Just two small things.
B.O.B. day Gaydon '62 or 3.
Four of Handley-Page's finest parked on the pans for a real live scramble. Man steps out on to the grass and fires a flare.
Seconds later all hell as erm,.....three of Handley-Page's finest blast off. Presumably the engines wouldn't start or whatever on what was the third one.
Fast forward a few years to B.O.B. day 1966. Gaydon has lost it's V- bombers and now has V-trainers. A demonstration of a very short take off by a Varsity. Engines wind up to a furious sound, brakes are released, Varsity rolls off fairly rapidly, lifts off after an impressively short run and promptly sits down again. We sixteen year old aeronautical "experts" concluded that the driver was trying a bit too hard and was short of a few knots.