Aeroplane – June 2018

ABOVE:

George Errington

fl ies past in

Ambassador

G-AKRD as Meteor

F4 VT256 rolls out.

air on 5 September. The same went for

Avro and the Tudor VIII, though time

was even tighter — in this four-Rolls-

Royce Nene-powered form, it made its

maiden fl ight the following day. Two

of the more outlandish attractions in

AEROPLANE JULY 2018 http://www.aeroplanemonthly.com 55

Farnborough had many advantages

compared with its French rival in Paris.

The event there was still held in the

Grand Palais des Champes-Elysées,

with aircraft too large to go inside

being displayed on the Esplanade

des Invalides, and those incapable of

being dismantled for transport there

exhibited at one of the Paris airports,

where fl ight demonstrations could

also be given. The permanent move to

Le Bourget was not made until 1953.

One major difference, though, was the

continued restriction on participation

in the SBAC show to British

manufacturers, an insular attitude that

would take more than two decades to

shift. Plus ça change?

This was, of course, a notably

optimistic time for the British aviation

industry. Many projects long in

the making were reaching fruition,

whether military or civil, and prospects

appeared bright despite burgeoning

East-West tensions. Never mind that

only a handful of the new aeroplanes

on show in September 1948 would

achieve a genuine degree of sales

success. The atmosphere was buoyant.

Some of the show’s stars exemplifi ed

that. Making its public debut, the

Fairey Gyrodyne celebrated setting a

world helicopter speed record only that

June. As would go on to be the case

many times, numerous manufacturers

put in a maximum effort to ensure

Farnborough participation by new

machines. Handley Page completed

its Hermes IV just in time to make an

appearance, the aircraft taking to the

70th

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the static park were similarly factory-

fresh, but looks were deceptive.

Neither the four-seat, DH Gipsy

Queen-engined Planet Satellite light

aircraft, nor the three-rotor Cierva

Air Horse heavy-lift helicopter, had

Display fl ying over the crowd — rightly

forbidden today, but de rigeur 70 years

ago. This is John Derry in the Vampire.

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