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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 0682.PDF
"Flight" Photographs (Left) The line-up of aircraft beside the north-south runway during the day. The D.H. Dragon was giving joy rides. (Above) The Mystere 4s of the Patrouille de France. Whitsun in Retrospect THE NATIONAL AIR RACES . . . behind him. The Swift would have overtaken the fleeing Tigerin another quarter mile or so. In the Osram Cup race the handicaps were considerablyadjusted, though the Chilton remained at scratch. Although Nat Somers had two seconds longer to wait than on the previous occa-sion, he worked his way steadily into second place in the second lap and first place in the third lap. This he held while everybodyelse overhauled the little Chilton with the exception of E. N. Husbands, who missed a pylon and was disqualified early in therace. This was a perfect demonstration of racing flying by Somers, whose turning technique is always faultless. In one caseparticularly he brilliantly overtook another aircraft actually in the turn round the first pylon, mainly because he spent less time in theturn than the other competitor and knew exactly how to get the best advantage out of a dive. In cornering he was perhaps onlyequalled by David Ogiivy in the Comper Swift. In the second Kemsley race the morning's handicaps were alsoadjusted and there was a very close finish. It is notable that not one of the relatively low-powered group of aircraft entered gotround at less than 100 m.p.h. In the S.B.A.C. Cup race everybody except Marler had hishandicap stiffened, if only by a matter of a second or two. The result was highly satisfactory. Fred Dunkerley took off thistime on the normal runway and forged ahead to win by about 700 yd at the very respectable speed of 197.5 m.p.h. The MewGull, only slightly slower at 195 m.p.h., unfortunately could not make up its handicap and came in last. Marler's Falcon 6, withits start advanced by three seconds, rushed into second place, Pilot Goodyear Trophy H. B. lies D. F. Ogiivy A. G. OldhamMiss A. Windle N. H.JoneiP. Vanneck B. Maile Osram Cup A. BarkerJ. R. Johniton T. G. Knox J. N. SomersP. Blamire E. N. Husbands J. E. G. Appleyard ...E.Crabtree Kemsley Trophy D. P. BoulnoisJ.M.Donald B. J. Snook J. C. lovegroveC. Gregory J. H. DenyerA. J.Spiller W. P. Bowles S.B.A.C. Cup G.C. MarlerR. H. Mclntosh A. S. K. Paine J. RushE. Crabtree P.S.CliffordF. Dunkerley FIRST ROUND Ai rcraft Miles M.18/2 ...Comper Swift ... Tiger MothMiles W. Straight Tig«r MothTiger Moth Tiger Moth ... Proctor 3H«wk Tr.3 Proctor 3 ChipmunkGemini 1a Proctor 1 Chilton D.W.IaGemini 3 Tiger MothTiger Moth Tiger Moth Tiger MothT'craft Plus D... AusterJ.IN ...Autocrat Monarch Falcon SixProctor 3 Proctor 1 Falcon SixProctor 3 Mew GullSparrowjet RESULTS H'capm. s. 02 42 03 02 00 00 02 24 01 26 00 40 01 08 00 50 00 35 00 50 00 44 00 35 01 02 00 00 03 07 00 00 00 20 00 24 01 14 01 31 02 31 01 28 03 23 02 07 00 00 00 40 02 18 00 34 04 42 04 13 Speed m.p.h. 127 1264 100 115 100 984 100 140 1374 1384 136 134 136+ 126i 1524 99 101 1014 106^ 1084 115 1054 120 1634 1384 1444 161 1384 1904 179 Place 12 3 4 5 6 7 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Points 1816 14 12 10 8 6 18 16 14 12 10 S 6 4 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 4 18 16 14 12 10 8 6 just beating Crabtree's Proctor. W/C. Mclntosh flew skilfully,as his 23,000 air hours would lead one to expect, but could not hold his take-off lead and came fourth. Full results, including speeds and the points scored towards theyear's championships are given in the accompanying tables. In each case the first place carried a prize of £100, the second £50and the third £25. Now in the leading position in the air racing championship is Marler, with an aggregate of 36 points and heis closely followed with 34 points by J. M. Donald, S/L. D P Boulnois, F/O. H. B. lies, David Ogiivy and F/O. A. G. Oldham.There is, of course, ample margin for these platings to change in the final round at Coventry on July 21. The Yeadon Display. The items of the air display, inter-spersed between the flying of the second round of the races, were of a very high quality. They included fly-pasts and demonstra-tions by four Meteor 8s of No. 609 (West Riding) Sqn., R.Aux.A.F., four Canberra T.4s of No. 10 Sqn. (these aircraftalso appeared at Speke and Hucknall) and by three Shackleton 2s of No. 204 Sqn. Excellent individual aerobatics were performedby G/C. Beaman of the Yeadon Club in a Tiger Moth, by a Chipmunk of the Leeds University Air Squadron and byJ. S. Armstrong in an Olympia sailplane of the Derbyshire and Lancashire Gliding Club. Impressive—and disquieting—was the performance of Mile.Andree Jan on a trapeze suspended from a Bell 47 helicopter piloted by John Crewdson. Clad in a red-and-white-stripedbathing dress, her shapely figure flicked and twisted around the trapeze bar as the helicopter moved slowly along in front of thecrowd. Expertly she appeared to fall from the trapeze, catching herself by a hand or foot, but her most alarming effort was tohang by her teeth from the trapeze bar as the helicopter flew quite fast about 200ft up. Alain Hisler once again brought the Minijet from St. Yan and,having already performed at two other air displays, he produced at Yeadon the polished and remarkably precise aerobatic displaywhich we have now come to expect of him. The precision and crispness of the flying of this representative of the French hauteecole are like a breath of fresh air in these days of 5,000ft-high loops and 500-kt passes of jet aerobatics. A Valiant had been scheduled to appear, but the R.A.F. regrettedthat the type was not at the moment flying. Also absent was the surprise item listed on the programme; and no hint was given asto what it would have been if it had not been surprisingly absent. Left until now for special mention in this account are the per-formances put up by the three formation aerobatic teams which took part, namely that from No. 43 Sqn. at Leuchars (fourHunter 4s), the Acrojets of the 7330th Flying Training Wing (M.D.A.P.) U.S.A.F., from Fiirstenfeldbruck, Germany (fourT-33s), and the Patrouille de France (four Mystere 4s) from the 12e Escadre of the French Air Force at Cambrai. The No. 43Sqn. team has already gained a fine reputation for its perform- ances—particularly that before the Russian visitors at Marham.[An article by one of its members appears in this issue.] At Yeadon they gave an immaculate demonstration which was tight,smooth, fast and well-positioned. They changed formation dur- ing a loop into line-astern and then into echelon starboard; theylooped again and changed into box formation, and then rolled from line-astern into box. A new wrinkle was to dive off the topof a loop in echelon and then to make a very fast individual quarter roll, thus changing direction and going into a line-astern.They signed off in masterful fashion by trailing red smoke all the way down from the top of a loop in box and pulling up fora most satisfying bomb-burst. The Aerojet team spent most of their time in an exceedinglyclose box formation with their tip tanks emphasizing a characteris- tically cruciform layout. They made their entries stealthily frombehind the crowd, and, passing about 50ft above head level, pulled
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