AERIAL DISPLAY

Southland Times, Issue 20528, 3 July 1928, Page 7

AERIAL DISPLAY

ROYAL AIR FORCE

ANNUAL PAGEANT AT HENDON THRILLING MANOEUVRES CARRIED OUT (United Preu Assn.—By Telegraph—Copyright.) Rugby, July 1. The King, the Queen, the Duke of York, and most of the members of the Cabinet with the air attaches and other representatives of nearly every nation of the world, saw at Hendon yesterday the greatest display ever staged in the air when 200 machines and 2,300 officers and men of the Royal Air Force took part in the ninth annual air pageant. There was an aerodrome crowd of 150,000 people, and it is estimated that another 300,000 who could not be accommodated watched from outside. They saw a most astonishing display of aerial efficiency with machines of all sizes and descriptions from the Beardmore Inflexible experimental aeroplane, which is the largest in the world and weighs 15 tons, to the tiny single-seater Moth and the tailless rear-pro-pelled machine known as Pterodactyl. The many episodes thrilled the crowd, including aerial battles, artillery spotting firing, observation balloons, and bombing. Some of the manoeuvres, including inverted loops and upward spirals, as well as the precision displayed in serial drill orders, which were heard by spectators through loud speakers, filled the expert air attaches from other nations with admiration for the Air Force personnel and machines. Contrasted speed shown by many of the aeroplanes was the *exhibition of the slow motion flying when the manoeuvres were performed with a machine equipped with the new British slotted wing safety device, which in ordinary circumstances must have resulted in disaster. Once again this annual exhibition was given without the slightest mishap. The financial proceeds go to the Air Force and allied charities.— British Official Wireless.