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Aviation History
1945
1945 - 1266.PDF
688 FLIGHT JUNE 28TH, 1945 M.A.P. Exhibition Opening Ceremony an Amphibious Occasion : Many Exhibits Were Not Ready in Time From a gallery you can look through the transparent top of a Lancaster and see all its interior arrangements. NOBODY who was present on the opening morning ofthe exhibition staged by the Ministry of AircraftProduction in Oxford Street, London, will be likely to forget the occasion for some considerable time. After several dajis of ideal, and almost ideal, summer weather, June 21st distinguished itself by timing a miniature "cloud burst" for the opening ceremony of this impor- tant exhibition. The day began with a B.B.C. forecast of thundery showers, bright intervals, rather warm. How right they were. There had been a little light rain in various London districts about the time when most people were making their way oflicewards, but after that it showed signs of clearing up. Towards 11 a.m., however, there was a rapidly darkening sky and then, just when the R.A.F., Fleet Air Arm and other con+:ngents were about due to arrive, down it came. Flight commented, in last week's issue, on the doubtful suitability of John Lewis's blitzed basement as a site for this exhibition. The liquid hour that embraced the opening ceremony can have left little doubt in anyone's mind that in ihe unfortunate circumstances something a little less like a static water tank would perhaps have been prefer- able—excepting, of course, for the flying boat and Air/Sea Rescue exhibits, which found themselves literally in their element. Incidentally, many sections were not ready in time, in spite of feverish eleventh-hour efforts. Triumph Over Shortages , In opening the exhibition. Lord Beaverbrook praised the men and women 01 tne aircraft industry and said that to those who doubted its peacetime future he would say, " You ain't seen nothing yet! " In war the industry had been a story of triumph over shortages by means of im- provisation and hasty adjustments. The Mosquito—"this dazzling airplane"—was a monument to improvisation in that it sprang from combining two plenties, wood and skilled woodworkers, to defeat a shortage of aluminium and shortage of work in the furniture trade. The exhibition itself comprises no fewer than 29 sections, and it is fair to say that it has been laid out in a way that makes the best of the obvious limitations imposed by the. nature of the site. But even with a plan as a guide, it is not too easy to make a systematic tour of the exhibits A PALS OF THE PILOT : Many of the latest types of instruments which equip Britain's aircraft today constitute an important section of the exhibition. (Left) A working model of " George,'' the automatic pilot, and (right) the beam approach exhibit in the same section.
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