An Cosantóir February 2016 www.dfmagazine.ie
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Reference to the Concorde reminds us that while Dux-
ford is principally a war museum, it is also home to the
finest collection of British airliners under the auspices
of the Duxford Aviation Society, whose members were
present to permit access to almost all of their aircraft for
a modest fee.
Prior to the flying activities, it was possible to walk the
flight line for a small consideration and thousands of folk
took the opportunity to so do. It was a pleasure to wan-
der close enough to many of the aircraft that would be
taking to the skies after lunch; the presence of re-enac-
tors, dressed in period RAF uniform, only added to the
authenticity of the occasion in my own view but others
have taken the opposite contention, claiming that they
merely serve to get on the way of a good photograph!
The show commenced at 1400 hours, as we say in
military-speak, and displayed the types in RAF service
at the outbreak of the war, including a Gladiator, a Tiger
Moth, a Stearman, a Hawk 75 and a pair of Hawker
Nimrod biplanes. Something of a surprise was the flying
display involving a Hornet Moth and a Kirby Kite glider,
which had been used early in the war to test the detec-
tion abilities of the radar systems, especially those ar-
rayed along the south coast. Never having heard of this
operation, I was even more amazed to hear of the trials,
which included an autogyro to examine the effects it
might have on the radar picture, as it was called. Because
there is no extant period airworthy autogyros on the
circuit a modern RotorSport Caliduswas displayed, rather
effectively, I thought.
The Gladiator was a highly manoeuvrable
fighter in its time and this was shown to
full advantage at Duxford.
