CIRCUS IN THE AIR.

Ashburton Guardian, Volume 50, Issue 268, 26 August 1930, Page 4

CIRCUS IN THE AIR.

FLYING PAGEANT AT HENDON. A WONDERFUL SPECTACLE. (Written for the "Guardian” by Nellie M. Scanlan.) LONDON, June 29. Pageant, circus, Derby! Call it what you will, th* Air Force display at Hendon draws a crowd each year second only to the Derby. You may build high fences around Lords and Wimbledon to keep cricket and tennis a high-priced secret, but you cannot fence the sky. The trouble about the London Season is that too many things happen at once. The King went to Lords to see the Australian Test match. The Queen was at Wimbledon watching Tilden, Andrews (the New Zealander), and the rest of them in the fight for the blue riband of tennis. Princes and foreign Royalty decided on the air display at Hendon. Hundreds of thousands paid to get in. Many paid 10s at the gate, 10s to park a car, and 2s 6d for a seat. The lowest price was 2s. But the highways of the air are not secret ways, and for one who paid to go in, three sat on hillsides, rooftops, fences and banks Every road to Hendon was choked with traffic. Trains and buses alone took 400,000 people. They began to arrive after breakfast, and it was eight o’clock in the evening when the last of them got away. At Hendon flying looks so safe. It is the most dare-devil display. Yet so carefully rehearsed, so skilfully carried out, that not the slightest accident marred it. For hours people gazed upwards, and held their breath. The sun was brilliant, and dark glasses, at sixpence each, sold rapidly. When fifty-four ' ’planes rose from the field in wings of nine, and roared over the heads of the crowd into the sky, children held their ears. This squadron manoeuvred, flew in formation, played ring-a-rosey, and at sixty miles an hour wrought designs in the skv like a squad, of boys at physical drill. And with equal precision, too. , Three little ’planes gave a display of aerobatics, emitting trails of coloured smoke that left a rosy coil and. curve against the blue sky, marking the course of their mad and mazy flight. . A group of five ’planes flew in formation upside-down. They even manoeuvred in this inverted position. So marvellous is their control and precision, that three ’planes tied together with a slender rope, from which fluttered tiny flags, flew up, turned, manoeuvred and even loped the loop without breaking the rope. The Puss Moth is a new favourite, a pert and. speedy machine, with a glassed-in cabin. Three biplanes sailed off, climbed high, and returned over die aerodrome. Simultaneously six men dropped from the wings, white parachutes opened, and the men came dangling back to earth. I love the crazy flying. These comedians of the air do a lciiock-about turn, flying low and wagging their tails, •buck-jumping, cock-fighting, and just missing each other by inches, indulging in all sorts of impudent buffoonery. The little ’planes almost stand on their heads and their tails, and go flying sideways. The exhibition of experimental ’planes—new devices that are being tried out—was specially interesting. One slender firefly rushed upwards almost vertically, ascending 20,000 feet in twelve minutes. Future aviation must overcome the handicap of the long run before taking off. Among the new tvpes was an autogyro, with what looked like a windmill surmounting it. This thrashed wildly in circular motion. The queer machine rose almost perpendicularly, and descended with similar ease. It boasts no graceful stream-line beauty, . and looked, rather like a reaper and binder as it flew in formation with the Pterodactyl, a huge pair of wings, with neither body nor tail The wings slope backwards like a bird, and the pilot sits at the junction of the wings. The Gugnunc, though in appearance very like an ordinary ’plane, is the last word in safety, and it can almost sit on its tail, and hover slowly without fear of a crash. * . We saw squads of great bombers rush down and bomb a village, and rout a pirate band, zooming away at a terrific pace after each swoop down. Five seaplanes flew up from Southampton, and showed their paces over land. Out of the blue distance came the blunt silver nose of RlOl, the largest airship in the world. She hung about, rather bored, had a look downat Lords, to see the cricket, moved over to Wimbledon, then came back, but like an obese dowager, she disdained such acrobatic feats, and sailed away with dignity, the sun shining on her silvery sides as she disappeared into the East. ~ . What mechanical miracles this century has brought. Twenty years ago there was little faith in flying ever becoming possible. Only the I children who were born since the aeroplane aie not surprised at its wonders. lo see Hendon is to find faith in the air. Isot alone is it a test of air efficiency or war,—there is no air festival in the world comparable with Hendon—but it gives a greater impetus to civil aviation than anything else—even Amy Johnston’s triumph. Thousands see it before their eves. And every small boy forsakes his first enthusiasm to dnve a train, and wants to be a pilot.