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the aerodrome with retractable undercarriage down and wing-flaps
fully extended, flying as low as possible. It was overtaken by
another machine flying at top speed permissible at low altitudes.
Another machine with enormous speed is the Hawker Hurricane,
one of which completed a remarkable journey from Edinburgh to
London in January at over 400 miles an hour. These machines
figured largely in the programme at another aerodrome near London,
where visitors saw two Hurricanes, which can normally climb to a
height of 15,000 feet in seven minutes, engage in an altitude race.
Efficiency and Power.
There was not so much display of individual aerobatics as
usual, formation flying having pride of place this year. Squadron
movements had been perfected, and experts claimed that better
formation flying had never been seen anywhere. One squadron of
Hurricanes marched like guardsmen to and fro across the sky, broke
up, in a succession of stalled turns, into individual aircraft
diving over the heads of the crowds of spectators, and then
zoomed upwards and scattered themselves in apparent carelessness
about the horizon.
During the afternoon
Squadron-Leader George Stainforth,
former world speed record holder, flew a Spitfire over 1,000 miles
at an average speed of over 300 miles an hour, "just as an after-
noon jaunt. And this was simply normal cruising speed, the
machine never was flown at "full-out" speed.
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As demonstrations of air efficiency the many displays were
imposing spectacles, but it was impossible to show fully the
enormous increase in British air strength during the past few
years. When a greatly increased programme of construction was
announced in February, 1956, it was clearly beyond the capacity
of the aircraft industry to execute it. The help of the motor-
car industry was therefore enlisted and eight "shadow" factories
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