Video showing POW-005 clip from Charlie Powell's film. This is a clip of the Chivenor Battle of Britain Open Day Air Display on 18th September 1956. It begins with a slow landing of a Chipmunk, and then a flypast of a Miles M.57 Aerovan (see below). David Watkins tells me that the three Miles classic aircraft were from a local flying club Devonair. This design was taken over by Short Bros and became the Short Skyvan with a different fuselage and only two tails. It overflies a de Havilland Rapide which is taking off. The next aircraft to make a low flypast is the Miles M.17 Monarch (see below) G-AFJU which when first registered belonged to Sir VAGA Warrender at Heston 25Aug38. It entered RAF service on 1Apr40; was restored 2Mar46; withdrawn from use in 1964; preserved at East Fortune; restored 18Jul06. Next a Hunter takes off and is then seen making a break over the airfield. A Miles M-14A Hawk Trainer 3 (see below), or Magister, G-AKAT makes a low pass. This aircraft was still flying having been photographed at Breighton, England on 7Sep08. This is followed by aerobatics from the Hunter. The Miles Monarch makes another pass and then the Hunter is seen again briefly. Next there is a sequence of the Gloster Javelin and an aircraft appearing to taxy backwards but which I think is a view of a Hunter as the camera drives past? 3 Lincolns fly by in formation and the Javelin returns for an inverted flypast and a low level display with a final landing. Thanks to David Watkins and Fred Butcher we know that the Javelin was from 46 Sqn and was flown by the CO Harry White. They had just been the first RAF Squadron to be equipped with the Javelin.
Miles M.57 Aerovan was a British short range low cost transport designed and built by Miles Aircraft. It was a twin engine high wing monoplane of plastic bonded plywood construction with some spruce and metal parts. It had fixed tricycle undercarriage, three vertical tail and rudder units (one central and two as tailplane endplates, reminiscent of the Miles Messenger; but a large fin area was required by the deep sided forward fuselage), and a pod and boom fuselage. Two pilots were seated beneath a large clear perspex canopy which formed the front dorsal part of the pod, four or five circular windows providing a view for passengers on either side. The Aerovan was capable of lifting a family car, loaded through clamshell rear doors. Designed in 1944, the prototype was built in Liverpool and first flown in January 26, 1945. Aerovan production started in 1946 primarily for civil use, although examples were used briefly by the military of Israel and New Zealand. Production ended late in 1947. A licence was granted to manufacture the type in France. Two RNZAF machines were converted, unsuccessfully, for aerial fertiliser spreading. One Mark 6 was used for research with Hurel-Dubois high aspect ratio wing in 1957 and was then then known as the HDM.105. The prototype retroactively named the Mark 1 was later fitted with a 5/6th replica of the Armstrong Siddeley Mamba turboprop nacelle for the Miles Marathon. The last known surviving Aerovan was a Mk 6 operating in Italy in 1968. Most Aerovans Mks 3 and 4 were employed on passenger and freight services, charter work and joyriding in the U.K and in the Near East. The RNZAF evaluated two Aerovan 4s during 1950. The newly formed Israeli Air Force acquired a single Aerovan G-AJWI from the UK which entered service in June 1948. Able to use very short landing strips it was flown into settlements and Jerusalem airport in the face of defensive rifle fire. On 17 July 1948 it made a forced landing south of Tel Aviv and was destroyed by Palestinians. Specifications: Marks 2, 3, 4: Crew: 2; Capacity: 10; Length: 36 ft (10.97 m); Wingspan: 50 ft (15.24 m); Height: 13 ft 6 inches (4.1 m); Wing area: 390 sq. ft. (36.2 m^2); Empty weight: 3,000 lb (1,360 kg); Loaded weight: 5,800 lb (2,630 kg); Powerplant: 2 Blackburn Cirrus Major IIA inline piston, 150 hp (112 kW) each; Performance: Max speed: 127 mph (204 km/h); Cruise speed: 112 (180 km/h); Range: 400 miles. (645 km); Service ceiling 13,250 ft (4040 m); Rate of climb: 620 ft/min (3.1 m/s); Landing speed: 40 mph. (Source of data Wikipedia).
Miles M.17 Monarch was a British, light, touring aeroplane of the 1930s. It was a single-engine, three-seat, cabin monoplane with a fixed, tailwheel undercarriage. The last civil type produced by Phillips and Powis before the war, the Monarch was a development of their earlier Whitney Straight. Compared to its sibling, the Monarch had an enlarged fuselage, allowing provision of a third seat in part of what had been the luggage space. Eleven aircraft were built between 1938 and 1939, six of these to British customers, the rest going to export. On the outbreak of war, five of the British-registered machines were impressed by the Air Ministry; one machine belonging to Rolls-Royce acquired camouflage paint but remained in its owner's service. All but one of these survived the war, though a Dutch-registered aeroplane (PH-ATP) was destroyed in the Luftwaffe raid on Schiphol on 10 May 1940. In the Fifties, one Monarch (G-AIDE) enjoyed some success as a racer in the hamds of W.P. Bowles. For the most part, the remaining Monarchs led uneventful but useful careers; a number are known to have survived into the Sixties. Specifications: Crew: 1; Capacity: 2 passengers ; Length: 25 ft 11.75 in; Wingspan: 35 ft 7 in; Height: 8 ft 9.25 in; Wing area: 180 sq ft; Empty weight: 1,390 lb; Loaded weight: 2,200 lb; Powerplant: 1 De Havilland Gipsy Major I inline, 130 hp; Max speed: 145 mph; Cruise: 130 knots; Range: 600 mi; Service ceiling 17,400 ft; Rate of climb: 850 ft/min. (Source of data Wikipedia).
A Magister was a British two-seat monoplane basic trainer aircraft built by the Miles Aircraft for the Royal Air Force and Fleet Air Arm. Affectionately known as the Maggie, the Magister was based on Miles' civilian Hawk Major and Hawk Trainer and was the first monoplane designed specifically as a trainer for the RAF. As a low-wing monoplane, it was an ideal introduction to the Spitfire and Hurricane for new pilots. The Magister was designed to meet Air Ministry Specification T.40/36P and first flew in March 1937. The design was based on an open-cockpit, low wing cantilever monoplane of spruce structure covered in plywood. The wing centre section has no dihedral and is of constant section with outer sections having dihedral and tapering towards the tip. Split flaps were fitted as standard. The initial M.14 was followed by the definitive Miles M.14A Magister I with a taller rudder, deeper rear fuselage and, eventually, anti-spin strakes on rear fuselage. Notwithstanding the relatively large number built, contemporary glues used to assemble the wooden aircraft have not stood the test of time and seemingly only one remains airworthy on the British register in 2007 with a few others designated Hawk Trainers. Production began in October 1937 and by the start of the Second World War over 700 Magisters had entered service with RAF Elementary Flying Training Schools, eventually equipping 16 such schools as well as the Central Flying School. Large numbers of civilian Hawk Majors were also pressed into service as trainers. Production of the Magister continued until 1941 by which time 1,203 had been built by Miles and an additional 100 were built under licence in Turkey. After the war many Magisters were converted for civilian uses and redesignated as the Hawk Trainer III. Specifications: Crew: 2 (instructor and student); Length: 24 ft 7 in (7.51 m); Wingspan: 33 ft 10 in (10.31 m); Height: 9 ft 1 in (2.77 m); Wing area: 176 sq ft (16.3 sq m); Empty weight: 1,260 lb (570 kg); Loaded weight: 1,863 lb (845 kg); Powerplant: 1 de Havilland Gipsy Major I inverted inline piston, 130 hp (97 kW); Max speed: 132 mph at 1,000 ft (212 km/h); Range: 380 miles (610 km); Service ceiling 18,000 ft (5,500 m); Rate of climb: 850 ft/min (260 m/min); Wing loading: 10.6 lb/sq ft (51.8 kg/sq m); Power/mass: 0.07 hp/lb (0.11 kW/kg. (Source of data Wikipedia).
There is no sound with this clip. This clip runs for 2 mins 3 secs.