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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 0998.PDF
FLIGHT, 25 May 1951 625 HUCKNALL ON HOLIDAY 70,000 'Watch the Jets Roar By" OF Hucknall's Whit-Monday air display it might besaid that the advance publicity set the keynote—"Athrill a minute at this giant air spe^cle : watch the jets roar by." As we briefly recorded last week, this was aninvitation accepted by the citizenry to the tune of 70,000, and the Soldiers', Sailors' and Airmen's Families Associa-tion should benefit accordingly. Air Chief Marshal Sir Philip Joubert, appeal director, should by now be feelingwell content with the results of his own and his henchmen's labours. It was unquestionably a bank-holiday in excelsis, with the vast crowd doing all the things in which bank-holiday crowds delight. As we have observed on similar occasions in the past, most of the finer points of some very good flying were doubtless lost on the majority; by the middle of the afternoon whole families were queueing for ice cream, with hardly an eye to spare for Com- mandant Perrier of the Patrouille d'Etampes buzzing along, upside-down, close above their heads. Yet so long as they enjoyed themselves (which they obviously did) and had put down their half-crowns for the good cause (as clearly they had) who are we to cavil ? A cold, unseasonable "clamp" which had been sitting firmly on the area all morning obligingly lifted at 2 p.m. to offer sunshine and six-mile visibility. Demonstrations of light aircraft have been known to bore even the cognoscenti and, wisely, they were confined to two, both by pilots adept at disproving any such generalization : Pat Fillingham, who led off in a Chipmunk, and Ranald Porteous in the "cross-wind" Auster. Then Gerry Smith, of the Rolls-Royce test department, but having no use for a prime mover notwithstanding, was towed to 3,000ft or so in an Eon Olympia and descended acrobatically with that silent, tight-turning agility of which only the sailplane is capable, concluding with a high-speed beat-up in which the wings could be seen flexing in a quite startling series of jolts, for the day was a bumpy one. Next came sterner stuff, the R-R. flight-test staff, whose home field this is, turning out the younger Heyworth brother with the Nene-cum-Merlin Lancastrian test-bed. As was appropriate on this, the day before the tenth birthday of jet-propelled flight, Heyworth used the two piston-engines almost entirely as supports for two feathered airscrews. After this, H. C. Rogers took the arena in an elderly Canberra (if such a contradiction in terms is Four as one: the Meteor 8 team from Linton-on-Ou$e takes off for forma- tion aerobatics—a perfectly co-ordinated performance. Dense crowds line both sides of Hucknall's grass airfield. Characteristic plan-form : H. C. Rogers puts the Canberra up for show. This is the Nene-powered version, as may be deduced from the shape of the nacelles, and the absence of intake "spinners." permissible, though this one was the third of the brood and is unique in being Nene-powered). He made no attempt to emulate Maestro Beamont, but his contribution was effective nevertheless, and seldom far outside the airfield boundaries. Johnny Railing, who has stepped out of aircraft 140 times and presumably therefore enjoys doing so, betook himself from an Auster at 3,500ft and hurtled groundward, looking remarkably like a very small frog disgorged by a hawk. When he at last released his canopy, only about 1,200ft from the expiry of his premium, it stopped him with a jerk that must have been less uncomfortable than it appeared, for he then happily proceeded to perform a trapeze act. One of the most effective jumps we have seen, and a very fair testimonial to Mr. Irvin's wares. Three ground events that followed—trick-riding by Remount Depot horsemen, an adroit W.R.A.F. P.T. display, and the classic motor-cycle act by the Royal Corps of Signals—raised doubt as to the advisability of putting air and ground events in the same programme, for within a few minutes there was a stampede of thousands of spectators, intent on a close-up view, from the far side of the airfield. With typical Portland Place urbanity, how- ever, B.B.C. commentator Max Robertson eventually coaxed them back behind the ropes, aided by a mild beat-up from a Meteor formation which had been standing-off. How not to do it Two C.F.S. Tiger Moths gave an excellent instructor-and-pupil show, the "pupil" performing some horrid-looking stalls, with everything flapping and shivering, and eventually pulling-off a dead-stick landing—unintentionally, some averred. Eleven Sea Furies from Culdrose, one of them a trainer, put up a sample of the polished formation shows for which that R.N. station is now famed. After some air drill by the whole formation, four of these portly but pretty aircraft peeled off and executed formation aerobatics, of which a climbing roll with the quartette turning about its own axis was perhaps the most effective item. Lt. S. F. F. Shotton was the leader. R.Aux.A.F. Meteors from No. 504 (County of Nottingham) Squadron, Wymeswold (leader, S/L. G. V. Beardsall) contributed formation drill in a contrasting but no less effective style, and then the Patrouille d'Etampes VDok the air. This French Air Force "circus" is, of course, unique; We have frequently described it in the past, but for the newer reader we may reiterate that it consists of four Stampe biplanes (145 h.p. Renaults), which are reminiscent of Tiger Moths, j Three of them (Capt. Guido, with Lts. Monfort and Menard) gambol a few hundred feet up in a formation so tight that the leaMing edges of the port and starboard aircraft are literally within a ca(iple of feet of the leader's ailerons; the high spot, perhaps, is a formation vertical climb ending in individual stall-turns and breakaways, each motion of each aircraft being in perfect synchronization. While this artistry is going on, Commandant Perrier (the CO.) in the fourth machine, makes passes along the front of the enclosures at 30ft or so—inverted. He also appears to be able to start a steep climb, still inverted, with no initial speed over and above his normal gentle cruising; perhaps, of course, it's all done by mirrors. . . . And now, all the way from Manston, Kent, whence they were returning without an intermediate stop, came a "three-ship formation" of F-84E Thunderjets of the 31st Fighter Escort Wing,
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