WONDERS OF AVIATION

Evening Post, Volume CXII, Issue 91, 14 October 1926, Page 18

WONDERS OF AVIATION

THE HENDON PAGEANT

FORMIDABLE FIGHTING MACHINES

A hundred thousand people were attracted to the Hendon aerodrome on 7th July, states the London correspondent or the Melbourne "Argus." There were far too many people, £here -were far too many motor-cars, and it was far too hot, but, as a display of aviation, the four or five horns at Hendon were exhilarating. With Their Majesties the King and Queen were the King and Queen of Spain and the former King of Greece and Queen Elizabeth; they were saluted from the air, by a mass formation of 54 single-seatev aeroplanes—a spectacle which alone justified a ten-mile journey. Six squadrons, each consisting of nine machines, dropped trom the skies, where they covered, perhaps, two miles of space. As each squadron passed the Royal box it dipped in token of homage; then; dividing !intq,/two wings of three squadrons, the 5i aeroplanes seemed to dart upon one another from opposite directions, bent upon mutual destruction. The evolution would have been difficult in any circumstances, but at Hendon on Saturday the troubles of the speedly single-seaters tfere aggravated by irregularities of temperature, due to heat radiations rising from the vast crowd below and the thousands of parked motorcars. The heat eddies made 'the machines rock and roll until it seemed a miracle that the pilots could, keep position, but they contriyed to do so at a speed of 150 miles an hour. There was only one slight mishap. AH.D. Hyena, fitted with a Siddeley Jaguar engine, made a forced landing just outside the aerodrome, with no damage. The development of wireless telephony largely accounts for the • skill of these air manoeuvres. Whereas ground drill is concerned with two dimensions, aviation drill haß to make allowance for a third dimension, which may be of great importance in the event of an aerial attack from behind. Most of the drill orders could not be heard by the public, but, in one demonstration,' the words o? command were repeated through . loud speakers, so that spectators at Hendon not only heard the commands but saw them carried into effect. Thus, "Mosquito One calling, flights astern, I repeat, nights astern," .brought about a movement by which each flight fell into line behind its leader, Mosquito One. When it is remembered that wireless telephonic orders were given to six squadrons of niiie aeroplanes, each squadron being made up of three triangular formations, it will be plain that only the highest skid of pilots prevented a catastrophe. "Steady back A" sounded from the loud-speaker, and immediately .little "A" fell back a trifle, so that it recovered position. v New types of aeroplanes, were seen at close quarters in the enclosure, where they were "parked" when not in action. About 180 aircraft, representing every modern type, were displayed at Hcndoii, among' them single-seaters which can climb at the rate of 1500 ft a minute. A very necessary quality is this climbing speed, since the air battles of the future will probably be fought at an altitude of 15,000 ft, where every pilot will probably have to use oxygen equipment. Perhaps the most amazing machine was a tiny sin-gle-seater, with a mighty engine in its bow, capable of developing --700 horsepower. The average speed in the air battles of the future, it is said, will be about 150 miles an hour, the speed used during the mimic warfare, hence the 700----h.p. cugine for single-seaters. At the other end of the fighting scale was an AvroAva, a night bomber and coastal torpedo landplane, carrying more petrol and heavier guns than any airship before built. It has two men in its forward gun-pit, two more in the rear cockpit, and a single observer suspended in .a chair beneath the fuselage, armed with a machine-gun which can be swung in this or that direction, to guard the tail of the monster against attacks from below. A possible foe for the Avro-Ava would be the Fairey Firefly, to be seen nearby, with its 430-h.p. Curtiss engine, capable of developing a speed of 200 miles au hour. The squadrons of big night bombers, weighing between eight and nine tons, were not seen for long, as they loft the aerodrome on a long-dis-tance race early in the proceedings. The distance was 500 miles, yet it ended before the displays at Hcudou were completed. The bombers left in parties of three at intervals of 10 minutes, and, as each squadron rose into the air, it niado a wondrous impression of ordered power. I'oiuts were awarded not only for speed, but also for quickness in achieving au-i maintaining formation. Other points were given for maintaining wireless communicst: tiou with Hendon aerodrome during the 500 miles run. Victory went to three "Hyderabads," built by Handley Page, and fitted with Napier Lion engines, which started the race with a handicap of 30 minutes. The squadron-leader of the "Hyderabads" was W. J. Ryan.

The low bombing of a moving tank by a light of aeroplaucs—this is part of the normal training in the Royal Air Forcewas very attractive to watch. So was the message-picking-up competition, and the air manoeuvres designed to show how hostile raiders are intercepted. The manoeuvres were undertaken by machines fitted with Armstrong-Siddeley Jaguar aircooled engines, the type fitted to Mr. Ajan Cobham's aeroplane for his Australian flight. In the hostile raiding scena, the pilots were awaiting news of a raid, as they might wait upon active service. Suddenly a horn sounded, and within four minutes the squadron was in the air, though three of the four minutes were occupied in warming tho engines. Fifteen minutes later the squadron was 15,000 feet above the ground—the fighting level of the future. Meanwhile, the ground wireless station was gaining' knowledge of the whereabouts of the foe, and advising the defenders in mid-air of the direction they must take by means of air telephony. The expectation among the 100,000 spectators at Hendon was that the auto-giro would bo'the wonder machine of the 1926 meeting. It certainly was a curious object,' with its spinning windmills, and its capacity for checking its fall, so that it could stop dead within-about six feet. Nevertheless the experts were more interested in a strange contrivance called the pterodactyl, a tailless aeroplane invented by Captain Hill. This is fitted with a 34-h.p. Cherub engine. It hovered over the aerodrome like a bat, fluttering here and rising there with uncanny ease. The tailless aeroplane rivals the auto-giro of Senor de la Cierva in the way in which it can drop at incredibly sharp angles, but, in design, it is more like an aeroplane than the widmill-creation of the Spaniard. The pterodactyl consists of two heavy shoulders and a powerful engine, but it. flies in spite of the absence of "wings." It may well prove to be the type of midget fighting-plane of the future. At present, the pterodactyl is wanting in speed. When the necessary engine-power is added, it will do wonderful things.