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Aviation History
1962
1962 - 2162.PDF
FLIGHT International, 20 September 1962 497 By BOB WHITTIER Home-designed, home-built, all-wood, by Leon Tefft Experimenters' Rockford Fly-in BY the time the tenth annual international fly-in of the US Experimental Aircraft Association came to an end last month, everyone present agreed that "fabulous" was the only suitable word with which to describe it. The reason is clear when one sees some of the figures. On one of the busy days, the control tower at Illinois' Greater Rockford Airport recorded over 3,200 aircraft movements, compared with 30-40 movements on an average day, and of the airplanes helping to establish this record the majority lacked two-way radio. Over 135 amateur-built aircraft and more than 75 antiques registered during the five-day event; nearly 2,000 EAA members registered at This 1935 Taylor Cub—predecessor of the Piper Cub—sported a smart black-and-yellow finish. Below, Ray Hegy and his little "El Chuparosa' biplane wKM "*,» » *Ar"'* • • *' i' * 1 :%:M ••jaMBI.:. . 1PPHHI • :• •..\mmmc-r:-- ... ';..<•••.•/.,•. . '^. jfyrtS' '•*"'• * * "'•"' -'•'• '''»!^&-MijdSf'-''• '**( *\ f. ; _ -'*?• i» the headquarters tent; and some 300 new members were enrolled. Paul Poberezny, president of the EAA, remarked that, at the first fly-in ten years ago, there were only three airplanes and 21 EAA members. It is now perfectly clear to everyone that there exists an enormous interest in hobby aviation. Ignored by officialdom and commercial interests for so many years, it has been a sleeping giant. Now it is stirring very restlessly, and it must soon be recognized by all phases of aviation as a real and tangible aspect of the modern civil aviation scene. In the United States, hundreds of thousands of men became permanently airminded as boys in the 1920s and 1930s and learned to fly in the vast military training programme of the 1940s. Today, mature and well-established in all manner of ground jobs, they have the time, money and inclination to indulge in a hobby and predictably are turning to their old love—aircraft. Generally good weather favoured high attendance in terms of both aircraft and people. Two very large tents were set up for meetings and displays. A catering firm set up its own large tent and provided welcome on-the-spot lunches and meals. A fairly large tent set up near the taxi strip served as aircraft registration centre and also housed FAA Flight Service, a Weather Bureau desk and a public-address system. Smaller tents sheltered EAA headquarters, specialty displays, an amateur radio communications centre and a most welcome field repair station, which took care of flat tyres, magneto troubles and similar aircraft ills. In the main display tent were aircraft in various stages of construc tion, rebuilt and modified engines, displays by aviation historical groups, and bulletin boards with hundreds of snapshots depicting the activities of the over 120 EAA Chapters around the country. Each evening, the meeting tent held an overflow crowd watching humorous skits, listening to lectures by Dr Lippisch of delta-wing fame and Prof Cornish of the University of Mississippi's aero- physics laboratory, voting for new officers, and watching the pre sentation of many awards. Much merriment was afforded by the good-natured repartee exchanged by Americans and Europeans who took part in the ceremonies. A highlight of the five-day event was the presence of several visitors from England and France, representing such organizations as the Private Flying Association and Air Registration Board. Since the Americans themselves were surprised and not a little amazed at the size of the 1962 fly-in compared with that of the previous year, this first sight of American amateur aircraft activity must have made a tremendous impact on the Europeans. They could be seen strolling around everywhere, registering pop-eyed wonder at all they saw. Among others, the group included Arthur Ord-Hume, Edward Davis, Hugh Kendall, Ron Benton and Gerard Chaplain. The EAA men, for their part, were happy to be able to show one facet of their large and diverse country in so favourable a light, and agreed that the pleasure of having these visitors showed well how the common people of all lands, given a common interest and left alone by politicians, can get along together quite handsomely. There would appear to be a strong possibility that this intimate view
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