AIR PAGEANT

Poverty Bay Herald, Volume LIV, Issue 16622, 13 April 1928, Page 10

AIR PAGEANT

GItKAT SUCCESS OVER 100,dot) PEOPLE ATTEND SUBNET, April 2. • More.than 30 aeroplanes participated in Saturday’s aerial pageant, which was the most successful of its kind ever hold in tho .southern hemisphere. Tho attendance at tho Mascot. Aerodrome was estimated by the police and aero club officials at from .120,000 to 150,000 of whom 100,000 were in the aerodrome grounds. In the Aerial Derby, tljo, classic air raco of Australia, four States wore represented by civilian competitors and representatives of the Royal Australian Air Force, from the Richmond and Point Took, depot*,, and of the Civil Aviation Department also participated. When presenting officials, of the New South Wales section of the Aero Club of Australia with the gift Avro-Avian, presented by Sir Charles Wakefield, the Minister for Defence, Sir William -Glasgow, said that the club might justly feel proud, for it was the most successful civil aviation training organisation in the Empire, if not in the whole world.

One of the, features oil the pageant was the wonderful showing made by Widgeon 11., designed and built by Wing Commander Waebett at the Randwick experimental workshops. Despite the fact that the Widgeon is unable to attain full speed until it lias been in the air for five minutes, it averaged more than 110 miles an hour for the course of 42 miles, although it was carrying two passengers. DEVELOPMENT OE AVIATIONS'

The object of the Aero Club in organising the pageant was to increase interest in aviation, by providing the display of flying, and to raise funds in order to enlarge the scope of the club’s work for the development of aviation in the Commonwealth. It is interesting to note that, under the management ,p£ u committee pf voluntary workers, the club has, in less than two, years, grown into the largest and most .successful flying club in the British Empire. The club is not a profitmaking concern, being simply an association of persons interested- in the. development of flying. Training activities were commenced in August, 1926, with the co-operation of tho Commonwealth Government. No fewer than 54' civilians have gained, their pilot’s license after, being trained by the club, and 16 of them have passed the advanced course of. instruction. Throughout,there has not been, a single accident involving injury to instructors, pupils, or passengers/ Although the club fleet now consists of six aeroplanes, it is impossible to cope with the demand for flying training and practice, • Two things kept them on tiptoes—-the amazing .aerial display and the mud. Practically the whole aerodrome was under water. .A fire engine had pumped tlVo water away, the previous night, but when the crowds began to ppur in after midday the surface, water, again began to accumulate.. The hundreds of chairs spread in tho special enclosures were actually standing in an inch or tw,o,g£ water.' Cars were bogged, and dainty shoes and stockings were ruined in hundreds.

INTEREST IN DERBY Tho outstanding event of the day, of course, was tho Aerial Derby. Twentythree machines were'strung out over the 10-mile course, and the competitors were in view nearly all the time. There were all kinds of aeroplanes—slow, pre-war models that climbed laboriously into the air, noisy, crackling machines which seemed to get from the starting-lino to a point far over the spectators’ heads in one bound, and dainty, shining little biplanes that developed amazing bursts of speed. Tho “crazy flying” ,of Squadron Leader 11. G. Smart literally held the spectators spellbound. Ho looped and tumbled, hovered and flew upside down, shuffled sideways across the aerodrome, not 20 yards above the ground. Never had the gasping crowd seen tho law of gravity so audaciously defied. Other skilled and daring pilots of the Australian Air Force gave thriving; displays. , .A -tight between two aeroplanes was' wonderfully well staged—the light-ning-like manoeuvring for position, the swift attack, ;r , the prjppling of one machine by tracer bullets, and its fall in flames,to tjic ground.. The manner in which the “flames?’ .were managed, and the machine’s swaying fall, were most ingenious, but were too realistic, for a section of tho crowd, which actually believed that a serious mishap had occurred. Spectators were t thrilled, too, by the attack on a tank by Air Force machines. The planes came swooping down in hairraising fashion on the sluggish tank, climbing away again swiftly as the monster replied to their spatter of machine-guns with heavier weapons. W-QMEN AVIATORS There. .was a stir in the crowd as the three women aviators appeared, rather nervously, and prepared for their race, The Oaks. It was the first race of the kind in Australia. The girls took off easily, flew their machines over _ the course without a tremor, took part in an exciting finish, and landed again gracefully and skilfully. A little later Mrs. A. *M. TJpfold went up alone, and tumbled about in the sky in a display that is described by a new word—“aerobatics." ,i