PREPARING FOR HENDON

Hokitika Guardian, 13 August 1931, Page 2

PREPARING FOR HENDON

WONDERFUL FORMATION FLYING. 70 MILES IN 17 MINUTES. NEW “SECRET” AIRCRAFT. LONDON, June 18. The new “Fury” single-seater interceptor fighter with which one Royai Air Force squadron has already been re-equipped, gave illuminating proof of their immense abilities in speed and rate of'climb this week, when three of them flew from their home station at Tangmere, Sussex, to a rehearsal of the R.A.F. display at Hendon Aerodroriie, nearly 70 miles away, in 17 minutes. In spite of a wind that was rather across the course than helpful, they averaged therefore, about 240 miles an hour, and the feat becomes still more striking when the height reached during the flight—no less than 7000 feet—is taken into account.

A royal Salute at a speed in the dive of nearly 300 miles an hour and a picturesque ‘“Prince Of Males's Feathers,” the aeroplanes spreading cHlt Upwards ill that forinatioh, 'ivill foi‘in items in the demonstration ol flight acrobatics given by the “Furies” on the day of the display. Taken in conjunction with the squadron formation flying by a squadron on ‘‘Hart” day bombers, these evolutions will provide ample proof of the world superiority of the present-day British military aeroplane. With full load on board the “Furies” attain a speed o' no less than 214 miles an hour, and the “Harts” carrying two men and a load of bombs, reach about 180 miles an hour. Defence of London. During the rehearsal tho “Fury flight climbed to more than 3000 feet in 90 seconds. Actually these machines are tested to attain a height of 20,000 feet in nine minutes while still maintaining a forward speed of 150 miles an hour. Performance of this kind menus that they ar© better fitted than any of .their predecessors for the difficult task of intercepting enemy raiders on the way to attack London, work that may involve ascent from the aerodrome to a height o? two or three miles, finding the enemy and bringing him to combat, all within the space of 15 minutes. New Formations. Some of the most perfect formation flying that has ever been seen at an air pageant will be presented by No. l2 (Day Bomber) Squadron from Andover., This sq.uadrop, is equipped with the new Hawker Hart aircraft with a speed ranging from 60 in.p.h. to nearly 180 m.p.ji, This enables tho squadron to manoeuvre with the utmost facility, and is an important factor in changing rapidly from one type of formation into another. Several new types of formation will b© demonstrated by this squadron for the first time in addition to the standard formation employed by the Royal Air Force for service purposes. The new formations include a. diamond, a square, and a cross, all of which have been introduced ill order to illustrate the ease with which the latest high speed aircraft can change position in quick time. One practical result of this speeding up is that the whole of the manoeuvres, including a change from one type of formation to another, takes place practically within the boundaries of the aerodrome and within full view of the spectators.

New types of aircraft will again be a prominent feature and an opportunity to study the enormous progress which has been made in the development of high speed aircraft will be provided by the presence of a Bleriot monoplane similar to the one in which the first flight across the Channel was made in 1909. Not only will the famous Hawker “Fury” be present, but other fighters will be in the new type park amongst them being the Gloster S.S, 19, a multi-gun aircraft, carrying six machine guns, , the Armstrong 'Whitworth type 16 and Hawker Hoopoe, an interesting aircraft developed as a fleet fighter.

General purposes aircraft will be represented by the Bristol 113 and the Fairy Gordon, both of which have aircooled radial engines and a high preformance of their class. The most secret aircraft at the pageant will be the new four-engined Vickers Night Bomber, about which no performance details are being made available. It can be said, however, that its speed, range, and load shows a notable advance on any bombing aircraft already in service use. Among the research aircraft is the new Pterodactyl or tailess machine,' which is a development of previous aircraft of this type, /it has been built as a pas-senger-carrying aircraft with an enclosed cabin, and has room for two passengers in addition to the pilot. The engine is a De Haviland Gipsy, which gives a speed of considerably more than 100 miles per hour.