This Jet Age

Leslie Mitchell takes us through a lively review of the 1953 Farnborough Air Show, attended by luminaries such as HM King Hussein of Jordan - a keen flyer himself. The packed venue sees displays from the Vickers "Viscount"; the twin-rotored Bristol "173" helicopter; there are some aerobatics from an Oster "Egret"; the De Havilland "Comet II", capable of taking 44 passengers on trips in excess of 2,000 miles; the enormous Beverley freighter; Princess flying boat; the "Britannia"; the new "Canberra Olympus" aptly named as it has just set a new height record in excess of 63,000 feet; some more acrobatics from a De Havilland "110" - the same model that crashed at the 1952 show; the new anti-submarine "Sea Mew" from Short's who also displayed their variable winged "SB5" at the show. We get a glimpse of operations from within the air traffic control tower as the show continues with the almost sharklike Bolton "111A"; the Super Marine "Swift"; Neville Duke takes his Hawker "Hunter" noisily through the sound barrier; and the scimitar-winged "Victor" - which I thought resembled a flying orca - is also taken through it's paces. The film concludes with some photography of the Vickers "Valiant " (Mk 2); the "Vulcan" bomber and finally a formation featuring an AVRO "707". The narrative and the ably produced cinematography create an interesting short film demonstrating the wide range of aircraft in production at this show featuring far fewer experimental or developmental aircraft. I quite enjoyed this.