June 2021 Issue 45 Ai Rpi Lo T
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JUNE 2021 ISSUE 45 AI RPI LO T INSIDE HRHTHE DUKE OF EDINBURGH 1921-2021 A Portrait of our Patron RED ARROWS IN 2021 & BEYOND Exclusive Interview with Red One OXFORD v CAMBRIDGE AIR RACE DIARY With the gradual relaxing of lockdown restrictions the Company is hopeful that the followingevents will be able to take place ‘in person’ as opposed to ‘virtually’. These are obviously subject to any subsequent change THE HONOURABLE COMPANY in regulations and members are advised to check OF AIR PILOTS before making travel plans. incorporating Air Navigators JUNE 2021 FORMER PATRON: 26 th Air Pilot Flying Club Fly-in Duxford His Royal Highness 30 th T&A Committee Air Pilot House (APH) The Prince Philip Duke of Edinburgh KG KT JULY 2021 7th ACEC APH GRAND MASTER: 11 th Air Pilot Flying Club Fly-in Henstridge His Royal Highness th The Prince Andrew 13 APBF APH th Duke of York KG GCVO 13 Summer Supper Girdlers’ Hall 15 th GP&F APH th MASTER: 15 Court Cutlers’ Hall Sqn Ldr Nick Goodwyn MA Dip Psych CFS RAF (ret) 21 st APT/AST APH 22 nd Livery Dinner Carpenters’ Hall CLERK: 25 th Air Pilot Flying Club Fly-in Weybourne Paul J Tacon BA FCIS AUGUST 2021 Incorporated by Royal Charter. 3rd Air Pilot Flying Club Fly-in Lee on the Solent A Livery Company of the City of London. 10 th Air Pilot Flying Club Fly-in Popham PUBLISHED BY: 15 th Air Pilot Flying Club The Honourable Company of Air Pilots, Summer BBQ White Waltham Air Pilots House, 52A Borough High Street, London SE1 1XN SEPTEMBER 2021 EMAIL : [email protected] 15 th APPL APH www.airpilots.org 15 th Air Pilot Flying Club Fly-in Oaksey Park th EDITOR: 16 GP&F APH Allan Winn EMAIL: [email protected] 16 th Court Cutlers’ Hall 21 st Luncheon Club RAF Club DEPUTY EDITOR: 21 st Tymms Lecture RAF Club Stephen Bridgewater EMAIL: [email protected] 30 th Air Pilot Flying Club Fly-in Compton Abbas SUB EDITOR: Charlotte Bailey Applications forVisits and Events EDITORIAL CONTRIBUTIONS: The copy deadline for the August 2021 edition of Air Pilot Please kindly note that we are ceasing publication of is 1 st July 2021. printed ‘flyers’ and application forms for visits and events. From now, details and applications for all visits FUNCTION PHOTOGRAPHY: and events will only be available online - on the Gerald Sharp Photography View images and order prints on-line. website and a via links in the e-news and events TELEPHONE: 020 8599 5070 bulletins which are circulated by email to members. EMAIL: [email protected] WEBSITE: www.sharpphoto.co.uk Access the Company’s PRINTED BY: website via this QR code, Printovation Ltd 01494 478870 or follow us on Except where specifically stated, none of the material in this issue is Twitter @AirPlotsCo to be taken as expressing the opinion of the Court of the Company. 2 AIR PILOT JUNE 2021 A MESSAGE FROM YOUR EDITOR... IN THIS ISSUE... Britain’s airports and airfields have long been under threat in one way or another, from NEWS environmentalists, neighbours, developers and 4 HRH THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH others, but now in 2021 the threat looks greater 8 Gazette than ever. In the next five or six years RAF stations including Scampton, Henlow, Halton, Alconbury and Colerne are due to close – all of REPORTS them with currently usable and useful runways and facilities, and all 9 The Master’s Message slated for some mix of domestic or industrial development. Coventry airport, with an active and thriving General Aviation 11 Young Air Pilots Report community, is threatened with disappearing under the development 12 Regional Reports - Hong Kong of an electric-battery ‘Gigafactory’ and airfields like Fairoaks are the 13 Regional Reports - Australia subject of housing proposals. Permission to re-open Manston has recently been revoked on the grounds that a proper case had not been made for it in the planning process. The British Government’s legislative programme foresees reforms to the planning system in the name of worthy aims such as accelerated house-building and industrial regeneration. These will remove layers of local oversight and seem to incorporate no safeguards against the loss of infrastructure such as airfields, which are vital to the future of aviation. RAAF Centenary Flypast The irony is that the Government is ploughing research and (Commonwealth of Australia, Department of Defence) development money into the development of electric aircraft and the batteries and systems to power them.Yet, at the same time, is 15 Regional Reports - North America seemingly complicit in frustrating the use of those very aircraft through failing to protect our existing airfields – far less encouraging 16 General Aviation Safety Benchmark Group the building of new ones - through the planning system. Much of the public opposition to airfields is based on historical FEATURES perceptions or recollections of them as being noisy and polluting. 18 Ingenuity We cannot pretend that the airfields of the future and the aircraft which will use them will be entirely silent and pollution free. Electric 20 Security in Space propellors will still make some noise, just not at fine-pitch Harvard 22 The RAF Museum - Managing a Pandemic levels; even the slipperiest of carbon-fibre airframes will generate 24 The Red Arrows - Preparing for Spring 2021 aerodynamic noise; and access roads will still generate traffic. 26 The International Bomber Command Centre However, all of these intrusions will be much lower than their 29 The 2021 Cobham Lecture equivalents of today, to say nothing of those of even 30 years ago – and, of course, would be a fraction of those resulting from the 30 Oxford V Cambridge Air Race building and operation of new factories. 32 Into the Overshoot It is equally true that airfields do not necessarily have to occupy as much land as they did traditionally: the aerodromes of 100 years Cover photos: The Royal Air Force Aerobatic Team over the ago were circular, because aircraft could only land or take off safely Greek coast during their annual Exercise Springhawk. into wind, whereas their modern equivalents are much more Inset - HRH The Duke of Edinburgh (Both Crown Copyright) tolerant. So there is a case for aviation and other industry to co- exist: an airport which no longer hosts mainstream airline traffic Guidelines for submissions to Air Pilot Please submit contributions as follows: could yield some of its substantial acreage to industry while still • Text in word document, including your name below the title preserving a safe environment for general aviation operations. of the piece; The choice should not be a binary one between aviation and new • No embedded photos; industry or housing development, but of mutually tolerant and • All images to be sent as jpeg files with a file size of at least 2 MB; beneficial co-existence. • More than 2 images to be sent via a Dropbox file, rather than an e-mail attachment. AllanWinn - Editor JUNE 2021 AIR PILOT 3 HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE DUKE OF EDINBURGH Compiled by Assistant Steve Bridgewater It was with deep regret that the Honourable Company of Air Pilots received the sad news of the passing of HRH The Duke of Edinburgh. Prince Philip had a long and personal involvement with the Honourable Company of Air Pilots and its forerunner the Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators (GAPAN). His Royal Highness had been our Patron since 2002, when he succeeded HM The Queen in the role. Prior to that he had served as the Company’s Grand Master from 1953 and became our first Liveryman when, as Grand Master, he accepted the Company’s Letters Patent from the Lord Mayor of London in 1956. On that occasion he stated: “In granting this Livery to the Guild, the City, for all its ancient institutions, has shown, once again, that it is well aware of modern development, and I think it also recognises that the air is a new importance to this great centre of commercial enterprise. The Duke of Edinburgh climbs aboard ‘his’ Harvard during For its part the Guild will always attempt to show that flight training. The five stars painted below the canopy signified everybody engaged in the air transport industry, will his rank of Marshal of the Royal Air Force. (Crown Copyright) constantly try to perform its duties efficiently, and to be active and helpful partners to the business interests of the City and for the welfare of the nation as a whole”. His Royal Highness prepares to fly a VW Beetle-engined ACCOMPLISHED AVIATOR Rollason Turbulent in 1959. It is the only single-seater ever By now you will all doubtless have read a plethora of flown by a member of the Royal Family and is currently obituaries citing the Duke’s excellent work and personal approaching the end of an eight-year rebuild at Derby airfield attributes. This is not the place to repeat them; rather, we where students completing the Duke of Edinburgh's Award would like to pay tribute to His Royal Highness as a pilot, have helped in the restoration. as an advocate for aviation and as a proponent of this Company. Prince Philip was a keen and able aviator. He gained his RAF ‘wings’ in 1953, his helicopter wings in 1956 and his private pilot's licence in 1959; achieving a total of 5,986 hours in 59 types of aircraft. His final flight was on 11th August 1997 from Carlisle to Islay. Writing in The Times shortly after the Duke’s passing, author Gyles Brandreth recalled asking the Prince whether his life had been enjoyable.