Post war air show

[rognjac1]

Can anyone help in refreshing my memory please? I can vaguely recall being taken, as a 7 or 8 year old in the very early 1950s, to an airshow, somewhere within travelling distance by rail of our north London home. I have a vivid memory of seeing, on the road outside the airfield, a "car that could fly" (Taylor Aerocar or something similar?). The only other thing that could help is that I think the show may have been sponsored by a newspaper - I had an aunt, who I think was with us at the show, and she worked for one of the Sunday papers at that time. Neither she or my parents are with us now, so I can't ask them! Presumably in that austere post-war period there weren't too many airshows being held.

Roger

[John Farley]

I don't suppose it is what you saw (as I don't believe it had any 'car that could fly' ambitions) but the Portsmouth Aerocar G-AGTG attended both the 1947 and 1948 Farnborough SBAC shows.

[forget]

One thing leads to another....

http://www.portav.co.uk/Downloads/PAAerocar.pdf

.... and while I'm here, looking for Aerocars I came across this guy's site on Portsmouth. Worth an airing.

PORTSMOUTH AIRPORT (http://daveg4otu.tripod.com/airfields/por.html)

[26er]

I went to a Daily Express air show at Gatwick in either summer 1948 or 1949. All I remember of it was the sunshine.

[johnatownes]

Without a doubt that was the Daily Express Airshow at the old Gatwick Airport, which was a grass commercial airfield at that time. There were 2 events 1948 & 49 and I attended both. My parents took me to the first and they paid 10 shillings each for my sister and I to fly around the circuit for 10 minutes in an Air Enterprise De Havilland Dragon Rapide 8 seater biplane. There was a Taylor Airocar there for sure. There is still one left flying today and it appeared at the Reno Air Races a few years ago. The original Beehive round air terminal was opened in 1936 and still exists today as a museum. I worked in this building in 1953 for Trainsair, a charter airline using DC-3s and Avro Ansons.

[Wander00]

In a similar vein, I was allowed to go on my own by public transport to what I think was the last airshow at Hendon. Would anyone have any details. I seem to remember a Mosquito with a recalcitrant undercarriage leg. I guess it would have been late 50s.