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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1766.PDF
FLIGHT 21 September, 1950 329 The Brabazon's tail is obscured by efflux-haze from the Ghost in thede Havilland Venom Night Fighter (John Derry) A STATELY salute by the Brabazon, as it set coursefor Filton, was a fitting conclusion to the 11thS.B.A.C. Display and Exhibition—once again a resounding success. Although the weather was unpleasant on three of the six display days, the flying programme was repeated on each occasion with scarcely a hitch. On the four trade days—September 5th-8th—attendance was esti- mated at 18,000, a figure well above expectations. The public arrived in force on the Saturday and Sunday, and assessments of the combined crowds varied between 150,000 and 200,000. Three hours after Sunday's performance was over, cars were streaming from the airfield gates at the rate of 2,500 an hour. The weather on the Friday provided an unwelcome opportunity for proving the pilots' ability to demonstrate their aircraft with "Met" doing its worst. Needless to say, the challenge was met, by men and machines alike, in a manner which warmed all hearts in chilling circumstances. Special tribute must be paid to Wade, Lithgow and Zurakowski for their efforts on that day. Their aircraft— the P. 1081, Supermarine 535 and Sapphire-Meteor respec- tively—wer^ demonstrated at high speed under an excep- tionally low cloud base in torrential rain. Dense sheets of vapour flashed and shimmied along their wings, doubtless giving rise, if the truth were known, to a good deal of concern for the safety of these precious prototypes and the stalwarts at their controls. Except for a few minor alterations, each day's programme was identical. 'The Blackburn Y.A.5, although scheduled to appear, remained at Brough for urgent test-flying. For the last three performances the Canberra B.2 was replaced by a B. 1; Flight Refuelling was demonstrated for the first three days only. A peep into the future—the Canberra shows its bomb-bay A high-speed pass by the Supermarine 535 (pilot, Lithgow) Long-span wings are shown on this model ground-attack Meteor By way of rounding off our report of the display in the preceding issue, we append some random observations on the men and machines. The most memorable performances were, in our own estimation, those of Heyworth in the Avon-Meteor, Kilburn in the bombed-up, belly-tanked Mark 8 Meteor, Porteous in the Auster Aiglet, and Hazelden and Bloomfield in the Hermes V. This is not to suggest that the "regulars"—Wade, Lithgow, Duke, Zurakowski and the rest—were in any way inferior in their standard of flying; but their repertoires were relatively familiar. A special word must be said of "Zura's" performance. Some disappointment was expressed that this did not exemplify the available thrust of the Sapphires in the manner of Heyworth—that is, by sustained near-vertical climbs from take-off or slow-speed level flight. Evidently the Gloster pilot was determined not to vie with the Rolls-Royce The trim-looking, Leonides-powered Handley Page H.P.R.2
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