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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 0748.PDF
FLIGHT MAY 15TH, 1947 laps by Major General Loughborough. Messrs. Dancy andRowarth were the official handicappers and they certainly did their work well for the closing lap was extremely close. KenWaller flew his Miles Messenger first past the finishing line but was subsequently disqualified for, it is said, cutting a turn, sothe first prize went to Burke on a Tiger Moth who just pipped Tommy Rose in the Hawk Speed VI to the post. Clarke'sProctor I was third and he was followed home by Guild in the second Tiger Moth. Mitchell's Magister came into fifth placeand Miller in an Auster J IV and Sproule in the tiny Aeronca were respectively sixth and seventh. The winner's averagespeed was 104.5 m.p.h., but the three fastest aircraft were the Hawk VI at 171.5 m.p.h., the Proctor at 145 m.p.h., andlhe Magister at 120 m.p.h. A Bibi BC550 entered by Mole, 1 iul Mechin's Comper Swift were non-starters. On the point of having a jerk put into it: the Waco Hadrian^ immediately prior to being snatched off. -4- Behind the Scud II sailplane in the static exhibition can be seen the mobile classroom van in which full instruction i&..r given on the D.H. Goblin. -.- F/O. Carter putting up his very fine display with the de Havilland Vampire. Not even the dull conditions could subdue the appeal of this event. The next events to hold the spectators' attention were flypasts by the B.E.A. Viking G-AHPK Veracity and the B.O.A.C. Hythe G-AGEU Hampshire. The Viking was impres-sive, quiet, fast and, although of not much interest to potential passengers, patently manoeuvrable. The show put up by theHythe was truly magnificent. After a couple of fairly low Hy pasts followed by quite steep climbing turns, the Hythecafne past again with both outboard airscrews feathered and, with about two-thirds flap, fish-tailed slowly and quietlyacross the field. After going round and bringing in both out- board engines, the crowning piece of flying came with an is- jcredibly slow fly past at not more than 40ft. It was a sr-^lJ piece of aircraft showmanship. Undoubtedly the most exciting event of the afternoon wasthe Dakota snatch take-off of a Waco Hadrian glider. After making a dummy run to ascertain drift, etc., the Dakota wasgiven a couple of green flares, and approaching in a shallow dive down to about 20ft picked up the nylon tow rope—surpris-ingly fast—and opened up hard. The stretch of the nylon rope was almost unbelievable and although the Hadrian dug its nosedown preparatory to a very brisk acceleration into the air, it was all done so very smoothly that the phrase " snatch-off"would seem to be too abrupt for such a proceeding. Distance is extremely deceptive but we would compute the glider's take-off distance from rest at no more than 80-100 yards. With an exhibition fly past of pretty well all the aircraftpresent, the flying part of a very successful display came to a close. In this connection it is worthy of mention that as)Ercoupe was among the visiting aircraft (from Belgium) and a very attractive little machine it appears to be. Anotherloreign visitor was the KZ-III Lark, powered with a Con- tinental engine. ;
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