RAF High Speed Flight

[mad_mo]

I spotted this old photo whilst having a pint in the former Sunderland hanger at Calshot.

A crowd of around a million lined the Solent to watch the race on Saturday 7 September 1929 and Flight Lieutenant Waghorn did the seven laps at an average speed of 328.63mph to take the prize for Britain. And then five days later, Squadron Leader Orlebar smashed the air-speed record in an S6 at 365.1 mph.

In the photo, Flt Lt ( later to be Wing Commander) Stainforth set a world record air speed record of 406.92 mph in a Schneider supermarine S6B seaplane in 1931. Lt Stainforth, holder of the Air Force Cross, went on to become an experimental pilot at Farnborough and broke another record, this time by flying upside down for 12 minutes. Stainforth died in a plane crash in 1942, during a night sortie over the Western Desert while serving with the RAF. He was 43 years old – the oldest fighter pilot in the Middle East at that time and a crack night fighter

 

[Harry B'Stard]

A crowd of around a million lined the Solent to watch the race on Saturday 7 September 1929 [/QUOTE]DT_Xtremez_30:

And recently the RAF scrapped the first RAF Jet fighter to cross the North Atlantic without refueling because it couldn't afford the Major servicing on it!DT_Xtremez_42:

Guess we don't celebrate our succeses as we used to! I mean it wouldn't have taken much to sell it for a pound to an air museum somewhere would it. Cosford museum is full of record breaking, experimental aircraft, why not donate it to them?


HTB

 

[MAINJAFAD]

A crowd of around a million lined the Solent to watch the race on Saturday 7 September 1929 DT_Xtremez_30:

It a pity that air racing died in the UK, unlike what happens at Reno in the USA, though Red Bull are doing a good job at pushing it with their Air Racing. However, it did take £100000 of private money to get the High Speed Flight into the 1931 race after the Government pulled the plug on the cash, Thanks Lady Huston.

And recently the RAF scrapped the first RAF Jet fighter to cross the North Atlantic without refueling because it couldn't afford the Major servicing on it!DT_Xtremez_42:

That is one Flicker that should have been kept.

Guess we don't celebrate our succeses as we used to! I mean it wouldn't have taken much to sell it for a pound to an air museum somewhere would it. Cosford museum is full of record breaking, experimental aircraft, why not donate it to them?

HTB

A Torndao F3 is not what you could put in the same league as a TSR2, Fairey Delta 2 or the first Gloster Meteor, and anyhow that F3 flight in 1987 (if memory serves), didn't make front page news in the RAF News, let alone any of the major press outlets, aviation or mainstream, though your right in the fact it should have been saved.

 

[MAINJAFAD]

Flt Lt ( later to be Wing Commander) Stainforth set a world record air speed record of 406.92 mph in a Schneider supermarine S6B seaplane in 1931

Powered by the Rolls Royce R-Type engine, most likely the only engine to power world speed record holders on Land (Sir Malcolm Campbell’s ‘Campbell-Railton-Rolls Royce Bluebird’, George Eyston’s ‘Thunderbolt’ and John Cobb’s ‘Railton-Mobil-Special’), Water (Sir Henry Segrave’s ‘Miss England II’ , Kaye Donn’s ‘Miss England III’, and Sir Malcolm Campbell’s Bluebird K3 and Bluebird K4), as well as the air records by the Supermarine S6 and S6B. I cannot think of another engine that has powered record breakers in all three mediums (though the American J47 and J79 jets have I think powered record holders on land and in the air).

 

[I Look Like Kevin Costner]

Cobb never used the R

Cobb never used the R

and John Cobb’s ‘Railton-Mobil-Special’

Two 1450HP Napier Lions actually, Bro.........

 

[MAINJAFAD]

Two 1450HP Napier Lions actually, Bro.........

Oop's your right about that, though your more of the geek on speed records than I am. Another engine thats done two out of the three is the RR Avon, two air speed records (Duke in a Hunter and Twiss in the FD2), plus Thrust 2 on land.