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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1011.PDF
7 August 1953 (Above) Vampires of "A" Flight at Mombasa with their attendant Vo/ettos. (Right) The reception hut beside the control area at Juba. which they had put in so many hours of practice back in Cyprus Instead of their breath-taking display of loops, "spectacles," rolls and stall turns in tight box formations, and the spectacular loop in which they change from line-astern to box, the pilots had to be content with roof-top-altitude runs in figure four, box, line-astern, and echelon formations. But before they left on June 6th, the four had done formation aerobatics over Nairobi town, the air field, and many up-country towns, as well as over the coastal port of Mombasa some 400 miles away, for which they had made a special trip down in the morning and returned the same after noon. In addition, they had done long-range cross-countries up into the Aberdares and the Kikuyu reserves around Fori Hall, Nyeri and Thompson Falls, to show the people around the lonely isolated farms up there that they were not being forgotten during Coronation week. The team at Entebbe were more fortunate with the weather for their Coronation display. They were able to turn on formation aerobatics over the parades in Entebbe and Kampala as well as other smaller towns around Uganda and over the big Coronation canoe regatta on Lake Victoria. During this last display they were filmed by the B.B.C. and N.B.C. for the television show of Coronation events throughout the Empire, and by now have probably been seen by millions in America and Great Britain. As each team completed its schedule of displays in each of the provinces, they flew back on their tracks, arriving at Entebbe on June 6th. The Dar-es-Salaam party meanwhile had spent some three days in Nairobi, with S/L. Hope's team, and the air and ground teams of both groups had been over the wonderful National Game Park: an area of about 300 square miles where all the African big game can be seen from the visitor's car windows, living in their natural habitat and in their natural manner. Every one had seen giraffe and zebra, antelope, warthogs, wildebeeste, jackals and hyenas, ostriches and many other African animals, and the party at Entebbe had been shown around the lake shores, where there are alligators and hippos. The airfield at Entebbe, when the three flights assembled on June 6th, looked more like a fighter station than a big civil airport. In addition to the 14 Vampires of No. 14 Sqn. there were seven Venoms and a Meteor which were staging through on their way to take part in the Rhodes Centenary celebrations in Rhodesia. That same day the squadron put up an eight-aircraft formation which flew over Kampala and Jinga in a final gesture to East Africa. The next morning the five aircraft of F/L. Rabone's party took off and headed north on their way home to Cyprus. F/O. Hume's party left the next morning and the team of S/L. Hope on the 8th. Each team stopped at the same refuelling points as they had on the way down and flew the two-and-a-half thousand miles in two days. On this return journey the flights struck some minor unserviceability, which delayed various aircraft; but all the Vampires were back at Nicosia by June 12th. Some of the ground- crew did not get back until the 15th, however, as some of the Valetta tenders went unserviceable at frequent intervals; S/L. Hope's flight was left without an attendant ground party, the pilots doing their own servicing. Throughout the operation the squadron flew 332 hours, equivalent to 126,000 miles in a total of 305 flights. They flew all the assignments allotted to them and earned the praise and grati tude of the people of East Africa. In fact, at Dar-es-Salaam the " four " were honoured by having the crest of Tanganyika pre sented to them by the Governor, and a replica of it was painted on each of the aircraft, to be flown throughout the world as long as No. 14 Squadron continues to fly. And if the air- and ground- crew maintain the high standard they set on "Long Trek Two," they will continue to fly for a long time. MORE RECORDS BY DUNKERLEY THE Royal Aero Club announces that Mr. Fred Dunkerley, holder of six point-to-point speed records for light aeroplanes, class C.i.C. (1,000 to 1,750 kilograms (2,204.6 lb to 3,858.0 lb)), set up three more records on July 28th in his Miles Gemini (two Cirrus Minor 2) between London and Dublin. His previous records were flown on June 5th between London and the Hague, and London and Brussels. The speeds and times achieved by Mr. Dunkerley in his most recent record flight, subject to confirmation, are as follows: London-Dublin, 149.1 m.p.h., time 1 hr 55 min 21.7 sec; Dublin- London, 182.6 m.p.h., time 1 hr 34 min 12 sec; London-Dublin- London, 164.0 m.p.h., time 3 hr 29 min 48.3 sec. Distapce flown from Croydon Airport to Dublin Airport, 286.8 miles; total dis tance flown, 573.6 miles. Mr. Dunkerley was a close friend of the late Tom Hayhow, who lost his life while attempting a record flight between London and Belgrade. Mr. Dunkerley hopes shortly to attempt the same flight himself, as he is anxious to capture this record for Britain. VISITORS BY AIR THE annual report of the British Travel and Holiday Associa tion gives the number of overseas visitors to the U.K. in 1952 as 733,000, compared with 712,000 in 1951. There was no sig nificant increase in the proportion (approximately one-third) 01 visitors to arrive by air. American, Commonwealth and JJutcn visitors were the most air-minded; about two-thirds of the 95,000 Americans who came to Britain arrived by air, as did 63,000 ot the 105,000 Commonwealth visitors and approximately one-nan of the 35,000 people who came from the Netherlands. RADAR STORM-WARNING THE prototype of a new radar installation intended to detect storm clouds dangerous to aircraft has now been in service for several months at Entebbe, Uganda. It is the Decca Storm- Warning Radar Type 40, and has been developed on the same principles as the Decca Marine Radar, in consultation with the East African Meteorological Department. The set has been found to be capable of detecting storms at more than 100 nautical miles range, and the improved production models now being manufactured are expected to show an even better performance. The installation comprises four units: the scanner, receiver, display unit and power unit. The scanner employs a rotating aerial and an R.F. unit. Its aerial incorporates two separate "cheese"-type reflectors for transmitting and receiving respectively, while the R.F. unit (con taining modulator, magnetron, klystron, mixer and receiver pre amplifier) is placed in a watertight housing directly under the aerial, with which it rotates. The receiver is wall-mounted, and contains the I.F. and V.F. amplifiers, the pulse generator for the modulator, and power packs for the R.F. and display units. The display unit is fitted in a cast light-alloy case, and contains all controls for the set. It incorporates a long-afterglow tube, a cowl and rubber visor, and a strobe range-marker. The power unit consists of a motor alternator fitted with an automatic voltage regulator and a speed governor, the output voltage being controlled by pre-set adjustment. It is understood that the Entebbe set has been of great opera tional value to meteorological staff and aircrews, and is also proving a most useful aid to research. The first of the new production models is shortly to be delivered to South-East Asia.
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