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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 0780.PDF
778 FLIGHT International, 17 May 1962 LONG LOOK BACK to provide me with some of the very best "photographic" flying of Hawker military types and we made many visits to squadrons together. Notable among these were Nos 1 and 43 Squadrons, which for years shared hangars at Tangmere. Although the bar was still up on visits to individual squadrons we were privileged to attend the big Army manoeuvres in 1925. The Army co-operation squadrons taking part were Nos 2, 4, 13 and 16. No 16 was commanded by Sqn Ldr J. O. Archer, who had been my CO at the Art Obs School at Almaza and No 4 by no less a person than Sqn Ldr J. C. Slessor, later to become CAS. These squadrons were flying Bristol Fighters. Two fighter squadrons, both with Gloster Grebes, were present. No 25, who then had the spot aerobatic team, known as The Cuckoos, was notable for having got off in eight minutes; and No 56 for its ability to pack up and shift camp quickly. The in credible thing that struck one was that the Army, after experiencing five years of mechanized slaughter, was still adhering firmly to the employment of cavalry. By 1926 the RAF had opened its heart just the tiniest crack by allowing me to ride on some of the practice flights for the RAF Display. This gave an opportunity for flying in a Liberty-engined D.H.9A of 39 Sqn. A particularly interesting Service visit in 1926 was to Pulham again, to witness the launching of Gloster Grebes from beneath the airship R-33, which had just recovered from a broken nose consequent upon breaking away from the mooring mast. We all stood anxiously wondering, not knowing what the R.33 would do when suddenly relieved of over a ton weight—the equivalent of 40,000 cu ft of lift. The outcome was most unspectacular, the R.33 going on its corpulent 30 m.p.h. way apparently unaffected. The first Grebe, flown by Fg Off Mackenzie-Richards, gained sufficient airspeed for control in the first 100ft or so. The second Grebe, flown by Fg Off R. L. Ragg, had some starting trouble but eventually got away safely. In May 1927 came the exciting attempt by the RAF on the world's long-distance record. The Service modestly called it a "flight towards India"; and that is what it proved to be. The attempt ended with a forced landing in the Persian Gulf after 3,419 miles had been covered. There were no runways in 1927 and Cranwell was selected for the take-off of the much overloaded Hawker Horsley. How overloaded can be judged from the fact that while it was standing outside the hangar a tyre burst, causing the fuel tanks to overflow. A new wheel was fitted and Fit Lts Carr and Gillman took the Horsley off—not, as was intended, along the top ridge of Cranwell but more or less out of control southward. Very close to the perimeter the undercarriage hit a gully, one wheel making an indentation ten inches deep, and this bounced the Horsley into the air, where it stayed, missing the perimeter wall by the thickness of the proverbial cigarette paper. The world's record was taken and held for a few hours; it then passed to Charles Lindbergh, who had flown from New York to Paris in his Ryan, which was completely "blind" forward. The second attempt, a few weeks later, provided a busy day. Again a Horsley was used with Fit Lt Carr as pilot; his navigator this time was Fit Lt Mackworth. I had arranged with George Bulman to have a second Horsley ticking over ready for us to follow the record machine the moment I had photographed the take-off. An emotioning take-off was duly recorded for posterity and I ran back some 900yd to my Horsley, getting on board in a state of near-collapse. Almost coincidentally with George getting into loose formation with Fit Lt Carr the record Horsley was seen to be leaking oil. We tried to get close alongside, and momentarily succeeded, but in the bumps on this hot June day the heavily loaded aircraft was only just able to stay in the air; two or three times it looked as if Carr could not remain airborne. By now the Horsley was glistening with ejected oil and a long blue plume extended from its tail. Despite its gross overload, Fit Lt Carr put the machine down at Martlesham Heath—not the best of airfields—with a perfect three-pointer. The trouble had been caused by a scavenger pump being unable to cope with oil which frothed because of overheating. George had landed a few seconds earlier in case our help might be needed. If the RAF was not successful in this attempt, leeway I WMtwa CmiranMA, Bum. PltUH* CuKM. j Adjutant, Royal Flying Corps (Military Wlng>. AM, For Clark, read Smith. The pass issued to "Flight's" photographer to attend the Concentration Camp at Netheravon in 1914 was made up later in the same year at Venice, where the Service team flying Supermarine S.5 and Gloster IV aircraft won the Schneider Trophy race. This was a wonderful assignment, spent in motor launches going to and from the Lido, picking up bits of news and avoiding buying very expensive drinks in the Excelsior Hotel. It was marred only by the mishap to the Short Crusader in which Fit Lt Schofield tried to take off, not knowing that the aileron controls had been reversed. An interesting side light on the accident was that the magnesium crankcase of the Crusader's Bristol engine was completely dissolved by the salt water of the Adriatic. The RAF Display showed a major breakthrough in Service- Press relations. Flight was invited to fly in the Fairey IIIF forma tion to obtain pictures for publicizing the display. I flew with 207 San, commanded by Sqn Ldr Graham. One of the interesting machines at this display was the Beardmore Inflexible—promptly nicknamed the Brittle. It was reputed to have room for 50 troops; nothing was said of the fact that it was doubtful whether it could take off even with half that load. Having won the Schneider Trophy in 1927, the RAF were hosts to foreign competitors in 1929, at Calshot and Ryde. We had a wonderful team: Waghorn, Atcherley (Batchy) and D'Arcy Greig. What remarkable days these were—apprehension, rumour, dis appointment and elation each coming up in turn as competitors did or did not arrive, aircraft were or were not ready, and the English weather did or did not behave itself. A splendid win with a world's speed record to follow. "Boom" retired from his post as Chief of the Air Staff in Decem ber 1929. This meant that visits to individual squadrons became a possibility. We were very quickly off the mark to No 33 (Bomber) Sqn (first to have the then astounding Hawker Hart), then to No 4 (Army Co-operation) with Armstrong Whitworth Atlas and No 17 (Fighter) with Bristol Bulldogs. The Atlas was remarkable mostly for its lack of power reserve. Fully loaded, it was difficult to handle in the 80s and its theoretical top speed was only just over 100 m.p.h. On a visit to CFS later, I was foolish enough to remark upon this before flying in one with an instructor. To my consternation he proved that it could be flown quite low down at 45 m.p.h. A side of the Service which has now disappeared was the Auxiliary Air Force, many of whose pilots were the sons of wealthy merchants.
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