AIR PAGEANT

Hokitika Guardian, 15 August 1931, Page 3

AIR PAGEANT

BRILLIANT TEAM WORK. NEW WONDERS OF THE AIR. LONDON, July 2. A perfect summer day- with'a light breeze ensured success for the -Royal Air Force Display at Hendon ,on Satur- . day. Of all the sports attractions of the year (outside the popular horse race meetings), the air pageant more than any other taxes the transport arrangements of London. Ait least 175,000 people were inside the aerodrome, but the hillsides in the vicinity and the roads and fields accommodated probably an equal number. That so many dare-devil things can. be the air and without an accident year after year is a veritable marvel. It seems to show that efficiency in pilotage and. efficiency. in machinery when combined are an insurance against accident. A carefully planned programme by a perfectly drilled force is not the occasion fjpr. -those, tragedies which make one wonder /whether flying after all -is worth while. The tragedies occur when pilots are going about their ordinary : flights, , and when unexpected conditions are met, afid not so much when men and-machines are keyed up to accomplish something definite but difficult and unusual. -

In former yeans the fofmaiticur work, although well done, has tended to drag somewhat owing to the time taken to change formation. A'great advance has been made. New equipment enables formations to be changed in a matter of seconds. Above the aerodrome, one saw the machines change rapidly from' squadron to squadron V, then to open triangle, a square, an' arrow, a cross, flights astern, flights abreast, line abreast (a line as -straight as a ruler), flights astern, line abreast, and so on, through all the war ■ formations. ? Even the layman was impressed with the greater speed and greater mastery of the airmen as compared with pageants of past years. : , .Early in the programme there was a demonstration by two aircraft of the method by which an aircraft may be refuelled in the air. The fuel was passed from: the ; upper aircraft to the lower .through; a. ■ pipe whicn was lowered, and clamped into ; a specially designed aper-ture:-in the fuel tank of the lower aircraft. The-',pipe is fitted with a cook which- is automatically closed if contact between the two aircraft is broken. An

amusing event was called “balloon bursting.’” A number of fierce birds have• broken from a local zoo. It is feared that these may be a danger to the public. A noted big-game shot is sent out in an aeroplane to shoot them down. The pilot Hew close to the dangerous birds (the balloons), while his passenger shot them down with a 12-bore shot gun from the back seat of the aircraft.'

FORMATION FLYING. The best proof of British efficiency lay in the magnificent formation of the newly equipped squadrons. The fancy patterns of No. 12 Squadron, dying tile Hart day bombers which it has had only three months, were woven with the speed and precision of soldiers on a, parade ground—a very fine achievement. No. 33 Squadron, in similar machines, whi<*1 1 came first into •service during the air exercises of last August, showed with equal skill the. ordinary squadron formations prepared and perfected for use on active service. Foreign visitors had to be assured and reassured that this standard of ■flying *and such ease in evolution were the product of ordinary Air Force training, the best of its kind, but representative of a force in which the worst unit would not he far behind the best.

For the first time the three London squadrons worked together in the display as.a wing formation. The pilots are all amateurs who devote their weekends to R.A.'F. training, at Hendon.' Their machines, the Wapitis, are comparatively slow day bombers, and evolutions are much slower than they would be in Harts, but the need of steady control and judgment of interval and distance remains much the same. All three squadrons, .including the County of Middlesex, which has had its aeroplanes less than a year, gave a display of formation flying worthy to be' set alongside that of the wing of Bulldogs which they followed into the air. AltT OF HOVERING. Three research types of machines took the air together. There was the improved Oierva Autogyro, with its windmill above instead of the upper wings. There was the Pterodactyl IV., tin- j i commonly like a prehistoric monster. ] I 't has a cabin, the front part of which j | is like the snout of a pike, its pair of . J wings slope backwards and its p.ro- ! pel lor is in the rear. There was also j the more conventional' Handley Page Gugnunc. The slotted wings in this machine made it possible almost to hover a few feet above’the ground. It

even’ came down and dragged its tail -skid on . the ground and rose.;., fjgain, The Autogryd also showed its ’htnjering capabilities and eventually landed almost perpendicularly, moving forward only a few yards when it touched the ground. The three-seater tailless areoplane also demonstrated exceptional control at and below stalling speeds. This is made, by the Westland"Aircraft Works, and has a dc Havilland “Gypsy” engine. - > )!

A. demonstration of aerobatics and inverted flying by. the instructors from ' the Central Flying School showed that man does things in the air tluit birds : would ,not attempt. The formation flying upside down bordered on the miraculous., Three flying boats, Southampton s, came from Cattewater, and made a stately and ordered flight across the grounds, returning in due course to their home waters. SUPPLY DROPPING. The exhibition of the R.A.F. method of supply dropping from aircraft was included in the wonderful programme. A torpedo shaped container is used, divided into four sections. The first section is hollow and .is designed to take the shock of landing. The hinder section contains the,, packed parachute, ■which opens automatically. . The two middle sections oontain the load of . ftOlh. As- an example of pure, skdL in piloting, the event of the day was the. aerobatic display by Flight-Lieutenant H. ■M. Day and Pilot-Officer, D. R. S. Bader, of No. 2 J Squad roll. They were flying the finest aerobatic, machines in the, world, Gloster Gamecocks, which in four successive years have been chosen for this type of work at .the displays. On, Saturday the work wa£. done with a remarkable steadiness and perfection in timing. The two machines looped arid rolled alongside each other. They dived towards each other, zoomed until t'hov could climb no more, and then stalled turns together. They spun upwards on parallel courses and then made downward spins' Their exhibition lasted 19. minutes and was full of the cleanest trick flyiiu', synchronised-, to a fract'on of a second. SIX PARACHUTISTS. Nothing perhaps is enjoyed so much as the demonstration by.t'he Parachute section. Six parachutists . stand on the wings of three aeroplaius. Ihey rise to a thousand Teet. ,A. a given signal the parachutists pul! the release handle and. the silk billows out into the- wind. The men are dragged from the wings of the .aeroplane and. swing down beneath the parachutes. Some excitement was | caused on Saturday whenntwo of the j parachutes touched one another, and it , feared, that something would go wrong. | In a second or two, however,- they moved apart and all six men landed without injury. '■’ l '

' Three Gloster, Grebes painted the sky with white and red smoke. At one stage they plaited a rope of smoke, through a mile of space. They shot upwards and backwards, forming the Prince ,of Wales’s feathers, with the white smoke ■in the middle and the red as outerfeathers: The. .two . crazy flyers again , : to.ok the air and joggled within, a few . feet .of . the ground, they side-slipped, .stumbled., . and . turned head over heels. •Jt -was ra hair-raising performance.: ;As usual, one of the kite balloons with , a dummy observer was attacked by . fighting aeroplanes.. The dummy. sailed safely to the ground by means of - a parachute, and the balloon came down in flames. ■ CATAPULTING A, BOMBER, Among the big “star” turns was the catapulting of a “Virginia” nmhi bomber weighing about nine tons. For h k purnose a land-catgpultjng apparatus, as distinct from the ship’s catapult used on warships and liners, was used, for the first time in public. It has bifen developed by the staff of the Royal Aircraft establishment. The power is supplied by two compressed air engines based on old design, but developed recently., at the. R.A.E. These, engines a,re no; bigger than a . moderate-sized dustbin, but together they can suddenly qxert 4000 'h.p. They are supplied, with, compressed air from cyclinders, the valves of which can h© opened, simultaneously, feeding , the, engine, through . pipes. . This . operation was accompanied by the noise of n ,battery of artillery, whilst from four exhausts escaping compressed air was frozen into white visilbiiity. '[’he power of these engines was augmented by the aeroplane’s 900. h.p., already running at full throttle. The aeroplane was pulled forward on a cable extending in front of it and returning over a pulley in the ground to the, drum on which it was rapidly wound by the power of the engines In less than three seconds the machine travelled 100 feet, and had acquired..the 57 m.p.h. speed necessary for it to lift, its cable automatically dropping clear. The pilot, Flight-Lieutenant J. A. T. Ryde, gave the signal, and. of course, had to be very much oji the alert in order to have instant .control of the machine in flight, He says this is not difficult,, and that there are no distressing experiences dug to the sudden acceleration, only a slight,,, pressureagainst the back.of the seat. .The apparatus was fixed to . a concrete bed, but in the field it would he possible to drive a heavy stake into the ground capable of taking a strain of twenty tons. The whole, apparatus has been designed for mobility. Tt- is the hallista of ancient Borne in twentieth century form. '

The set piece was based on a realis-tic-conception. a long-range gun, ammunition dump, railway, farm buildings and a small wood being the scene of conflict.

The gun had been giving trouble to an important military station a long way . off. Its position discovered by sound rangers and aerial recolmais-

' sauce, the fighting began. For its defence there were two Fighter squadrons, Nos. 41 and 56 on “Siskins.” I The gun was seen in action, and then on news of approaching bombers, it was withdrawn into, the wood and the Fighters were sent up. The bombers (appeared and were attacked by the first Fighter squadron. Both sides suffered casualties, biit tile Bomber's succeeded in reaching and bombing their • objective. Then they retired hotly pursued by the Fighters. Five other Bombers appear and complete the work of destruction. The dump was blown

up, buildings were set on fire, and the big gun put out of action