SUPREMACY IN THE AIR.

Timaru Herald, Volume CXXV, Issue 17999, 3 July 1928, Page 9

SUPREMACY IN THE AIR.

Crowds Thrilled at Pageant.

DISPLAY OF AERIAL EFFICIENCY. (British Official Wireless.) RUGBY, July 1. The King and 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 2300 officers and men of the Royal Air Force look part in the ninth annual air pageant. There was at the airdrome a crowd of 150,000 people, and it is estimated that another 300,000 who could not be accommodated Watched from the outside.

They saw an astonishing display oi aerial efficiency, with machines of all sizes and descriptions, from the Beardmore “Inflexible” experimental airplane, which is the largest in the world, weighs 15 tons, and has 150 feet wingspan, arid 2000 horse-power in its Rolls Royce engines, to a tiny single-seater Moth, rind the tailless rear-propelled machines known as the Pterodactyl.

Mariy episodes thrilled the crowd, including aerial battles, artillery spotting, the firing of observation balloons; and bombing. Some of the manoeuvres included inverted loops and upward spirals, as well as the precision displayed in aerial drill, the orders in which were heard by the spectators through loud-speakers. The demonstration filled expert Air Attaches from other nations With admiration for the Royal Air Force personnel and machines. A contrast to the speed shown by many of the airplaries was ari exhibition of slow motion flying, When manoeuvres Were performed with a machine equipped with the heW British slotted-wing safety device, which; in ordinary circumstance's, must have resulted in disaster;

Once again this anriual exhibition Was given without the slightest mishap. The financial proceeds go td the Royal Air Force and allied charities.