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Aviation History
1947
1947 - 1623.PDF
SEPTEMBER I8TH, 1947 FLIGHT 337 BATTLE OF BRITAIN FLY-PAST Over London in a "Group HI" Mosquito The Mosquito night fighters from West Mai- ling, with "Flight's" representative in No. 3 of the leading flight, are seen against one of the few clouds over London at 2 p.m. last Monday. THOUGH "zero hour" in the Battle of Britain fly-pastover Whitehall was set back, for meteorologicalreasons, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. last Monday, Lon-doners were not disappointed. Representative formations from Fighter, Bomber and Coastal Commands, B.A.F.O.,Naval Aviation, the U.S.A.A.F. and the Czech Air Force commemorated the great victory of seven years ago in aworthy manner, and marked the opening of celebrations which will culminate over the week-end with an "open day "at R.A.F. stations and a thanksgiving service in Westminster Abbey. This year Flight was privileged to fly in one of nine MosquitoMk 36 night fighters drawn fiom squadrons at West Mailing (Station Commander W/C. M. G. F. Pedley, D.S.O., D.F.C.,A.F.C.). Our machine was No. 3 in the leading flight of Group III, embodying eighteen Fighter, three Coastal, sixBomber and nine B.A.F.O. Mosquitoes, nine Spitfires (Fighter Command), three Seafires (Naval Aviation) nine Thunderbolts(U.S.A.A.F.) and six Czech Spitfires. This comprehensive formation was led by S/L. J. Singleton, D.S.O., D.F.C.,A.F.C., and to F/L. E. G. N. Mold fell the responsibility of navigating. While the other Mosquitoes were taking station at 2,000ftin the Portsmouth as;:a, cloud confronted us, necessitating two abrupt changes of height, but once course was set alongthe South Coast the sun beat down on the beaches with little opposition. Near Brighton the Spitfires and Seafires joinedin, though we were unable to see them, and over Beachy Head .American and Czech contingents brought us up to ourstrength. Turning inland we saw Canterbury Cathedral rising glorious from the plain (we remembered watching fromits very shadow the fiery end of a Dornier) and to our right the Isle of Thanet lay clearly denned. We crossed the. base ofSouthend pier dead on time, but as S/L. Singleton had feared (for a loss or gain of a few seconds over London is well-nighinevitable, probably due to wind fluctuation) we were 27 seconds late as we crossed the zero line. The stream of high-speed fighters comprising Group IV (sixHornets, twelve Tempests, eighteen Meteors and nine Vam- pires) were even later, but were rapidly overhauling us aswe turned at Hammersmith for a circuit of London. Over the docks once more, our pilot, F/L. C. C. Smith, pointed outthe B.A.F.O. Tempests, some in silver finish, drawing along- side. They veered away as Hendon airfield came into view. Of the lone Hurricane which had displaced three Sunderlandsas "Group I," and of the twelve Lancasters (nine Bomber and three Coastal) which made up Group II, we saw nothing. On the homeward course, S/L Singleton gave orders forthe vertebrae of our " tail " to break away and return to base. We ourselves assumed a line-astern formation as we nearedMaidstone and the proximity 01 a Mosquito's tail unit a very few feet beyond our windscreen (small stencilling on theelevator was quite legible) set us musing that visitors to West Mailing next Saturday should be well satisfied with thestandard of formation flying. Hasty Vampires Below us, flights of silver Vampires, the pilots of which werefinishing their lunch as we had taxied out for take-off, were back at their dispersal. They had been cruising throughoutat 290 m.p.h., whereas our A.S.I, had read a steady 220. After two hours or so in the air the Mosquito pilots weresuffering in a minor degree from " tormation neck" and the lassitude which comes after a Turkish bath, for the cockpitof the Mosquito is notoriously hot. Nevertheless, they soon set about readying themselves for the second fly-past over south-west England. About seventy aircraft rallied round Selsey Bill for the first part of this flight and were subsequently seenover Southampton, the Isle of Wight and Bournemouth. Here the single-engined fighters broke off. The Mosquitoes wereprevented by weather from reaching Exeter but are reported to have passed over Yeovil, Bristol, Bath and Salisbury andother West Country towns. Helicopter Development (Cont.) that the danger was there, although not so great as had been thought. In ordinary use no trouble had been en countered, but by taking a helicopter up into the Adiron- dack Mountains they had succeeded in getting ice to form. ^ appeared that the pulsations and centrifugal force kept Wades fairly free, but there was no difficulty in clearing them by electric heat. Constant application consumed rather a lot of power, but by so arranging things that the heat was applied to a portion only of the blade for some 20 seconds, and then applied to another blade portion, it had been found possible to reduce consumption to some- thing like two kilowatt, and the de-icing was quite satis- factory. The rubber strips used on fixed-wing aircraft could not be used on helicopters, the blades of which are very sensitive to contour changes. The lecture was followed by a number of very excellent and instructive films, many in colour, showing helicopters in action. One "short" was taken over the lip of a volcano from a hovering helicopter. Another was of the rescue of two men from a stranded barge, to which refer- ence has already been made.
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