An integral part of CJS and F.G.S. life was the annual Farnborough Air
Show, in early September (can’t remember if it was before term start). This was
heaven for all boys, like me, who wanted to grow up to be fighter pilots. All it
took for a small boy to be a supersonic aeroplane was to run around with his
arms straight behind at 45°! As I lived in Fleet Road, Cove, the main
Waterloo to Southampton rail track was at the bottom of our garden. For some
reason I thought it was a good idea to get a flattened penny by sneaking through
the wire fence, putting it on the main line just before an express train passed,
unfortunately I never got one. I assume now, because the train wheel was like a
big tiddlywink and it got flipped, God knows where, I gave up after losing four
pence. Being that close to the power of steam thundering by and all the air
activity I was consequently torn between fighter pilot and steam train engine driver.
For the Air Show Week we had free seats for the air displays and
the anticipation of seeing the elusive Bournemouth Belle steam trains. The
highlight of the air display being the aerobatic team (forerunners of the Red
Arrows) doing a ‘finale bomb burst’ with one of the jets coming straight at us,
very low, just above the plantation trees.
The Air Shows had started in
1948 (as I was only two and only just arrived in Cove the aircraft noise and
fumes must have permeated into me at that early age). It was an exciting time
seeing and hearing Hurricane replaced by Hunter; Spitfire by Swift; Lancaster by
Vulcan; Wellington by Valiant; Halifax by Victor! Not sure about the
predecessors of the Gloster Meteor and Javelin, English Electric Canberra and
the ill-fated De Havilland 110.
Passenger planes were also exciting with
the De Havilland Comet, the gigantic Brabazon, and serene Princess flying boat.
There was also the Flying Wing and the Flying Bedstead, the Harrier prototype. I
saw ‘the Vulcan roll and loop the loop’, it had to stay grounded at Farnborough after that.
I also enjoyed the Vulcans in ‘V formation’ with small Avro 707’s
in various colours, four eventually and I think the Vulcan was replaced in the
formation by the prototype Concord without the ‘e’. Later years saw the English
Electric Lightning (another quantum leap from the Hunters and Swifts) take off
with full afterburners on fire from the two vertically mounted engines. The
whole crowd resonated with the power and gasped as it stood on its tail, soaring
vertically into high cloud.
It was a period when the world record for the fastest plane kept being broken
and this was demonstrated at Farnborough with the sonic booms. I recall reading
that the Fairy Delta 2 broke the magical 1000mph barrier at 1,132 mph, not at
Farnborough and speed from memory not Google!
The ‘lowlight’ occurred in 1952, with the De Havilland 110 crash. We were watching from around
the back of the airfield, the Marrowbrook Lane side and as it broke up, I
thought the engines were missiles fired as part of the display! As the parts
started falling the crowd ran in different directions, I thought I was following
the men I was with but suddenly found myself dragged in the opposite direction
by the son (my sort of elder brother) of the couple we lived with and away from
the spot where we had been standing. On that spot there appeared an approximately
6-8cubic foot piece of the cockpit with all the dials. We just stood looking at
it as confetti size pieces of Perspex gently showered us for about 10 minutes
afterwards. We were a bit put out; we had to wait even longer to see Neville
Duke in his Hawker Hunter! We did not know at the time that anyone had been
killed or injured and I never realized the potential danger I was in until years later.
For me, my dreams of being a jet fighter pilot were crushed at my RAF Officer
application medical; failed for colour blindness. So that’s why I could never
see those numbers in those eye test patterns. The RAF said I could still apply
for Ground Crew but I huffed off home (hindsight saw that as a very bad move).
Paul Lamont, F.G.S. 1958-1964 : March 2011
Strange you had no luck with pennies under the Southern locos Paul. Denley Cole and I never had any trouble
with the Castle locomotives at Reading but I think we only did it on the
stopping trains while stood at the end of the platform. No flipping! I shall have to see if I can dig out
some old Farnborough photos and maybe an old exhibition programme.
I remember being very impressed by the Fairy Delta II and the SBAC commentary
will be etched in my mind for ever. “The FD2 is approaching us and over
Littlehampton now” and two minutes later it nearly blew our heads off. Happy days!
Like you, how could any schoolboy ever forget those magic numbers 1132?
My father who was involved in the engine design described the Lightning as brute
force and ignorance. Stand it on its tail he said and it would go up like a
rocket. What about the gyroscopic controls Dad?
I too saw the Vulcan roll and a few years later I happened to be underneath it
when the Olympus test-bed version went over low just as it switched on
re-heat.
It blew me to the ground and ruined the photo I was trying to take at the time.
Malcolm Knight, F.G.S. 1954-1961