2015 11 (511) AEROPLANE.pdf

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More than a Century of History in the Air
®
SALUTING THE RAF’S ‘HARDEST DAY’
www.aeroplanemonthly.com
VULCAN
FAREWELL
The last season
for XH558
P
UB
LI
S
H
IN
MOSQUITO PR MISSION
A legendary ‘Wooden Wonder’ sortie
MASTER OF HIS
WW1 aircraft pilot
CRAFT
The world’s highest-time
G R E AT A I R R AC E R S
W O R L D WA R T W O
E XC L U S I V E I N T E R V I E W
DATABASE
NOVEMBER 2015 £4.30
11
9 770143 724095
Meteor night fighters
RACING WITH STYLE
Classics from a ‘golden age’
G
Contents
26
48
42
NEWS AND
COMMENT
4
6
FROM THE EDITOR
NEWS
• Hunter tragedy at Shoreham
• ‘Battle of Britain’ B-25 saved
• Classic Air Force Rapide and
Chipmunk sold at Goodwood
• Italian P-51 restored
… and the month’s other top aircraft
preservation news
HANGAR TALK
Steve Slater’s monthly comment
column on the historic aircraft world
26
Vol 43, no 11 • Issue no 511
November 2015
22
34
58
FEATURES
22
BIGGIN 75
Saluting the Battle of Britain’s
‘hardest day’
VULCAN XH558
Highlights of the last flying
‘V-bomber’s’ final display season
BILLANCOURT RAID
A famous Mosquito PR mission after
Bomber Command’s raid against the
Renault works at Billancourt on
3 March 1942
75
64
AEROPLANE
MEETS…
GENE DeMARCO
The most experienced pilot of First
World War aircraft
DATABASE: METEOR
NIGHT FIGHTERS
Tony Buttler
details the
aircraft that
started a
new era for
RAF night
fighter units,
as the first
jet to serve
in the role
34
16
REGULARS
17
19
72
SKYWRITERS
Q&A
Your questions asked and answered
AIRCREW
The role of a First World War Hansa-
Brandenburg floatplane crew
EVENTS
BOOKS
48
42
An
Aeroplane
special section
RACING MOTH
How a beautiful, modified DH60M
Moth ended up back in the
Kidston family
MEW GULLS
Shuttleworth’s and David Beale’s
superb Percival racers come
together
COSMIC WIND
BALLERINA
The story of a famous Formula
One ‘midget’ air racer
IN-DEPTH
PAGES
17
98
‘PATRICIA LYNN’ RB-57s
Secretive Vietnam War USAF recce
operations uncovered
COVER IMAGE:
Avro Vulcan B2 XH558 of the
Vulcan to the Sky Trust.
STEVEN COMBER
92
95
58
106
NEXT MONTH
See pages 20-21 for a great subscription offer
Aeroplane
traces its lineage back
to the weekly
The Aeroplane,
founded by C. G. Grey in 1911
and published until 1968. It was
re-launched as a monthly in 1973
by Richard T. Riding, editor for 25
years until 1998.
ESTABLISHED 1911
AEROPLANE NOVEMBER 2015
www.aeroplanemonthly.com
3
hat happened at the RAFA Shoreham Airshow
remains difficult to take in. The Hunter
accident, in which 11 people died, offered a
reminder of how a day of aerial enjoyment can
so quickly, so cruelly, turn into one of tragedy.
Aeroplane
sends
its most heartfelt condolences to the families and friends of all
those involved.
While one must think above all of the victims and their
loved ones, it is only inevitable that much talk has resulted
of potential ramifications. Shoreham, of course, bears no
comparison with the most prominent previous west European
airshow disasters — Farnborough in 1952, Ramstein in 1988.
Apart from the fact that both saw significantly greater loss
of life, they took place in very different times, and in very
different circumstances. Also, in the case of Shoreham, no-one
inside the show venue was harmed. This inevitably opens up
a whole other set of issues relating to display safety and the
capability of organisers meaningfully to protect those outside.
It comes as little comfort, but is still relevant, to say that the
regulations protecting spectators inside airshow venues serve
their purpose and continue to evolve.
Nor, in my opinion, can parallels meaningfully be drawn
with other types of aircraft incident involving innocent
bystanders, such as 2013’s Glasgow police helicopter crash. A
police helicopter going about its operational duties is, just like
an airliner engaged in public transport or a military aircraft
performing a training sortie, a very different matter to display
flying. We may enjoy it, but display flying is not an ‘essential’
activity in the same manner.
In no way is it clichéd to stress the success of existing UK
airshow regulations, as developed over many years by the
W
E D I TO R
Civil Aviation Authority. They allow us to enjoy a wide range
of aircraft and displays while maintaining an excellent safety
record. In the post-war era, more people lost their lives in the
football stadium disasters at Ibrox, Bradford and Hillsborough
alone than have done so, whether spectating or participating,
at British air displays. Arguably, these regulations are — to use
a modern phrase — more ‘fit for purpose’ than those perhaps
found elsewhere. They have been tweaked with the benefit of
experience, including that gained as a result of past accidents,
and continue to be so. Such will be the case as lessons from
Shoreham are disseminated, digested and learned.
Now, the CAA has placed new restrictions “until further
notice” on classic jet display routines over land. Some have
described them as ‘knee-jerk’, but that, on consideration,
is wrong. Let us not, in our enthusiasm for airshows and
aviation, forget the extent of what occurred at Shoreham.
Eleven people lost their lives, many neither planning to
attend nor viewing the display. Some reaction and media
coverage has, as always, been ill-informed and sensationalist,
but scrutiny after such an event is utterly unsurprising. The
CAA needed to take immediate action, and that it has very
adequately done. Those involved in respect of the broader air
display industry’s regulatory and supervisory environment are
already taking this on board.
No doubt about it, the response could have been much more
draconian. After all, the West German government imposed a
blanket ban on airshows straight after the Ramstein crash. The
UK air display scene needs now to ensure no repetition of the
circumstances which might result in that happening here.
Ben Dunnell
From the
CONTRIBUTORS
THIS MONTH
To n y
BUTTLER
Andrew
F L E TC H E R
To n y
HARMSWORTH
Stuart
M c K AY
Tony Buttler worked for 20 years as a
metallurgist, testing aluminium and
titanium components for aviation.
During this period his interest in military
aircraft grew, particularly in their design
and development. In 1994 he took a
Masters degree in archives at
Loughborough University, and since
1995 has worked as an aviation historian.
Tony has written 25 major books,
numerous titles in the Warpaint series of
modelling publications, and a very large
number of articles for magazines.
“I was interested in military history from a
young age”, says Andrew. “This interest
crystallised around World War Two
aviation and coincided with me joining the
RAF as an avionics technician. After leaving
the RAF I remained in the aviation industry,
working in the Middle East for many years.
While working abroad, my aviation
research centred on RAF photographic
reconnaissance operations and aircrew,
and over the years I have had the privilege
to meet and correspond with many
photo-recce veterans and their families.”
Being taken to the Regent Cinema in
Brighton in 1969 to see the ‘Battle of
Britain’ film began Tony’s life-long passion
for vintage aviation. This was further
nurtured by the appearance of the first
issue of
Aeroplane Monthly
on the shelf of
a newsagent in May 1973. After saving his
dinner money to buy a copy, Tony never
stopped looking back, and fluked his way
into the job of assistant editor in early
1998. Now freelance, he still compiles the
News section (see News,
Aeroplane
November 2015).
Stuart learned to fly on a Beagle
Terrier 2 at White Waltham in 1963
and was keen to be associated with
Tiger Moths from his teens. The
founding secretary of the de
Havilland Moth Club, he is also
editor of its magazine
The Moth,
secretary of the de Havilland
Educational Trust and manager of the
annual International Moth Rally held
at Woburn Abbey. In recognition of
his services to the club he was
appointed MBE in 1997.
4
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