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Aviation History
1959
1959 - 1861.PDF
LE BOURGET VOL-AU-VENT NATURALLY enough, it was the aerobatic performers whocommanded most attention during the ten-hour flying dis-play—conclusion of the Paris Show—at Le Bourget, although the accolade by no means went only to the fighters.Among the light aircraft the Tipsy Nipper was outstanding, and the Fouga Magister formation as tight as any ever seen. But mostof all the two long days of flying were much enlivened by the formation aerobatics of No. Ill Squadron of the R.A.F. and thePatrouille de France of the Armee de 1'Air. During a morning of no fewer than 41 demonstrations bylight aircraft, Bernard Neefs' performance with the Nipper was quite outstanding. From a slow roll at 800ft he pulled up andhung there until the Nipper tail-slid gracefully backwards, eleva- tors flapping, into the first turns of an inverted spin. He recoveredimperturbably to slip into his yaw-left, yaw-right routine across the front of the crowd and then into a series of fast aerobaticsbefore landing neatly and sweetly off a stall turn. This was a demonstration to stir the blood, and much thatfollowed seemed tame by comparison. But the Zlin Z326 Master and Safir 91D both gave aerobatic performances of excellentquality, and both included flick manoeuvres. The Swedish aircraft was flown by Seylon Utterborn, test pilot of Saab, whose per-formance later in the day with the Draken was one of the most- discussed features of the entire show. When the flying was resumed after lunch the first of the forma-tion teams to appear was the French Ecole de l'Air with five Potez Air-Fouga Magisters. For five tense minutes they main-tained formation with disciplined precision, each high-aspect-ratio wing overlapping another by half a span. The Armee de l'Airshowing of an M.S. 760 Paris four-in-hand was less spectacular, and it was not until after demonstrations by the Friendship, theNord 2508 with Turbomeca Mabore boosters, the neat and sprightly Communaute, the silently fast Vickers Vanguard, a trioof Caravelles and the Russian Tu-104 and 11-18 that the aerobatic performances were renewed. Bill Bedford, in the Hunter Mk 66, cracked in from the eastlike a whiplash, then slid round the perimeter on a trailing throttle and slipped into two silky rolls over the runway. Acceleratinginto the haze he next appeared from the west, low down, fast and inverted, to sign off with a climbing, rolling upward flourish thatleft the heart pounding. After Hawker, Blackburn—with Derek Whitehead in the NA.39, rocket-fast at low level, and showinga remarkable rate of roll. Up from the runway leapt the needle-nosed Draken, turned fora pass, slammed into the fastest four-point roll imaginable, each hesitation checked and just perceptibly held. Nosing in for hisnext pass, Utterborn rolled to the right through 360 degrees, checked, and unwound again to straight and level flight; the whole manoeuvre can hardly have taken six seconds. Next, and withdeafening clamour, he rolled the "double delta" on to its side and, Avon afterburner on, blasted it steeply around over the crowd ina long vertical turn, in which the fuselage must have been con- tributing substantial lift. Coming in to land, the Swedish pilothauled g all the way down, sweeping the Draken around in a neater, tighter circuit than many of the light aircraft until, para-chute streaming, he landed it on the end of the runway. He held the nose very high to stop in less than 500 yd. The Nord Griffon, next to fly, was almost equally dramatic,the ramjet winking on and off as Turcat boosted the power of his A tar E3 during short, rushing climbs and upward rolls. It wasannounced during this demonstration that the Nord test pilot had been awarded the Harman Trophy for 1958 for establishingwith the Griffon the closed-circuit record of 1,018 m.p.h.; his mount is capable of M 2.1 and a 40,000ft/min climb. Inevitably, the formation aerobatics by the national teams werethe events most eagerly awaited by the growing crowd in the hot sun. The contestants were Treble One Squadron—"TheBlackjacks"—for the R.A.F.; the Skyblazers for the U.S.AJF.; and the Patrouille de France of the Armee de l'Air. First to fly were the Mystere 4s, 12 of them, their wings stripedspanwise with the hues of the tricolor, and most of their display performed trailing red, white and blue smoke. This was their firstpublic performance with twelve aircraft in three sections of four, and they made the most of the flexibility the formation offered,combining into a three and a nine which changed places steadily and rapidly; box, three vies, duck (two vies with one in between)and arrow. They were very smooth, very accomplished. For their ftnale, the nine climbed high and pulled over and down as theremaining three described a complete circle in red, white and blue smoke. The nine then dived into the circle and split nine waystrailing smoke in the most impressive bomb-burst finish yet seen. The crowd gave them a well-merited ovation.
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