Empire Air Day 1938

[old,not bold]

I've been clearing out some old boxes, my father's stuff......

Here's the Official Programme for Empire Air Day, 28th May 1938, at RAF Kenley, Whyteleaf, home of No 3 Fighter Sqn and No 17 Fighter Sqn. War was by this time pretty much inevitable, in spite of politicians' wishful thinking, and everyone knew it.

I can smell the oil on the grass, even at this distance...

The "Types you will see today" include:

Hawker Hurricane - RR Merlin, "which has just flown from Edinburgh to London in 48 minutes"

Vickers Wellesley - 2 Bristol Pegasus, bomber

Shorts Empire Flying Boat (presumably a flypast? Did it have wheels as well?)

Handley Page Harrow - 2 Bristol Pegasus, bomber, "biggest one yet introduced"

Armstrong Whitworth Whitley - 2 Armsrong Siddeley Tiger VIII, bomber

Fairey Battle - RR Merlin, medium bomber

Bristol Blenheim - 2 Bristol Mercury VIII, medium bomber

Vickers Wellington - 2 Bristol Pegasus, medium bomber, not clear if this appeared, or whether there's just a picture. What appeared may have been its predecessor, the Wellesley.

Gloster Gladiator - Bristol Mercury, torpedo bomber

Vickers Supermarine Spitfire - RR Merlin, fighter

Westland Lysander - Bristol Mercury, liaison

Armsrong Whitworth Ensign - 4 Armsrong Siddeley Tiger IX, transport

De Havilland Albatross - 4 Gipsy 12, transport (very sleek looking, all-metal skin)

The Programme has articles and pictures about RAF Armoured cars being ambushed by Arabs in Palestine.

There's a piece about "The Problem of Home Defence" which says with some foresight, after describing all the means such as fighters, AAA, balloons etc, "it will still be unlikely, at all events at the outset of hostilities, that all attackers could be prevented from reaching and attacking their objectives".

We seem by now to have lost the art of telling it like it is; this sentence firstly assumes that there will be hostilities, and secondly tells you that defence measures will not prevent attacks succeeding. Imagine a modern politician trying to spin round both those unpalatable facts.

Mind you, the next article tells you how a career in the RAF offers "a healthy, open-air existence and good comradeship......security of tenure for a number of years...few fail to find congenial employment very soon after leaving active service".

It says there are 1,400 vacancies for Short Service Commission Pilots, while avoiding any mention of why there's this sudden need.

There's an article about the routes flown by Imperial Airways, and right at the back there's a small ad by "British Airways" for its Paris flights.

And finally, it mentions that "considerable funds are being expended in an effort to produce within the next 5 years a compression-ignition engine consuming non-volatile oil which shall be more efficient than any foreign rival".

Oh well, back to the clearing out....but what a day it must have been.

[FlightlessParrot]

Fascinating. Just one query:

"Gloster Gladiator - Bristol Mercury, torpedo bomber"

Is that a transcription error (we all make them), or a little known project?

Michael

[old,not bold]

No, it's what it said.

The Gladiator was used by the RNAS throughout the war, known as the "Stringbag" as I recall, and can be seen on a fine day dispaying with the RNAS historical flight.

I confess, though, to changing the description from "Fighter" as given in the Programme, to "Torpedo Bomber" which is how it was used.

However, now I look at the picture again, what I'm seeing is not the torpedo bomber. I think it is probably an earlier version with a single seat enclosed cockpit, so it was a fighter. The canopy is faired back into the fuselage about where the gunner sat in the naval aircraft.

The engine is described as the Bristol Mercury IX and is a large radial. I don't know what was in the naval torpedo aircraft.

Since it was displaying, as a bi-plane fighter, in the same air show as a Hawker Hurricane and a Spitfire, it's not surprising that it disappeared, as a fighter.

[henry crun]

Wrong aircraft old,not bold: the Stringbag was the Fairy Swordfish.

[old,not bold]

Sackcloth and ashes.........of course!

My only excuse is that the Gladiator in the pic is superficially a bit like The Swordfish.

I can scan the pic of the Gloster Gladiator if anyone's interested, so long as someone can tell me how to get it from there to a pprune post, in simple terms....

[henry crun]

The sticky just above this thread will tell you how to post pics.

[Evileyes]

http://www.pprune.org/forums/showthread.php?s=&threadid=203481

Please remember to size it no larger than 800 x 600 pixels.

[old,not bold]

OK, thanks for the direction and tip....

I'm running a course this week and still largely unprepared, so don't hold yor breff ..............


PS I know that the Swordfish was a Navy aircraft, but I rather think that "Fairy" should be spelt "Fairey"...........

Sorry, couldn't resist...........

[tigerfeet]

Training completed Eric was posted to HQ 3 Group at RAF Mildenhall in September

1938. Then in early 1939, Transferred to 99 Squadron at Mildenhall just converting from Handley Page Heyford Bi planes to Vickers Wellington MK1 ,The first unit so equipped.

First Wellington experience 13 2 1939 Duration 15 minutes . Took part in Empire Air Day Display at Cranwell 20 05 1939 .

[tigerfeet]

combat. LINCOLNSHIRE Granwell (Sleafo:d).—Bombing; aerial combat; message aud supply; air drill; massed bands; P.T. display; cadets' instructional workshops on view.

[Rosevidney1]

I'm surprised nobody has queried the 'metal clad' D H Albatross.

[Fargo Boyle]

Or the twin engine Wellesley...