60 | Pilot June 2018 | pilotweb.aero
Fifty Years of Pilot magazine
Ten years ago
As always, Airmail either introduced or
challenged some controversial views.
That month, regular Pilot contributor
Bob Grimstead received both praise and
complaint about a piece he had written on
the Boeing 707, while editor Nick Bloom
was lambasted for saying a Tiger Moth’s
nose rose when the engine stopped. One
complainant was Tiger Moth-master Henry
Labouchere, shortly to be profiled in Pilot.
The Practical Aviation feature was
entitled ‘Souls on board’ and covered
how to make sure passengers not only
have a good time when you take them
flying but are also safe and perhaps
more importantly, don’t do anything to
damage the aircraft. Coincidentally – or
not, hopefully, another article focussed onditching an aircraft and how to survive it.
It started cheerfully by advising that almost
90% of ditching incidents resulted in only
minor initial injuries but then went on to
confirm that 50% of ditching survivors die
before help arrives.
Two very different flight tests featured: a
Learjet 60XR and a Freelance. A what? Yes,
a Cessna Skyhawk lookalike, British design,
flying on a Permit and with folding wings. Six
airframes were constructed but, at the time,
only one had been completed and was flying.
Pilot claimed a world exclusive for Nigel
Lamb’s profile of his MXS-R. From a
diehard Extra pilot, Nigel flew an MX-2
two-seater in Red Bull air races and then
ordered the MXS-R, which he describes
as ‘one of the ultimate, high performance
handling machines on this planet’.Twenty years ago
A flight of a lifetime and a
lifetime of flight both featured
twenty years ago. The former
was the chance for a helicopter
pilot to tour the Robinson
factory in Southern California
and then hire one to explore
the neighbourhood. Mixing with
commercial jets and other
rotary traffic, flying at low level
and between tower blocks,
he had a sightseeing trip over
landmarks familiar from films
and photographs, such as the
Hollywood sign and the old
Queen Mary liner.
The lifetime of flight was
a profile of Roland ‘Bee’
Beamont (who, sadly, died in
2001). Joining the RAF in 1938
he only just went solo before
the fifteen-hour cutoff but
went on to have a distinguished
flying career. From open cockpit
biplanes he graduated to the
Hurricane, fighting in France
and then gaining victories in
the Battle of Britain. He was
subsequently lucky to survive
involvement in flight testing
the structurally-challenged
Typhoon. Post-war, he joined
Gloster Aircraft and then English
Electric, fighting politicians for
guns to remain on the Lightningand other cuts proposed by
government, not least the axing
of the TSR-2. An interesting life...
James Allan’s Air-brained
quiz was well established by
1998, with questions designed to
challenge pilots’ knowledge, as
they still do today. That month’sincluded questions on true
headings vs compass course,
V-speed definitions, and air law.
Two flight tests graced the
pages: the Ryan Navion (an
example of which was tested
recently by Pilot’s Dave Unwin)
and the Super Aero 145 twin
Czech taildragger. The latter,
despite its (then) forty years of
age, was ferried by the owner
from Germany to the USA in 38
hours over 4½ days. There is
also a profile of the rare Druine
Turbi – still flying today – big
brother to the Turbulent and
built by de Havilland apprentices
forty years earlier; Britain’s first
modern ultralight.