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Aviation History
1951
1951 - 1454.PDF
Recognition test: the admir- ably arranged and well- stocked park of pioneer aircraft, seen from the Bnstol Syca.nore helicopter. Illustrated with "Flight" photographs FIFTY YEARS AT HENDON AVIATION HISTORY ON VIEW FOR EVERYBODY: "STATIC" IMPRESSIONS ON THE OPENING DAY FOR the inauguration of the Daily Express Fifty Years ofFlying Exhibition and Display at Hendon on July 19th,in commemoration of the jubilee of the Royal Aero Club, the weather was everything that the most enthusiastic visitor could desire. The sun was brilliant, and its heat nicely tempered by a ruffling breeze. Amidst the colour and the excitement, and in the presence of so many of the early pio- neers who knew this airfield in its novitiate days, the display was opened by the arrival of the Lord Mayor of London, Sir Denys Lowson, who made a tour of the field with the first Marshal of the Royal Air Force, Lord Trenchard. At six o'clock—when the Royal Aero Club became exactly 50 years old—a magnificent birthday cake was delivered to Colonel R. L. Preston by helicopter. What the cake weighed we have no idea, but it measured about 3ft by 2ft by 6in, and was slung by gilded chains from the Westland-Sikorsky S-51. There was, of course, an enormous amount to see—far more than anyone could take in all at once: indeed, it is doubtful if, even if one spent the whole of each of the three days devoted to the event, a full appreciation of everything on view could be achieved. There was a free balloon; there was a captured V-2; there was a display of the development of rocket projectiles; there were historical and modern ex- hibits from Farnborough; there was the Cody Collection of historical material used by the great pioneer; there was a competitive display of models. There were R.A.F. police dogs, showing off their skill; there was an L.A.A. gun de- tachment of the R.A.F. Regiment doing the same thing in somewhat different fashion. The Royal Navy had its own section of the display with aircraft and models of ships and equipment; and the Army exhibited many items of the latest airborne equipment—parachutes, packed and unpacked— a Horsa glider and an Auster 6 A.O.P. The R. A.F., of course, had their place, and apart from the actual Service aircraft on the field, exhibited some of the latest power units, both of piston and gas-turbine type. But bulking by far the largest was the static park of aircraft, all arranged in serried ranks, brightly polished in brave display. The order in which the exhibits were ranged was basically chronological, the main park starting with the 1924 Hawker Cygnet, as the true pioneer types ranging from the Bleriot XI to the Avro 504K were accorded a separate little park of their own. The Bleriot XI (1909), Deperdussin (1911), Blackburn (1912), Sopwith Pup (1916), and Bristol F2B Fighter (1917), were all from the Shuttleworth Collection, and are com- paratively well-known to those who have attended many post- war flying meetings. But the Bleriot XXVII (1911), Caud- ron G3 (1912), Maurice Farman (1913), Bleriot XI Bis (1913), Sopwith Camjel (1917), S.E.5A (1917), and Avro 504K (1918), were from the Nash Collection, and are less well-known, whilst the Sopwith Triplane (1916) included in the line-up, was loaned by the Science Museum and is ihe sole example. With the exception of the Caudron and the Maurice Farman, all of these ancient aircraft were in truly magnificent condition and looked, in fact, as though they might have been delivered to Hqndon direct from the production line. Close to the veteran aircraft stood the pioneer rotary-wing types, many—in terms of date—youngsters by comparison with the orthodox types, yet, by the very nature of their design, looking weird and almost prehistoric. The Cierva C.24 autogiro (1931), with its two tandem seats in a very narrow cabin beneath a rotor pylon structure somewhat reminiscent of the conning tower of a submarine, stood in a
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