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Aviation History
1946
1946 - 1241.PDF
JUNE 27TH, 1946 FLIGHT Southampton Air Display Air League Organizes First Full'Scale Postwar Pageant : Cierva W-9 Helicopter Shown WHATEVER may have been the weaknesses of theair display at Southampton last Saturday, thesewere suddenly not the fault of the organizers. Within its limitation the show fan like clockwork as the natural culmination of an immense amount of hard work. There were no gaps in the programme, the weather was perfect, and the crowds (ten thousand instead of the hoped-for twenty thousand) stayed until the end. The primary, limitations were straightforward enough. Following a veto imposed by the Ministry of Supply it was only possible for the manufacturers to show proto- types—and such aircraft could not possibly be made easily available for such an event. Hence the fact that " trade " support was poor, at least so far as modern military aircraft were concerned. With the exception of the home-grown Spitfire and Spiteful, almost the only military types on show were those flown individually or collectively by the R.A.F. and the Naval Air Arm, both of whom co-operated magnificently. Without the efforts of B.O.A.C. and Vickers, trans- port types of a more serious kind would have been almost entirely absent. Since the pageant was planned primarily with the idea of public air education, this was more than a pity. Whether the public can be so educated by means other than the slow process of habit-formation, and whether air pageants really are in the least effective for this pur- pose is another matter. People hardly go to circuses in order to become animal-lovers, or to dirt- track race meetings to be encour- aged to use motor bicycles; they go to be entertained or, sometimes. AIR MINISTRYBLESSING: Lord Winster flewdown to Eastleigh to see the displayand to pronounce the official open-ing words. Fliylit " photograph. in the hope that there will be a splendid accident. However, if education was required the public saw some very nice flying by the Services; they saw aircraft of Channel Island Airways—which, we hear, are not likely to fight nationalization from their island fortress—coming and going; they saw the Vickers Viking in the air towards the end of the display; they saw the Bristol Wayfarer ; and they saw both the Avro York and the Short Hythe boat flown by B.O.A.C. crews. The Hythe demonstration was singularly impressive as the twenty tons of big-hulled boat sailed slowly by, flaps half ex- tended, at an altitude of 50ft or so. For the prototypes there was the so-far-secret Cierva W-g Helicopter flown by Mr. H. A. Marsh, who chose Saturday afternoon to put in a little test flying. The correc- tion of rotor torque-reaction is ingeniously effected. To cool the Gypsy Queen engine, a multi- blade cooling fan, having variable pitch blades is carried in front of the engine. The whole of the cool- ing air, after leaving the power unit bay, is carried along the lengthy fuselage, which virtually becomes a duct, and is therein SOME PERSONALITIES AT THE PAGEANT : In the picture above are Mr. H. P. Folland, M.B.E., the chairman of the South-ampton branch of the Air League, and Air Vice-Marshal S. D. MacDonald, C.B.E., D.F.C., the A.O.C. of 11 Group. Below are, from left to right, Group Capt. J. J. Jeffs, Sqn. Ldr. L. F. Payne (airport manager and pageant organizer), Capt. A. G. Lamplugh,Mr W. P. Savage, Mr. J. W. Cameron, respectively general manager and service manager of Napiers, and Mr. Eric Greenwood, ' - ' chief test pi'.ot of Glosters, who has been awarded the O.B.E. in the Birthday Honours.
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