FLYING THRILLS AT HENDON.

Manawatu Herald, Volume XLII, Issue 2188, 12 October 1920, Page 4

FLYING THRILLS AT HENDON.

WORLD'S GREATEST AIR PAGEANT. All the flying world ol Great Rritain v.rUt to Hendon cm Saturday, July o, lor the most spectacular pageant of t lie air over devised, writes Alan JJott, in the Daily Chronicle. In spile of tennis finals at U imbledou, rowing duals at Henley, cricket at the Oval, and the racing at Alexandra Dark. 60,000 groundlings went there also, thus showing that flying can hold its own against older sports. _ 'There were thousands of ex-aviators, who since 1918 have climbed no higher than a housetop. They make, entries into ledgers, sell motor cars, and tin-tacks, study medicine and the law, or walk the City pavements in weary quest fd'Ji job. The war .fare them more, than their Idl of aviation, They will tell you: but offer any of them the loan of a machine on a sunny Saturdayafternoon, without the prohibitive of hire, and you will hear no more ot being “fed up,with flying.’’ , , . ... After six Avros had opened fbo ball 'unli a relay race, there was a. nippy combat between a Martinsydc scout and and a I’okkcr. It was poetic justice that the pilot who flew the e.vGernian Fokker should be ii, man who had destroyed sixteen German aeroplanes and one kite baloon. Followed an exhibition of eireus-llying on" an SK.SB. J-<H.ps. dives—all the contents of tln:jienal bag of tricks were displayed at a height ol 1000 t, to 1 lie acoompnnimont of from tno sQV-vmox, Next Ciiino sumo really l'»i .nation, flying. Three separate teams charged towards the- railings, lent the ca ,n simultaneously, swept voar.ngly on the climb above the crowd, with onh ,/• •'V*' chineT length between each two crab. !•'<- ilritisli Fighters, in particn ar, gamed admiration by the way they (lew behind il e leader in straight line, swung into column, ami chased each other round in a peifcct

“Second exhibition of trick flying was gi‘vcn by FlighM'Jent. Longtom most expert of all the “ shud-merchant.-,, of i c i) A F Taking bis Camel in front of the .spectators, he rolled it on to its back and flew upside down for several minutes. Some little scouts and some four-cnginet e. 'j] andlcv-Pages—Hie dragonlhes and oa‘des of mechanical flight-left the ground brother* and showed astonishing, contrasts "iimV.s ced and bulk. One of the H p ’s "dropped a bl, !° ° b ’ Sth’thich iisiit, ***** «* w pa™., I' «jj Ite ‘■hoofing down in flames of a lato-ballo.m. \ Snipe attacked the great sausage mdhuc A while firing incendiary, bullets. T small flame appeared on. the starbmird dde and twenty seconds. Inter th'- whole fabric was a moss of dancing flamys. A- tin burning balloon dropped an- ob.-ovoi u» ,"oVi to parachute from the basket. iWi .fchrJround. ho was enveloped by falling tackle and flames, so that man> the afternoon to be spoiled by a tu.gtcij. I was onlv tragi-comcdy, however, for Ihe “observer” was n di.mmv. Large num bers were unaware of this for a while. , “Oil' oh !”. said a lady by my side, who believed that the parachutist was again Miss Hoyden, “I savV her crawl out of-the wreck all covered in flames!’ STRAFING A TRENCH Five Bristol Fighters gave a display of ' “ground strafing,” by diving to within 100 feet of a trench and raking it with machine ; V„n fire. .This event rather suggested .the . footlights and the promoter, for when the trench Wow up in sudcl-n spurts of fiamo_ fho explosion v.*as too vivid and too late, and overybody'knew- that it must have been caused below by stage-hands in mechanic s overalls.