OT Farnborough 1951

[harry]

Some very strange aircraft here. Aircraft manufacturers long gone.

[Bill Wright]

Interesting. Looks like they didn't have a long lens though! Bill

[Roger Hayter]

I was there two or three times in the early fifties; very exciting for a small child.

[Vir Campestris]

At least three aircraft you'll find in my father's logbook. And it's entirely possible my mother was in the crowd - certainly she was there the next year.

Thank you Harry.

Andy

[pfj]

went to the RAE Show. All very exciting and I remember the year when the commentator told the crowd that Neville Duke flying a Hawker Hunter, was doing a low level pass from the east, and as the crowd looked in that direction he came in from the west, very low and very, very fast. I remember a women near to me fainting with the shock. All gone now. pfj

[Broadback]

I seem to remember that there was a horrific accident where a plane crashed into a crowd of RAF Apprentices killing a number. Can anyone place when and the incident?

[harry]

[harry]

[charles]

I only went once - mid 60s. The RAF aerobatic team were flying Lighnings. They took off - vertically - all togther. We were right beside the take off point. - noisy.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

Yes, I would have only been 1 year old then. My father at the time I found out later used to go since he worked on early flight simulators, but by the time I was aware of the world he was working on TVs. I think I'd have enjoyed going to Farnborough as my sight was not so bad back then. I do remember seeing some footage of a very strange American plane that looked like a delta wing with its nose pointing up to the sky and a propeller with contra rotating halves. This weird device took off vertically very slowly and then flew like a normal plane with one person aboard, but had to land conventionally. To my mind a completely pointless design, but I guess there were a lot of things like that about just after the war. Who remembers the flying bedstead? Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

And very loud of course, those early jets were hardly stealthy! Back when I was young and on holiday down by the south coast you could regularly hear sonic booms from test aircraft flying out over the sea. I guess they thought they would get fewer complaints from doing it there. Brian

[Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)]

The problem with the Lightning was their range. They were designed as a fast response aircraft for defence locally, so there was not much space for the fuel. Very fast, big engine, but well limited in range. Think some ar still flying in South Africa.

One of the problems with air shows has always been safety, you have vintage aircraft and often very new development craft close to where lots of people are.

I still wonder how they were ever aloud to fly displays over the crowds. Also of course vintage aircraft can suddenly have a failure at low level, and that happened at Biggin Hill to a Vampire at low altitude and speed, luckily it was over open country, but still two crew died. The Hunter crash a few years ago down on the south coast on a road was due to the apparent error in the altimeter setting of a very elderly Hawker Hunter. They tried to prosecute the pilot who survived, but in the end I think it was realised that the thing had been calibrated, it was just not telling the truth. Modern avionics have multiple sensors etc, and after all no pilot is going to deliberately crash unless they are a nutter or a terrorist, which he was neither.

Brian

[Andy Burns]

They were grounded a decade ago, after a crash and subsequent investigation revealed shoddy maintenance.

[Brian Reay]

I was lucky enough to attend several times due to my job in the 80s and

90s and early 2000s.

It was noticeable that the flying displays, in my view, became less dramatic in the later years.

I was especially fascinated by the huge transport aircraft. In the 80s, I was given a tour of the Lockheed factory, which has to be seen to be believed.

[Brian Gaff (Sofa)]

I'm sure that the story I heard was newer than that, so maybe they fixed them. Not a lot wrong with the design it is the maintenance that is very important on older craft. Modern tech for inspecting inside engines has allowed much better decisions to be made, I understand. I assume they mean tiny cameras . Brian

[Jethro_uk]

But quite a unique plane - and showed the Yanks a thing or two.

Here's a story - mostly narrated :) - about a Lightning ...

[Andy Burns]

Dunno, the jets were put up for sale, no idea if anyone bought them. The bloodhound supersonic car project bought some tyres for testing at Newquay airport.

[newshound]

Only once, for me, but still unforgettable.

More film here

Golden days indeed.

[Andy Burns]

They have a couple at Bruntingthorpe that they allow to do fast taxi runs, they were sometimes known to get a little "nose happy" presumably the CAA frowns on that since their Victor accidentally got airborne?

[Tim Lamb]

In message <qtq2r5$m4f$ [e-mail]>, "Brian Gaff (Sofa 2)" [e-mail]> writes

Growing up in relatively open country 4 miles from the De-Havilland works at Hatfield, I got very used to DH models being test flown overhead. 109, 110 and Comet 1 particularly. Our rugby pitches at St. Albans benefited from a crash landed 110 (I think). We were asked to return all our bits of aluminium collected from the trench:-)

Local press had a photo of a Lightning, vertical at about 500' over the green houses at Smallford. It was being landed at Hatfield and the pilot had ejected.