I remember as a young lad, Bell bought the 214ST to Redhill to demo it to Bristows (the real one) in competition with the 332L. It was a lovely summers day in Horley high street, six miles south of the airfield and I heard the 'beast' come out of the circuit and head south towards us along the London to Brighton railway line. All the little old blue rinse ladies of Horley thought the world was coming to an end and four horseman had a new mode of transport. It was a wonderful noise to me, but then I used to nip out of the flightdeck on turnarounds to watch the most beautiful aeroplane ever to enter the skies leave Heathrow on a vast cloud of paraffine fumes shimmering off four Olympus engines and the local starlings falling out of the sky with the waves of noise.
TOD