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Aviation History
1956
1956 - 1281.PDF
FLIGHT, 7 September 1956 429 THE SEVENTEENTH S.B.A.C. DISPLAY Another Opening in "Per Ardua" Style Illustrated mainly with "Flight" photographs IT was too much to hope, of course, that the spring-like earlymorning of Monday, September 3, would bring forth one ofthose flawless dreamed-of Farnborough days. By eleven the clouds had ganged up like Teddy boys, all set for no good; andabetting them was a cold-blooded, loutish wind. The voice of Oliver Stewart cheered us measurably when itcame on the air at 1410 hr to remind us that the flying then imminent was a full rehearsal for next day's official opening.Timing and the direction of control were, as usual, in the practised hands of Mr. Pearson and his staff; and Mr. Hall, the met. officer,had given notice of a 15 kt wind, gusting up to 20-25 kt across the main runway. Cloud-base was 2,500ft; surface visibility ten miles;and contrails were unlikely except in a thin layer at 31,000ft (a wholly academic item of information as things turned out). First machine away—the Beverley—got rolling on the secondof 1430 hr and, except when low cloud supervened, as it did for much of the time, things went pretty much to plan. The twoBritannias and the Shackleton M.R.3 left noticeable gaps in the programme and in the aircraft park alike, though the Britannia 301came in to grace the scene at the end of the day's flying. As the first of the fighters took its cue the rain came down in dismalearnest, and the waterlogged air afforded the all-too-familiar study in combined aero- and hydro-dynamics.The honours of Monday must go—for reasons that we detail on a later page—to the Westland helicopter team (to Roy Bradley in particular); to the Canberra P.R.9; the two Javelins; and theHunter corps de ballet. But by the time this is read the laurels may have been distributed otherwise. Is it too much to hope that on at least one of the seven flyingdays the Fairey partnership of champions—Peter Twiss and Gordon Slade—will be enabled (as they had been on the Sunday)to set their F.D.2s head-on at each other and scorch the wide blue at 2,400 m.p.h. closing speed, sending down titanic booms throughmiles of space? In the pattern and arrangement of this year's display, there arefew significant changes compared with that of 1955. Once more the general emphasis is on production aircraft rather than proto-types while, in the air and in the exhibition tent, the veil of security has been lifted to provide a brief glimpse of developmentin the field of guided weapons. The flying display is opened this year with a special curtain-raiser. This comprises the various flying test beds (four new engines are being demonstrated) plus the sight of a Beverley inaction and a Hunter reversing its Avon's thrust. R.A.F. participa- tion, which appears on each day of Farnborough week exceptThursday, is in the talented hands of two formation teams—the Hunters of 43 Squadron led by F/L. Peter Bairsto; and the Can-berras of 231 O.C.U. led by S/L. F. P. Walker, A.F.C., who made their public debut in striking fashion at the recent Coventry airrace meeting. In between the two formation displays comes the
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