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Aviation History
1950
1950 - 1807.PDF
FLIGHT Competitor's-eye view of the famous Palace Pier, Brighton. R.O.C. telephonists found the race a novel and intensive exercise, THE COAST RAC Enthusiasts Happy, Public Indifferent : Con: \ (Illustrated witf No fault of his: hectic start for G/C. Mole in the Chilton. Capt. J. H. Christie (Norway), L. Clement and J. Lignel (France). THE eagerly awaited, much-discussed Daily Express Air Race(reported in our pages last week) has come and gone, andit is now possible to assess the measure of its success. Sep- tember 16th, then, can be fairly summed up as a first-rate day for the competitors and for the more knowledgeable spectators, and as something of a disappointment for the general public who lined the promenades of the Hampshire, Sussex and Kent seaside resorts. j Some of the responsibility for the latter fact can undoubtedly be placed on the coloured cover of the official programme which was sold in vast quantities all along the course in the good cause of the R.A.F. Benevolent Fund. Depicted on this cover were some swept-wing jet fighters happily executing a turn at about 40ft above a sunny beach. When, in the event, a presumably hopeful public saw a succession of aircraft, mainly consisting of Proctors, Hawk Trainers et hoc genus omne, skipping along some hundreds of yards out over an unfriendly grey sea (not that the sponsors, in spite of the acknowledged power of the National Press, could be blamed for the mixed weather) some disappoint- ment was inevitable. Even the racy (but not, thank goodness, facetious) com- mentaries of John Ellison, at the start, and Charles Gardner, from the Herne Bay control—both were relayed to all the prin- cipal vantage-points, in itself a notable feat of organization— could only whip up enthusiasm which was bound to be damped when the aircraft actually came in sight and proved unidentifiable except by the initiated. The feeling was succinctly summed up in a remark which we overheard on leaving Herne Bay Pier: " I liked them motor races better—more 'uman, like." A member of Flight's staff who was at a half-way point along the course gained the impression that the commentary, excellent In the Herne Bay ops. room : Commentator Gardner, mathematicians Masefield and the Goodhart brothers, and members of the R.O.C. Up and away : J. K. Brown gets airborne in the Chipmunk Off together : Miss L Curtis (Wicko), G. H. Miles (Aerovan)
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