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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1448.PDF
FLIGHT, 3 August 1950 \ \ NEWCASTLE NATIONALS rr Grosvenor Cup and Norton Griffiths Trophy Races Draw the Crowds TWO more events in the National Air Races series for1950 have come and gone—the Norton GriffithsTrophy and Grosvenor Cup races, held at Woolsing- ton on Saturday, when the Newcastle-upon-Tyne Aero Club succeeded in attracting and entertaining a crowd variously estimated at anything from 15,000 to 30,000; the meeting was as successful as those which had preceded it, so the R.Ae.C. can now safely congratulate itself on its decision to farm out the races among the clubs up and down the country. Both of Saturday's events were held over a triangular 20-milecourse to the north of the airport, which turns at the Cram- lington airship shed and Stannington, a disused R.A.F. air-field. Given good visibility, it oSered no particular difficulty, pinpoints being adequate and obvious, though a small ridgejust beyond Stannington made it tricky for the low-flying pilot to lay a true course down the third leg. Hazards, suchas they were, consisted of two lots of grid cables and, along the northern boundary of the home field, an aerial ropewaywith its existence advertised by large Union Jacks on the towers. Two pylons on the airfield, about 500 yards apart, markedthe finishing line and formed a combined turning-point which invited individuality in flying styles, some pilots preferringto take both in one clean sweep and others performing what might be described as a couple of waggles."* The Grosvenor Challenge Cup Race was revived last year, after a lapse of 13 years, as an international contest for air-craft of under 1,000 kg all-up weight. Saturday's other N.A.R. event, for aircraft of 1,000-1,750 kg, offered the possi-bility—which became a certainty when the only foreign entry failed to arrive—of bringing the Norton Griffiths ChallengeTrophy back to this country, for last year, at Elmdon, Jan Andrle (Aero 45) bore it off to Czechoslovakia. Practice Laps Most competitors, on Friday and Saturday, put in all thepractice laps they required. Few had any serious last-minute bothers; losses of revs that caused individual despondencieson Saturday morning proved, on a comparison of experiences, to be fairly general and doubtless due to the fact that theweather was warming up at a prodigious rate. Geoffrey Alington's Sparrowhawk developed a front-coveroil leak which demanded airscrew-removal and some fairly intensive attention before it could be cured, and G. F. K.Donaldson's Taylorcraft evinced a similar ailment in a mag- neto-drive seal, involving some major dismantling and a requestto do a try-out lap at the last moment. The Sparrowhawk, incidentally, is a true racing aircraft, with weight pared-downby the use of ingenious things like a one-piece engine cowling: with full tanks, and including the pilot's 18j lb, it weighsbut 1,525 lb. With all gaps snugly faired, Alington is quite happy with elevator movement limited to less than 10 degeach way. Some neat gap-fairing, too, was to be seen on the Moth Minor flown by H. W. J. Bethell, who had used trans-parent cellulose adhesive tape for the purpose. Saturday morning's chief occupation was surface-polishing,Dunkerley's blue Gemini (protected overnight by tailored soft- fabric covers for wings, fuselage and tailplane) being easily theglossiest aircraft present. A lot of effort of this kind was set at naught by the presence round the course of myriads ofsmall but viciously sticky flies. There was some disappointing absenteeism in the GrosvenorCup entry, several of the true ultra-lights, in particular, failing to arrive at Woolsington. Among them were Mrs. Lindsay -Neale's Dart Kitten, G/C. Mole's Chilton and M. C. Chofl- ton's Benes-Mraz Bibi Be. 550. Both foreign entries, Capt.J, H. Christies' (Norway) B.H.T.i and the last-moment nomination from Spain, J. G. Amor (A.l.S.A. H.M.2) wereabsent, though the latter had been reported to be on his way. This left the two 60 h.p. Walter-Mikron-engined air-craft as the only representatives of the smallest category: one was J. C. Millican's side-by-side-seater Tipsy Trainer andthe other the little single-seat Fairey Junior I, OO-TIT, Flight " photograph. A characteristic turning-point study of ione of the two fastestaircraft —Alington's Sparrowhawk, in tW Grosvenor Trophy entered by the Fairey Company and flown by A. W. R. Morris,a pilot of their subsidiary Air Survey Co. During the morning the weather had been growing steadilyhotter and by lunch-time a fair amount of cumulus had formed; during the afternoon it began to merge with a copperyheat-haze, which was no help at all to navigation, especially as pilots were now finding it difficult to distinguish usefulpatches of woodland from imitations made by cloud shadows. After the meeting had been formally opened by Air ChiefMarshal Sir James M. Robb, K.B.E., C.B., D.S.O., D.F.C., A.F.C-. (C.-in-C. of the Western Union Air Forces) and theLord Mayor of Newcastle, the flying display began with a parachute drop by C. Thompson and some dashing synchron-ized aerobatics by two Sea Furies from An thorn. Then the racing started, the nine aircraft in Heat 1 of the GrosvenorCup coming to the line. The heat provided nothing spectacular; the way in whichT. G. Knox's Lycoming-engined Auster drew away from Bethell's Moth Minor, starting at the same handicap, sug-gested a win for the former; and this proved to be the case. P. M. A. Hull's veteran Gipsy I Moth G-ABAG, after a verycreditable lap at 97 m.p.h., developed plug trouble and was put down safely at Stannington. GROSVENOR CUP—HEAT I Pos. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Start Order 5 8 4 3 9 2 5 7 Competitor, Aircraft and Engine T. G. Knox (Auster V, Lycoming 0-290-3) G. H. Calcagni (Hawk Tr. Ill, G. Maj. 1)... N. A. Harper (Autocrat, Cirrus Min. II) G. F. K. Donaldson (Taylorcraft, CirrusMinor II) R. R. Paine (Hawk Speed Six, G. Six If) R. J. D. Hamilton (Tiger Moth II, G. Maj. 1) H. J. W. Bethell (MothJMinor 1, G. Min. 1) A. W. R. Morris (Fairey Jun. 1, Mikron II) Handicap m. ». 4 15 6 06 4 53 3 30 13 28 3 09 4 59 5 22 Speed m.p.h. 118.0 123.0 115.5 108.0 186.0 105.5 113.5 96.5 Heat 2, with seven starters, followed. First off was Millican'sTipsy Trainer, followed by a Newcastle Club Tiger Moth (the o'ne in which S/L. Evans won the Yorkshire Trophy theprevious week), in the hands of H. T. Reid, who is 6i years of age. Last away, after n min 52 sec, was Alington'sSparrowhawk. On the first lap Millican appeared considerably off course in the haze, but eventually spotted the correct run-in for the pylons; and he still had the sky to himself as he faded from sight. At the finish, he was still in front, though an Autocrat(A. C. L. Barrett) was right on his tail and Alington's Sparrow- hawk was about to pounce—it caught Barrett, but notMillican. «.
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