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Aviation History
1954
1954 - 1983.PDF
30 FLIGM WEST-COUNTRY AIR DAY Blue Skies, Devonshire Accents and a Nautical Emphasis HPHREE and a half nautical miles North-north-east of Plymouth •*• Hoe, according to the Air Touring Guide to Europe, lies Plymouth (Roborough) Aerodrome. This fact we verified on Saturday last, as Flight'sJSemini approached in the space between the Devon moors ancUrfhick blanket of stratus. The occasion was Plymouth's 1954 Air Display and, thanks to an improvement in the weather, excellent flying by the participating pilots and the large amount of preparatory work that had obviously been done, it was a most successful meeting. The sharp droning of two control-line models iij the distance formed a background to the speech, opening the display, by Admiral Sir Alexander Madden, C-in-C. Plymouth, who had been introduced by the Chairman of the Air Display Committee, A.V-M. T. C. Traill. Dead on time, the flying programme was opened by a trio of Coastal Command Sunderlands from Pem broke Dock, whose low run past the enclosures was followed by a discreet "Prince of Wales' Feathers." An impeccable sailplane display in a Prefect flown by F. Mares, an A.T.C. Instructor at No. 84 Gliding School, fexeter, was hardly over before the words "Warning. Keep clear hi tail rotor" were being waved about just in front of the crowd. This instruction was attached to the boom of a white R.A.F. Sycamore helicopter which proceeded to give a vigorous and refreshingly different demonstration of what rotating wings can do, \yith an emphasis on steep turns, pendulum swings and nose-up manoeuvres with the tail-skid lightly brushing the grass. The pilot responsible for all this was F/O. Meyrick, from St. Mawgan. Four Sea Hawks from 704 Squadron next burst in to give contrast to the preceding events. Formation loops (into cloud) and a low-speed run by three machines alternated with a brisk individual show, before the pace changed again to Chipmunk aerobatics, announced to the public over the R.T. by the pilot. The first of the Army's contributions to the combined-opera tion programme consisted of the sudden appearance of a jeep carrying a Sergeant and seven men who proceeded to take the vehicle to bits in just over two minutes. After reassembling it in just under two minutes they drove off with rapidity and a sense of achievement. From Binbrook, three Canberras then arrived to give a polished though restrained demonstration, followed by an individual per formance by a fourth machine. After a Naval Dragonfly heli copter had rescued a pilot from his dinghy, adrift on the grass in front of the Chairman's enclosure, the North Luffenham Sabre team—such effective participants at Coventry one week earlier— arrived with a roar and a three-pronged trail of smoke to begin an equally excellent repeat performance, Below the crest of the moors to the east their trails disappeared as they began their The precision that is coming to be known as North Luffenham''s own: the R.C.A.F. Sabres, presenting their planforms in a zoom climb. A most impressive demonstration was given by three Lockheed Neptunes from Topcliffe. Here one is seen on a low ruji past the field. "Flight" photographs second run; then across and up again, rolling through a patch ofl blue sky as the sun glinted on their close-fitting swept wings. Thel Sabres' fast and low individual beat-ups completed, the local! populace breathed again. A ground display of alarming activity by P.T.I.s from Collator^ Cross was followed by the appearance of a Coastal Command! Hastings from Aldergrove ("which gathers met. reports" thef commentator revealed, "which assist the forecasters to be wrong as they were yesterday")—and of much blue sky, with! cumulus tufts, as a sharp backdrop. Before this backdrop three I Neptunes from Topcliffe gave one of the best P2V displays wef have seen. After a low run in formation, one remained circling• tightly above the airfield as its colleagues performed. Shackletons of Coastal Command from St. Eval provided the next act, flying past on one, two, three and four Griffons in turn = and permitting a pair of Army Bofors gun teams to fire at them. Four U.S.A.F. F-86F Sabres from Manston then put in a short,I sharp and smoky appearance, before a grounded Sea Hornet was set on fire to provide St. Eval fire-fighters with a spot of practice. The final event on the programme was a march-past by the bands of the Royal Artillery and R.A.F., at which Admiral; Madden took the salute. The excellent static show attracted many of the twenty thousand people present, both before and after the flying. Variety was here the keynote, with contributions from the Navy, Royal Marines, R.A.F., Army, Civil Defence Corps, A.T.C., R.A.F.A., the Plymouth Aircraft Recognition Society and others. One of the main contributions was undoubtedly the display by the R.N. Engineering College, Manadon, which included some of the College's aircraft, a number of nicely sectioned power plants and a college-built mobile test rig on which was mounted a Derwent 5 turbojet. This test rig was, of course, a crowd- attracting winner: no photographs of "Life in the R.A.F." could compete as the starting-up whine of the Derwent, magnet-like, attracted the small-boy iron filings. In the hangar nearby, enmusiasts had spotted the runner-up and third machine home in the previous week's King's Cup Race: the Plymouth and District Aero Club's Messenger G-AKBM flown by D'Arcy, and Miss F. M. Leaf's cream Hawk Major G-ACYO. The R.A.F.'s Canberra cockpit mock-up, too, was in great demand; nearby stood a half-scale model of the complete machine, and also a real, live Venom. As we finally left the display, we noticed a rangefinder (one of the warlike exhibits of No. 47 Coast Regiment, R.A.) being used to good effect by a keen bunch of young soldiers. "Left—left again" ordered the observer to the operator. "That's it. Good. Now have a look at that blonde in green." K.T.O.
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