FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1949
1949 - 1998.PDF
FLIGHT, 15 December E.T.P.S. CELEBRATES Annual Dinner and McKenna Trophy Presentation at Farnborough TO mark the completion of another very successful courseat the Empire Test Pilots' School* at Farnborough, theannual dinner and presentation of the McKenna Trophy took place in the Mess on Tuesday, December 6. For severalreasons, including a fine summer, it has been one of the Host enjoyable years since the School was started. Studentsachieved the high average of 120 hours' test flying each ; all passed out with green instrument-rating tickets; and all weregiven gliding experience. The highlight of the programme of visits was the flight to the Mediterranean by course and staffto spend several days as guests on the United States Carrier Coral Sea^ For the first time the McKenna trophy was won by a non-British pilot, the well-deserved first place going to Lt. Cdr. Joe Smith, U.S.N. Runner-up in what has been called aphoto finish was F/L. Harrison, R.A.F. Previous winners of the trophy, each representing a different service, were, inreverse order, Lt. (A) J. Elliott, R.N., S/L. R. W. Wbitt- home, R.A.F., F/L. Foster, R.C.A.F., and S/L. D. R.Cumming, R.Aus.A.F. S/L. "Cyclops" Brown, presiding, introduced the Comman-dant, G/C. L. S. Snaith, who said that it was an honour to have Admiral Mackintosh to present the trophy, for a pre-;edent was being created which, it was hoped, would establish the rule—namely, that a senior officer of the Service holdingthe trophy would each year present it to the new winner. This year's winner, Lt. Cdr. Smith of the United States Navy, hadmade history in being the first American to take away from the British Empire one of the few trophies that reallymattered. "Joe thoroughly deserves his success," said the Group Captain, "He has worked hard throughout the course.He has earned everybody's goodwill, and I believe that his success was not entirely unexpected." Of F/L. Harrison,who received the runner-up prize, the Commandant said "if ever a man deserved it, he did. He was only beaten by ashort head in a most thrilling finish. He put up a great show." The second prize would be a regular feature in future;it was being presented anonymously by a great believer in the course, one who thought that scientific training of pilots wasthe best insurance we could have against disaster in this highly scientific air age. The purpose of the School, continued G/C. Snaith, was totrain specially selected pilots to a standard that would enable them to participate to the full as members of teams composedof scientific, technical and flying personnel. A priceless advantage of being at Farnborough was the frequent lecturesfrom R.A.E experta, led by the director himself. In addition, Sir Frank Whittle, Professor Hill, and other well-knownauthorities had lectured to the course. In flying, the course * An illustrated feature article on the work of the E.T.P.S. appeared in"Flight" ol December 1st. 1949. had concentrated on handling, though not to the neglect ofperformance. In addition, everybody had made at least fifteen gliding flights and two had achieved the height anddistance qualifications for their "silver eagle." There were some pretty remarkable characters on the course,added the speaker, and one, Lt. Cdr. Bee Weems, had to be mentioned. He (Weems) had decided that he would like togo to the Mediterranean for.a cruise. " He did—taking us all with him" said G/C. Snaith. A large framed copy of theSchool's newly created badge was going to be sent to the United States Carrier Coral Sea in appreciation. Concluding with a tribute to G/C. Sam McKenna, the GroupCaptain said : "If you have absorbed some of the McKenna tradition then you need have no fear for the future—-nor needthe aviation world." Admiral Mackintosh, presenting the trophy, revealed thatthe next C.F.I, of the E.T.P.S. would be a Naval officer. He recalled his own pleasant associations with the American Navywhen he had commanded a carrier in a U.S. Task Force during the war, and he mentioned the complete harmonyexisting between Saratoga and Victorious, even to the extent of interchanging aircraft. Congratulating Lt. Cdr. Joe Smithand F/L. Harrison, he added that congratulations were also due to all who had passed the course successfully or had evenbeen worthy of selection. The Admiral enumerated the finest qualities of man, which he said were required of a test pilot. Lt. Cdr. Smith briefly thanked the Admiral and theCommandant, and said he would remember the year at Farn- borough as one of the high points of his Service career. F/L.Harrison thanked "the unknown donor" of the runner-up prize. He said he had had training for the "four writingraces of recent weeks " when producing lines at school, a very familiar example of which was (and here he examined thebottom of his newly acquired beer mug) '' Empty vessels make most noise." ALPHABETICAL LIST OF STUDENTS SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETING NO. 8 COURSE. F/L. B. G. Aston, D.F.C. (R.A.F.); F/L. A. W. Bedford, A.F.C.(R.A.F.); F/L. R. Bradwell, D.F.C. (R.A.F.); F/L. D. W. Butler (R.A.F.); Lt. F. Cawood (R.N.); F/L. C. G. Clark, D.F.C.(R.A.F.); F/L. R. F. W. Cleaver, D.S.O., D.F.C. (R.A.F.); F/L. S. Das (R.I.A.F.); Capt. J. M. Davis (U.S.A.F.); F/L. R. V.Ecclestone, D.F.C. (R.A.F.); F/L. E. D. Glaser, D.F.C. (R.A.F)- F/L. M. W. Grierson-Jackson (R.A.F.); F/L. J. G. Harrison(R.A.F.); F/L G. K. N. Lloyd (R.A.F.); Lt. R. M. Orr-Ewing (R.N.); F/L. J. H. Phillips, D.F.C. (K.C.A.F.); Lt. C. E, Prife(R.N.); F/L. B. Radley (R.A.F.); Lt. J. Robertson (R.N.); F/L. J. A. Rowland, D.F.C- (R.A.A.F.); Lt. Cdr. J. G. Smith (U S N )•F/L. R. L. Suri (R.I.A.F.); F/L. E. A. Tennant, D.F.C. (R.AF)- F/L. B. Warren, D.F.C. (R.C.A.F.); Lt. Cdr. G. T. Weems(U.S.N.); F/L D. White, D.F.C. (R.A.F.); F/L. A. D. Wood- cock (R.A.F.). PIONEER AUSTRALIA FLIGHT RECALLED A VERY pleasant dinner was given at the Savoy Hotellast Thursday in honour of Sir Keith and Lady Smith, and in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the historicfirst flight to Australia. Proposing the toast of "Sir Keith and Lady Smith," Lt.-Gen. Sir Ronald Weeks, chairman ofVickers, Ltd., spoke of the flight and the men who made it, and paid a tribute to the designers of the aircraft, its enginesand its instruments. Sir Ronald recalled that the late Sir Ross Smith was one of only two R.F.C. pilots to receive a tripleD.F.C. in the Great War. Sir Keith is, of course, a leading figure in aviation in Aus-tralia. In addition to being (since 1924) Vickers-Armstrongs' jhief representative in Australia, he is a director of most of thelarge airline concerns out there—Qantas, Tasman and British Commonweath Pacific among them. The Vickers Vimy aircraft used on the flight thirty yearsigo is now in the Canberra Museum. Replying to the toast, Sir Keith told a vivid story of thejarly planning preparations and of experiences on the flight itself. In particular he recalled the co-operation of the Vickersand Rolls-Royce companies, and the test of the aircraft by Sir John Alcock, who, six months earlier, had flown theAtlantic in a similar machine. He recalled that he, the navi- gator, had personally poured even' drop of petrol into theVimy's 520- gallon tanks through a chamois filler; that 5 cwt of spares were carried; and that from India onwards mapswere virtually non-existent—on one stretch Siamese maps of that time, with Siamese characters, had had to be u«edOn take-off from Calcutta they hit a hawk and damaged an air- screw, putting it so far out of balance that even after its repairthe engine driving it was damaged. One of the main worries had been the accuracy required when landing, with no brakes,in small fields. So heavy had been the rain into the open cockpits on one stretch that the aircraft's trim was seriouslyupset by several inches of water collecting in the tail, and the mechanics had had to knock out some panels to release it. Major Sir Hew Kilner proposed "The Guests" in a humor-ous speech, to which a reply was made by Sir Miles Thomas, who said that in the thirty years since the historic first flightwe had reached the threshold of jet transportation and had been able to reduce the flying time for the journey by 100hours and the elapsed time by 25 days. On the Australian route in the year past, B.O.A.C. and Qantas had togethercarried some 20,000 passengers and 1,400 tons of freight and mail. All this had stemmed from the first flight. He recalledthat he had been in Baghdad when Sir Keith and Sir Ross Smith landed there. To Sgt. Shiers, the surviving mechanic on the flight, nowresident in Sydney, a telegram of greetings and good wishes was despatched. Among those closely associated with theflight and present at the dinner were Marshal of the R.A.F. Lord Trenchard and also Mr.,Peter Acland, who was at thattime Vickers' aviation manager. A story of the journey appeared in Flight last week.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
