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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1161.PDF
FLIGHT, 22 June 1950 729 WORLD RECORDS ESTABLISHED DURING THE KING'S CUP RACE (Subject to official confirmation) Name A. L. Cole R. R. Paine J. N. Somers Miss R. M. Sharpe P. G. Robarts Aircraft Comper Swift Miles Hawk Speed Six Miles Gemini Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire 5b Vickers-Supermarine Spitfire T.8 Speed over100 km 126.22 m.p.h. 192.83 m.p.h. 168.44 m.p.h. 322.79 m.p.h.* 328.48 m.p.h. Classification (aircraft weight) less than 1,102.31b l,IO2.3-2,2O4.6lb 2,204.6 -3,858.031b 3,858.03-6,613.61b 6,613.6 -9,920.71b * Miss Sharpe's speed also establishes (subject to confirmation) a new British national speed-over-100km record for women. The above are recipients also of £25 prizes awarded for fastest laps according to classified weight. , cilots were warned that the Royal Obseiver Corps' watchers/stationed at the turning points could not promise definite 'Identification of machines higher than 6ooft. At the Abbots"'Bromley turn, incidentally, the "pylon" consisted of the air- field windsock. The King's Cup Course—three laps of a ioo-km quadrilateralcircuit—was laid out so that the most promising entries could attempt speed records over ioo-km, within the aircraftweight categories newly established by the F.A.I. The pro- cess of claiming records, contenders were told, would be under-taken automatically by timekeepers; there was no p^per-work for successful pilots. It was only necessary for them to flythe course correctly and to end their fastest lap at the same height at which they began it. By the early afternoon, competing aircraft had been massedin orderly ranks, according to the handicaps imposed, at the north-east end of the field—facing the wind and the longeststretch for take-off. For spectators—now some 10,000 strong—there was a flyingprogramme to cover the interval before the starter's flag dropped. Ansons and Tiger Moths of No. 25 Reserve FlyingSchool executed some precise formation movements over their home ground and Mr. Price-Owen brought in Armstrong-Siddeley's Mamba-Dakota for a demonstration later in the day. After dummy deck-landings by four Seafires of No. 1833 (Cityof Birmingham) R.N.V.R. Squadron, Ranald Porteous con- tributed a polished and intimate display of Auster aerobatics.The final pre-race demonstration was given by Mr. '' Ben '' Gunn in a Boulton-Paul Balliol 2. The King's Cup contest began, quietly enough, just after2.30 p.m. First away were the unhandicapped pair: Ron Clear's Comper Swift and the Mosscraft M.A.4 flown by G. F.Bullen—who, like Clear, is a test pilot. After a five-second interval two Miles Hawk Trainers, flown by Major Young andE. A. Ross, took the air; a further five seconds elapsed and a third Hawk Trainer (E. J. Ryan), accompanied by DonaldLowry's Chrislea Skyjeep and E. W. Westbroek's grey Messenger set off for the " scatterpoint"—about a mile dis-tant—where the aircraft turned, flew back across the airfield and past the yellow Goodyear pylon to take up course for thefirst turning-point at Abbots Bromley. Next away, with a handicap of 50 seconds, was Tony Cole's Comper Swift BlackMagic; this delay was the penalty of a slightly smoother finish than Clear's machine of the same type. After five-and-a-half minutes the fastest of the nine HawkTrainers, E. Day's pale blue aircraft, joined the crackling stream of light types now spread round the circuit. Interestwas well sustained during this first lap, inevitably the most protracted, by Charles Gardner's excellent commentary,together with his colleague Raymond Baxter's relayed des- cription of the scene at Meir (second turning-point, 30 milesround the course) as the leading machines rounded the pylon. About half-an-hour after the start the leaders were cominginto view as Ron Paine's beautifully finished Hawk Speed Six took off—the 33rd machine to do so. Clear's Swift and theMosscraft M.A.4 were seen to have retained the lead, while the most notable advance was by J. H. Ashton, whose Hawk-Trainer had moved from eighth to third place in this first lap. During the final leg, the largest aircraft in the race—the D.H.Rapide flown by Mrs. Rendall—developed a severe oil leak in the port engine and was forced to retire. Tragedy, unusual and unexpected, occurred during the secondlap. W. H. Moss's Mosscraft M.A.2 lost height during a low, tight turn and broke up on striking the ground near theNewport pylon, the pilot being killed. The loss of this gallant competitor—he was the oldest pilot in the race—cast a darkshadow on the meeting, and it robs the aircraft industry, also, of one of the too-few men with the knowledge and ability tomanufacture light aircraft. Meanwhile, Princess Margaret's entry, the royal blue Hurri-cane piloted by G/C. Peter Townsend, had taken off in time to overhaul the leading machines as they entered their thirdlap. The race was now beginning to take on a more definite form as the aircraft with performances under-forecast by thehandicappers began to show their true paces. Ashton's Hawk Trainer had robbed the Swift, Mosscraft and others of its kind,of their early advantage, while Lashbrook's Proctor (three places down after the first lap) moved up ten in a single circuit.The two Spitfires—Miss Sharpe's Mk 5b and P. G. Robarts' two-seat T. Mk 8—took off in quick succession but bothstrayed away from the course and lost minutes in their first lap.' Although, to all practical purposes, entirely out of therace, the Spitfires succeeded in establishing 100-km lap records. The winning machine would now be the first to appear.Excitement was high as timekeepers made revised estimates of speeds and compared results with latest reports from the turn-ing-points. A Royal victory was the prospect, it seemed, with Day's Hawk Trainer doing well also. But the 130-h.p. Cam-bridge-blue aircraft just succeeded in retaining a lead over the darker Hurricane that was tearing up behind at more than Zero hour: A last-minute look at the competing aircraft—lined up for the start—from Flight's Gemini.
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