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Aviation History
1955
1955 - 1372.PDF
486 The Blackburn Beverley can carry a composite load of 42 passengers in the rear fuselage, three army vehicles in the freight compartment and space on pallets (one of which is seen above the lorry) and wall racks for additional freight and baggage. THE WEEK AT FARNBOROUGH . . . pilot and each time his remarks were followed by this mostimpressive aerobatic. In sharp contrast to the boiling roar of the Vulcan's engineswas the gentle rushing noise of die first Gnat, which Tennant took gracefully and quietly into sweeping high-speed loops andvery fast passes. And yet out of one high-speed run he banked vertically over the factory buildings and made a tight turn whichmust rate as the most g-provoking manoeuvre of the whole show. His landing, with the assistance of a small tail 'chute, was madein about 500 yd despite the fact that the Orpheus at present has considerable residual thrust when throttled back. The Gnattaxies without dropping its tail 'chute. Jan Zurakowski's flying of the CF-100 left little to be desired.He threw this heavy machine into an effortless upward bunt and spun blithely down again to a few thousand feet, only to roll hisway up to the top again and descend, on several afternoons, in a classic falling leaf. The Swift, now coming off the production lines as the F.R.5,showed that numerous modifications have not affected the acceleration conferred by the afterburner. On Tuesday it acceler-ated from "brakes off' to 700 m.p.h. in 1 min 45 sec. Only one Javelin flew this year but it was claimed to be astandard production F(A.W.) Mk I. Four Gloster test pilots took turns at flying the machine in the display and one of themmade an upward bunt similar to Zurakowski's. Though the Javelin's passes were not as fast as some the eerie howl of theSapphires rendered them just as effective. "The Hunter F.6 showed that the new, more powerful Avonmore than overcomes the drag of the two white tanks it carried under the wings. Its passes were as fast as any during the show,and the tanks did not affect its rate of roll. Certainly the most bizarre aircraft in the show was the FaireyDelta 2. Poised on its ungainly undercarriage, it taxied forward to the take-off point with its long needle nose going up and downfor all the world as if it was picking up small objects from the tarmac. Take-off technique varied from day to day but eachtime Peter Twiss lined it up he waited while mechanics per- formed some mysterious ministration at the nosewheel leg. Onsome days he lowered the nose briefly for a last look at the runway, raising it again as soon as he got rolling, while on othershe took off with the nose up the whole way. At no time did he make use of the afterburner; and his demonstration, carried outrather higher than those of most other aircraft, consisted mainly of straight passes and fairly fast rolls. Twiss brought the Delta in with the highest approach speed atthe show and at a high angle of attack; the nose was fully depressed, and now it seemed to be scanning the ground belowfor a safe alighting point. Just before touch-down, the cluster of Above are seen the rear- ward facing trooping seats in the tail compartment of the Beverley. A ditching exit is also shown. The sketch on the right shows one of the new (oval) win- dows of the de Havilland Comet 3. Two windows on each side are used emergency exits. as On the left is shown the faired aileron mass-balance and de- icing air outlet on the Handley Page Herald prototype. three small braking parachutes was streamed on a very long linefrom the tail, and immediately the aircraft mainwheels touched down it rocked abruptly forward on to the nosewheel andpressed on purposefully down towards Laffan's Plain. The P.I followed the Delta on the Monday, Tuesday andWednesday. Because of the strict veil of secrecy with which this aircraft has been covered since its first flight in August lastyear, it has become the great mystery aircraft. The loss of a hood shortly before the show led to a speed restriction on themachine demonstrated. Yet, although Roland Beamont made no very fast runs he showed a degree of manoeuvrability at thelower end of the speed range which was most impressive for an aircraft of this size and configuration. On some days he made aslow run with the wheels down and the great flaps fully lowered. The slab tail, meanwhile, could be seen at a pronounced negativeincidence. Some notes on the P.I appear on page 474. Vickers-Supermarine Swift F.R.5, as now in production for the R.A.F. Model of the A.V/ .167 transport project,with f We tail-mounted Sapphires
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