2016 05 (517) AEROPLANE.pdf

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SPECIAL
ISSUE
WIN
A
F
LY IN G L E
G
E
N D S
E
X
P E R IE
N
C
E
LY IN
ND
IE
More than a Century of History in the Air
C
L
O
S
ING DATE
2
7 MA
Y
20
16
®
www.aeroplanemonthly.com
a
BRITISH
ANNIVERSARY
T RIBU T E
JETS
FLIGHT
PHOENIX
Cinema classic
50 years on
of the
the
SIR FRANK WHITTLE
Man behind the legend
•METROVICK•METEOR
•JAVELIN•VC10•COMET
PLUS...
FEATURING
DEFIANT
DOGFIGHT
ITALIAN STYLE,
MERLIN POWER
WA R B I R D S
HISTORY
Tragic end to a
night combat
£4.40
05
MAY 2016
BRISTOL BOXKITE
9 770143 724101
Contents
6
90
84
NEWS AND
COMMENT
4
6
FROM THE EDITOR
NEWS
• Spitfire G-AIDN airborne
• Eisenhower’s ‘Connie’ flies again
• Biggin Hill Heritage Hangar moves
• TVAL unveils BE12 reproduction
• American Air Museum re-opens
… and the month’s other top aircraft
preservation news
HANGAR TALK
Steve Slater’s monthly comment
column on the historic aircraft
world
28
Vol 44, no 5 • Issue no 517
May 2016
44
54
124
FEATURES
Celebrating the 75th anniversary
of the first flight of a British
jet-powered aircraft
84
DEFIANT DOGFIGHT
A nocturnal combat over Birmingham
that had tragic consequences
AEROPLANE
MEETS…
HENRY LABOUCHERE
Adventures with a great stalwart of
the British vintage aeroplane scene
90
36
44
48
54
60
17
REGULARS
19
22
98
SKYWRITERS
Q&A
Your questions asked and answered
AIRCREW
How Imperial Japanese Navy pilots
got the most out of the Mitsubishi
A6M Zero-sen fighter
SIR FRANK WHITTLE
Archive interviews with the man
himself and some key associates
recall the Power Jets saga — and we
hear from Sir Frank’s son Ian about
life with this remarkable figure
METROVICK
The forgotten pioneers of the British
jet story, Metropolitan Vickers
JET DEFLECTION METEOR
One of the most unusual of many
Meteor testbeds
VC10 ROUTE-PROVING
BOAC’s early test operations with its
new flagship to far-off lands
FLYING THE JAVELIN
An RAF ‘first-tourist’s’ impressions of
the Gloster all-weather fighter
COMET CIRCUMNAVIGATION
Going round the world in the Defence
Research Agency’s Comet 4 XV814
EAST FORTUNE
A major revamp for Scotland’s
National Museum of Flight
‘THE FLIGHT OF THE PHOENIX’
New perspectives on the making of
this cinematic classic, 50 years on
101
DATABASE:
BRISTOL BOXKITE
James Kightly details
one of Britain’s most
famous ‘pioneer’ aircraft
IN-DEPTH
PAGES
13
114
FIAT G59
Italy’s most potent flying warbird
124
‘ALDY’ ALDINGTON AND THE 108
A number of Messerschmitt Bf 108s
passed through the hands of this
businessman and racing driver
WIN!
A DAY WITH THE FIGHTER
C
COLLECTION AND
F
FLYING LEGENDS TICKETS
T
Turn to page 16
72
COVER IMAGE:
An exclusive illustration of the
first Gloster E28/39.
PIOTR FORKASIEWICZ
119
EVENTS
121
BOOKS
130
NEXT MONTH
76
ESTABLISHED 1911
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.
See page 24 for a great subscription offer
AEROPLANE MAY 2016
www.aeroplanemonthly.com
3
eldom has the British airshow scene faced
such upheaval. Not long after we went to
press with the last issue, the Civil Aviation
Authority’s chief executive Andrew Haines
was quoted in
The Times
as saying that “the community
seem to think that Shoreham is a one-off and therefore
you can carry on as you are”, with the result that the CAA
was at risk of withholding permission for many events
to go ahead. How he reached that conclusion is unclear.
If applications for display permissions were ignoring the
CAA’s revised guidance, he might have had a point, but
Haines presented no such evidence. A joint statement
from the British Air Display Association (BADA) and the
Honourable Company of Air Pilots called his remarks
“reprehensible”, and made the point that, “as late as mid-
2015, Mr Haines was personally involved in trying to
offload the responsibility for airshow management, with
its associated deregulation, to BADA. BADA declined, as
they perceived this to be a retrograde step with regard to
regulatory oversight and fundamental safety.”
A few days later came the latest special bulletin to be
published by the Air Accidents Investigation Branch
(AAIB) on the Shoreham Hunter accident, its subject
“public protection and safety management at flying
displays”. There is insufficient space here to detail its
contents — readers are advised to study the document on
the AAIB website. In total, 14 safety recommendations
were made. The CAA is yet to act upon all of these, yet,
S
E D I TO R
without wishing to second-guess too wildly, one can
foresee how some things may change. Increased separation
distances for aerobatic manoeuvres — especially those with
an on-crowd vector — could well result, possibly bringing
them more into line with UK military regulations. As a
result of the enhanced risk assessment process involved in
obtaining a CAA permission, it might be that some types
of display are not deemed suitable for certain venues. And
where spectator gatherings outside show venues persist, it
may be necessary to modify display routines in order to
minimise risk to them.
An apology Andrew Haines issued to both BADA and
the Air Pilots for his previous remarks may, at least, bring
about more constructive discussions with a proper level
of industry input. Indeed, the CAA does seem (tacitly) to
have acknowledged that it did not engage fully enough
with the air display community during the review process.
That’s something. So is the authority’s decision to phase
in its increased air display charges over three years, rather
than all at once. But with a wide-ranging regulatory review
under way, concerns surrounding legal liabilities, the AAIB
still to issue its final report on Shoreham, the coroner’s
proceedings yet to commence and a police investigation
ongoing, these are very uncertain times for all involved in
British airshows — with months, if not years, of potential
repercussions still to run.
Ben Dunnell
From the
CONTRIBUTORS
THIS MONTH
Ro g e r
BEAZLEY
Simon
BECK
Nicholas
JONES
Jakob
WHITFIELD
Roger learnt to fly on the Thruxton
Jackaroo and instructed on gliders for the
Air Cadets. Having joined the RAF,
following training he flew Lightnings and
Phantoms. In 1973 he qualified as an
experimental test pilot at the ETPS, after
which the majority of his service focused
on experimental, research and
development flying. He was the last head
of experimental flying at Farnborough.
Following retirement from the RAF, Roger
acted as a consultant and aerospace
adviser to the MoD at Boscombe Down.
He continues to fly light aircraft.
Simon works as a senior editor for a New
Zealand television station. He has had a
life-long interest in most aspects of
aviation, his specialist areas being US
military aircraft, civil airliners and aviation
film history. Simon owns two websites:
www.uswarplanes.net, cataloguing
aircraft designations and serial numbers,
and www.c82packet.com, the first and
only site dedicated to the history of the
Fairchild C-82. He has written several
articles on aviation subjects and is
completing a book on aircraft in feature
films and TV productions.
Nicholas is a television and film
producer with a particular
enthusiasm for the history and
technology of aviation. He has made
documentaries for BBC strands like
‘Horizon’ and ‘Bookmark’, and for
‘Equinox’ on Channel 4. His films sell
widely on DVD. Nicholas traces his
interest in aircraft to his father — he
recalls being taken as a child to see a
DC-8 that had crashed in a cabbage
field at Heathrow, and also to the
maiden UK flight of Concorde at
Filton.
After an undergraduate degree in
aeronautical engineering at Imperial
College and working for a natural gas
pipeline company, Jakob completed a
master’s degree in the history of science
and technology, and a doctorate at the
University of Manchester on the history
of Metropolitan Vickers’ gas turbine
designs. He now works as a writer and
editor, with a particular interest in
history, science, and technology,
especially anything relating to
aeroplanes. He lives in the West
Midlands.
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