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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 0468.PDF
464 FLIGHT, 10 April 1953 ROYAL AERO CLUB A.G.M. Progress in 1952 and Prospects for 1953 AS recounted briefly in our issue for last week, the annual /% general meeting of the Royal Aero Club was held at the Club's premises at 119, Piccadilly on Wednesday, March 25th. The business of the meeting began with the chairman's report, which is outlined below, and was followed by that of the chairman of the house committee. After these statements, the members of the Club Committee were announced to be as follows :— Capt. K. J. G. Bartlett, C.B.E.; Air Marshal Sir John Boothman, K.B.E., C.B., D.F.C., A.F.C.; Air Marshal Sir Roderick Carr, K.B.E., C.B., D.F.C., A.F.C.; G/C. W. H. Cumming, O.B.E., D.F.C.; John Cunningham, D.S.O., O.B.E., D.F.C.; S. Kenneth Davies, C.B.E.; Eric S. Greenwood, O.B.E.; Rodney G. Kent; Capt. A. G. Lamplugh, C.B.E.; Major R. H. Mayo, O.B.E.; H. W. H. Moore; G/C. C. S. Morice, D.S.O., M.C.; Major H. A. Petre, D.S.O., M.C.; Major J. Stewart, O.B.E.; Lawrence Swan; J. C. C. Taylor, M.B.E.; C. F. Uwins, O.B.E., A.F.C.; Frank Woodhead, A.F.C. Next came the election of the president and vice-presidents. Lord Brabazon of Tara, G.B.E., M.C., P.C., intimated that he was prepared to serve as president for a further year, and the vice- presidents chosen by the committee were also selected as follows : Capt. Sir Geoffrey de Havilland, C.B.E., A.F.C.; Lord Gorell, C.B.E., M.C.; Sir Francis K. McClean, A.F.C.; Sir Frederick Handley Page, C.B.E.; Whitney W. Straight, C.B.E., M.C., D.F.C.; His Grace the Duke of Sutherland, K.T., P.C. In the annual report, the chairman, Mr. S. K. Davies, C.B.E., first referred to the fact that Her Majesty the Queen had during the year honoured the Club by her patronage, and that the Duke of Edinburgh had accepted honorary life membership. He also referred with deep regret to the death of Col. W. C. Devereux, then, turning to happier matters, to the fact that Lord Brabazon had been made G.B.E. in the 1952 New Year Honours. He also mentioned that Capt. K. J. G. Bartlett had been made senior vice- president of the F.A.I. Next came reference to the Club's newly modified badge, a brief appreciation of the work of the House and Finance Committees, and an appeal for funds for the Alcock and Brown memorial statue. This would cost £5,000—of which only £3,460 had so far been found—and the M.C.A. had allocated an excellent site at London Airport. Mr. Davies then turned his attention to the more directly aero- QUESTIONS were asked about the B.B.C. Television Film, Victory at Sea, in the House of Commons recently, Cap tain R. Ryder, R.N., M.P., who won the V.<£. leading the famous St. Nazaire raid, complained that the film "has caused widespread resentment as it appeared to be a deliberate attempt to belittle our efforts at sea." There is little doubt (writes the contributor who has been review ing this series for Flight) that the films have not maintained the reputation built up during the early episodes. They have continued to hold the interest of many viewers, but as documentaries unfold ing the factual story of the Allied victory on the high seas they have failed to present many aspects in their true perspective. The occasional shots of aircraft inserted out of sequence, and the incorrect labelling of others, as recently mentioned in our correspondence columns, are annoying pinpricks. Of far more importance is that the episodes covering the Mediterranean cam paign omitted the battles of Taranto and Matapan, and that the Battle of the Atlantic was covered without even mentioning the Bismark and Tirpitz. It may be remembered that the Tirpitz alone required no fewer than four Allied capital ships to be held per- manendy in reserve in case she should attempt a foray. It was thus rather surprising to hear Mr. J. P. L. Thomas, First Lord of the Admiralty, reply to Captain Ryder with the excuse that the film was produced "by Americans for Americans." A documentary should give a true picture of the story it is telling, whether it be Russian or American. The American effort is quite impressive enough without infer ring that she did everything, all the time, everywhere. Continuing his review of the series, our contributor says that Episode 19, entitled Two if by Sea, covered the bitter fighting for Peleliu and Angaur, two small islands in the Palau Group required as bases and airstrips for the assault on the Philippines. In the words of the commentator it was "cruel and grim" and the small number of aircraft seen strafing and bombing added few horrors to the flame-throwing holocaust created by the troops on the ground. Episode 20, The Battle for Leyte Gulf, covered the big sea nautical side of the Club's activities, and paid tribute to the work of the Records, Racing and Competition Committee, of which Major R. H. Mayo was chairman. It had been a notably busy year. Mr. Pat Fillingham had been a worthy first British Air Racing Champion. The National Air Races, including the King's Cup, had been most successfully flown at Newcastle-on-Tyne, in spite of the usual poor weather. The Daily Express Challenge Trophy Race was held on the south coast, and resulted in a most exciting win for W/C. Mcintosh. A successful "short-circuit" race was also held at Shoreham in December, and the idea would be further tested in this year's National Air Races at Southend-on-Sea. And whilst all this was going on, the Racing Committee had also been doing the spade-work for the forthcoming London-Christchurch (New Zealand) event. Nineteen entries had been accepted and, if the number was small, the quality was very high considering present-day financial restrictions. Next for mention was the Private Flying and Air Touring Committee. Their light-aircraft design-competition had proved a great success, such that additional sections for racing and aero- batic machines had been arranged. Nineteen designs had finally been submitted, and these were being adjudicated at the present time. The Committee had also guided the "three-year C. of A. scheme" for approval and introduction, and were pressing the Government for re-introduction of "Airmet." Another feature had been the new Pilot's Certificate scheme, whereby four grades of certificate could be awarded according to qualification and experience. Diplomas, scarves and ties had been designed for each grade, and the scheme had proved extremely popular—so popular, in fact, that it had been adopted by the F.A.l. for world-wide introduction. Mr. Davies concluded this part of his address with reference to the facilities supplied by the Club for air touring, and to the great success of the numerous air rallies in which members had partici pated during the summer. He went on to outline the various important records obtained during the year—the flights that had won the Britannia and Geoffrey de Havilland trophies, the record Canberra trips to Nairobi and Tripoli, and Mr. Tom Hayhow's 28 point-to-point light aircraft records. Mr. Davies concluded his remarks with some further comments, of largely domestic interest. battles fought during the early stages of the invasion of the Philippines in October, 1944. These actions set the final seal on the end of Japanese sea-power. Even if they did not constitute the greatest naval battle "in all history" as claimed in the commentary (at Jutland there were some 40 capital ships and 70 cruisers alone), they are regarded by many as probably the last big sea engagements fought by battleship slogging it out with battleship. The Battle of Leyte Gulf was unique in that, unlike most of the naval actions in the Pacific, it did not consist of a series of airborne strikes. Even so, several heavy air strikes were made by the U.S. forces, particularly in the latter stages. In one of these no fewer than 180 Hellcats, Avengers and Corsairs took part and these made an impressive sight in the film, formating and peeling-off in true Hollywood style. Dramatic shots were shown of the sinking of the 63,000-ton battleship Musashi. Twenty-one torpedo hits were scored and she was the first Japanese capital ship to be sunk entirely by air power. Among the other Japanese craft sunk during the battle was the Yamato—which, displacing over 70,000 tons, was the world's heaviest battleship—and the big carrier Shinano. The latter was originally laid down as the sister ship, but, owing to heavy carrier losses, was converted during construction into a super-carrier. Many interesting shots from captured Japanese films were shown. One of these was of an instructor holding up silhouettes of U.S. naval craft; the trainees appeared to be "spotting" them quite rapidly. The most dramatic incident occurs during one of the few Japanese counter air-strikes against the American fleet. A lone Betty (Navy 1) miraculously escapes intense anti-aircraft fire and goes on to bomb the U.S. carrier Princeton. Crouching in a recess, the cameraman filming the incident managed to keep his camera going and in so doing recorded one of the most spectacular "direct hits" of the war. With this and similar shots episode 20 regained much of the dash and excitement of some of the earlier films. AT SEA IN THE COMMONS
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