundary, but this time there were no aerobatics in the general sense. Needless to say, Mr. R. A. C. Brie showed the new C.40 jump-start Autogiro to perfection, while the action was fairly well simplified by the commentator—Mr. Castlemaine, who had taken over from Mr. Courtenay for the civil types. At or about this time quite a number of things were happening at once, and in adequately describing the virtues of the tricycle Cygnet, which was being "driven" by Mr. Hollis-Williams, the commentator rather forgot Mr. H. W. C. Skinner, who was doing some very nice aerobatic flying in his Miles Magister, and Mr. Phillip Brown, who had been loosed-off from a Moth Major at 3,000 ft. in a Minimoa sailplane. This was looped steadily on its way earthwards and was finally put down very accurately and finished its run almost directly in front of the official enclosure. The afternoon officially terminated with parachute drops by Miss Clark and Mr. De Greeuw with 28ft. and 24ft. G.Q. parachutes respectively. The Banquet At the previous evening's banquet the Mayor of Derby, Alderman D. S. Butler, was in the chair, and the principal guests were Sir Kingsley Wood and Rear Admiral R. Bell Da vies, V.C., the newly appointed Rear Admiral, Naval Air Stations. There were no fewer than nine speeches at this function, and it is not possible to do more than pick out some of the more salient and interesting statements made by some of the speakers. Sir Kingsley, replying to the toast of the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm, emphasised once again that our rearma ment was intended not to make war but to preserve peace. He also said that those men who come up for training under the new Act were permitted, if they so desired, to join the Volunteer Reserve, in which they would have the same status as those who had already joined. Rear Admiral R. Bell Da vies, who also replied to this toast, gave a brief and interesting history of the Fleet Air Arm and explained why this Arm had finally come under the separate charge of the Admiralty. After recounting the long connection between Derby and Rolls-Royce, Lord Herbert Scott, the Chairman of the Com pany, proposing the toast of Civil Aviation, also referred to the new Crewe factory and to that near Glasgow which would be managed by them. He also announced that his firm had given the new Derby Aero Club the sum of a hundred guineas. In his response to this toast, Aid. W. R. Raynes explained how the Council had first considered the idea of an aerodrome as long as ten years ago. He then went on to describe its features
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