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Aviation History
1953
1953 - 1407.PDF
Wh//e the clouds add aesthetic value to this infra-red photograph of Cornwall their presence prevented the rays from penetrating to an absolute horizon, which undoubtedly would have shown the curvature of the earth. PHOTOGRAPHY at FORTY THOUSAND —and a Short History of No. 9 Squadron By JOHN YOXALL THE photographs on this and the following pages are, it must be confessed, an expression of vanity. For me, this issue of Flight marks the completion of forty years' service with the journal and I thought it would be appropriate to the occasion to present in pictorial form, from 40,000ft, the new and wonderful horizons brought in with the jet age. Many have gazed upward with wonder at high-flying aircraft leisurely "doodling" against a blue sky—but here such machines are portrayed from above, in all the breathtaking loveliness of their surroundings. From the Air Ministry permission was sought and willingly given for flights to be made in the Canberras of No. 9 Squadron (S/L. J. C. M. Mountford), and no unit could have been more co-operative or enthusiastic. Even the journey in Flight's Gemini up to the squadron fitted nicely into the pattern, for we passed close by Hendon airfield, where I made my very first flight—in an Avro 504 with a Gnome rotary engine. Later, as we passed Cardington, Bed fordshire, the airship sheds there brought back memories of those other big hangars, at Pulham, Norfolk, from which I had departed very early one morning in 1921 in the airship R.36 to watch the aerial control of the Ascot traffic. Speed and height apart, flying in an airship and a Canberra have much in common. The photograph above can be interpreted with the aid of this key map. Straight-line distance from Hayle to St. Austell is 30 miles.
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