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Aviation History
1957
1957 - 0813.PDF
§*.••: At the S.S.A.F.A. displays: Prince Cantacuzene inverted in his Jung- meister. It now has a 275 h.p. engine. Upper right) Two U.S.A.F. RB-66Bs making a very fast low pass in close formation. (Lower right) The Spitfire 19 which made the last strictly operational flight by the type. The engine is the last unused Griffon 66 in Britain. formation aerobatic session and gave good promise of a fine show, but two of them touched wing-tips during a loop through a patch of cloud. Luckily neither seemed seriously damaged, but they left the formation and the remaining two put on an excellent show by themselves.Prince Cantacuzene, long absent from British skies, brought his Jung- meister over the airfield in a startling series of zooms and low-levelflick rolls. He now has a 275 h.p. Lycoming engine. A Beverley steamed in and disgorged some 90 men, including a com-plete military band, of the 5th Battalion the Loyal Regt. Spitfire, Mosquito, Bristol Fighter and a Hurricane were joined in the "oldbrigade" by a Meteor 8. Jack Aked aerobatted a Slingsby T-21B glider and two Gannets showed their seemingly endless list of configurations.A Whirlwind offloaded six soldiers by rope and winched two of them aboard again. More sprightly, but equally familiar, was an Army Sycamore.Four Canberra B.2s of No. 44 Rhodesia Sqn. put on a finely co-ordinated show which ended with the firing of many Very lights and a zestfulbomb-burst. Two U.S.A.F. RB-66Bs flew past very fast indeed in close formation—a taste of their operational habits, which few recognized orappreciated. Parachuted from a Rapide, a dummy of cartoon-character Flook touched down and was dragged by the wind into the publicenclosure where, apparently, it was immediately torn to pieces. Highlight of the show was undoubtedly the five-man team of No. IllSqn. in their Black Hunter 6s. They brought their own commentator, a red-bearded Naval aviator on exchange duty. Their show was faultless,formation changes becoming more and more frequent till they rarely seemed to stay put for more than a few seconds at a time. They were fullyup to their Paris Show standard. But the four C.F.S. Provosts ran them a very close second for skill and prevision. Rolls in box and formationchanges in loops were executed in slow time to the snarl and buzz of the Leonides engines. It was a most satisfactory performance. DUTCH DISPLAY Variety and Showmanship at Ypenburg Ff spite of a wet dose of English weather brought over by the Hunteraerobatic team of 93 Squadron, R.A.F., the Whit-Monday displayorganised by the Royal Netherlands Aero Club at Ypenburg proved well up to the expected ILSY standard in variety and showmanship. No fewerthan five of Europe's best aerobatic teams took part in a programme which included also balloon ascents, parachute drops, sailplane demon-strations and a bright miscellany of individual aircraft turns. The Ypenburg display, which will be fully reported and illustratedin next week's issue, this year celebrated the fiftieth anniversary of the Royal Netherlands Aero Club. Appropriately, the opening items includedseveral with an historical emphasis. Particularly noteworthy were flying contributions by the 1906 Danish Ellehammer, the 1909 Bleriot XI anda surprisingly aerobatic Avro 504K from Old Warden. Among the many aspects of aviation on show were light aircraft,agricultural flying, Naval aviation, flying training and helicopter opera- tions, in addition to novelties such as the inverted flying of Biancotto inthe Stampe-et-Renard Monitor and a brief appearance by the RW-3 auxiliary powered sailplane. If bouquets are acceptable, we award ours tothe Solo Hunter of 93 Squadron and, for team aerobatics, to the mighty Skyblazers. IRISH ENTERTAINMENT Leinster Aero Club's Well-attended Two-day Display T IE third annual Air Display (held by the Leinster Aero Club) tookplace at Weston Airfield, Leixlip, near Dublin, on Whit-Sunday andWhit-Monday. As a graceful and appropriate gesture to the pioneer work of Aer Lingus in furthering aviation in Ireland over the past 21years, Mr. Patrick Lynch, chairman of Aer Lingus and Aer Rianta, was invited to inaugurate the meeting on the Sunday; and as a logicalsequence an Aer Lingus Viscount gave a full demonstration. A display of aerobatics by a Leinster Aero Club member flying a The tour Provosts from C.F.S. take off for their excellent formation aerobatic display for S.S.A.F.A. D.H.82 Tiger Moth was followed by the highlight of the show in theform of G-AKTW, the Westland Aircraft Company's Widgeon, flown by Jack Frazer, a company test-pilot, who demonstrated its hoveringabilities and manoeuvrability to the crowd of about 25,000 Dubliners. The sound of the Merlins of three Spitfire T.8s of the Air Corps (leader,Capt. Young) brought back nostalgic memories to many of those present as the section smoothly commenced their sequence of all the old Spitfiretricks-of-the-trade; then the well-synchronized evolutions of the only two-seater Spitfires in service in the world gave way to the unusual actof Mile Andree Jan, who gave an awe-inspiring demonstration of calis- thenics suspended from an Agusta-Bell 47G. After these Gallic gyrationscame a drop by four members of the Irish Parachute Club. For the first time since the Aerchor (Air Corps) received their newaircraft, the Irish public were able to see how well the Aerchor pilots handled their new D.H. Vampire T.55s, two of which gave a neat andvery polished display of C.F.S.-type aerobatics. As a contrast "Monkey" Morgan, D.F.C. (of Irish Air Charter) flew the Piper Apache, and theMarquess of Kildare displayed his new Piper Tri-Pacer. Next was illustrated the rapidity with which the Widgeon can beconverted to the ambulance/rescue role. Pat Lucas of Westland acted as "patient" and was "rescued." After this diversion, some skilful"banner-snatching" by veteran Capt. "Darby" Kennedy; then, as a lighter item, one Magillabuggy appeared with his Bedocopter, a weird-looking "flying bedstead" registered EI-DDT. It appeared to be a mixed power machine, using two native propellants—high-test potheen andLintocolline, for both of which there is a potential export market. The programme was repeated in its entirety on Whit-Monday, thistime before a crowd of about 30,000 and with the good weather holding. All illustrations on these two pages are "Flight" photographs
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