July 2025

In this month’s edition:

  • Down on the Farm 78 last month 6/25 – Tony Palmer
  • Aviation Film Review: ‘The Sound Barrier’ Dir. David Lean, 1952 – Richard Griffiths
  • VoltAero launches hybrid powertrain for home builds
  • Online Video: Paragliding in a Thunderstorm – Paul Griffin
  • Chilsfold Farm Fly-in 21 June 2025
  • Your Autonomous Air Taxi will be arriving soon (possibly)

Down on the farm 78 last month 6/25

Klemm L25C G-ACXE

We had a puncture the other day and removed the tyre to find the tube was perished from old age; it must have been at least 20 to 25 years old. We bought a pair off new tubes of the internet and replaced both. Rubber does suffer old age I am afraid.( A bit like humans!!)

Prentice G-APPL VR189

I have been away on holiday and have had a reply from the RAF re: colour scheme without displaying its civilian reg. So it looks all OK, I just need to send them a bit more info and fill in forms and it should be OK.

Twin Otter over Grand Canyon

While on Holiday in the USA we took a ride in a Twin Otter ( my first) of the Grand Canyon, breath taking!! The shear size of it.

Battle of Britain air show at Headcorn

I got back from holiday late on the Saturday and went to Headcorn with Jim Copeman on the Sunday as they had the only Prentice flying in the UK (probably anywhere)on display parked and flying. We wanted to speak to the pilot with regard to operating limitations and to see how long it took to get off the ground and land.

The other flying exhibits were good with Spitfire, Hurricane, Sally B, C47, Strikemaster, Red Arrows and many more. My phone is not allowing e mails since I left for USA so pictures will have to wait.

Next club night July 2th 2025

We will be having the annual Palmersfarm flyin again this year on the 2nd of August, all are invited and Lesley will be providing the catering again this year. I am not sure what the theme will be at the moment (we will keep it as a surprise) come as you are unless you are advised differently. The Alvis club will be attending with a sample of motoring history

The club subscriptions will stay at £25 this year as it just covered the Xmas meal cost and will hopefully cover next year’s prices.

Please, PLEASE can we have club members come up with things to do this year!!! Maybe organise trips out to museums, flyouts, someone to do an interesting talk??

Tony Palmer

Aviation Film Review: ‘The Sound Barrier’ Dir. David Lean, 1952

After a conversation during our Gatwick Aviation Museum visit last month, Paul Griffin lent me a DVD of David Lean’s 1952 film, ‘The Sound Barrier’. It features aircraft of the glory days of British aviation; the sort the museum holds. It’s certainly an interesting semi-documentary film, with lots of technical detail, some of it wrong, but less than many current aviation films. It’s a compelling drama too.

For a summary of the plot, see the film’s Wikipedia entry. In brief: an obsessed millionaire aviation industrialist is determined to break the sound barrier regardless of the cost in human life. It has a slightly current resonance (sound barrier / go to Mars).

The film is the same age as me, and what a different world I was born into. It is actually starts a few years earlier at the end of the Second World War. The charming manners and open demeanour of the characters is not of the current age. However there is an air of darkness that pervades the film, as just as in real life at the time, being a test pilot was a very risky career choice.

The excerpt shown above contains perhaps the most egregious error; the myth of inevitable control reversal at Mach one. It turns out that it is an artifact of lack of stiffness in the aircraft structure, where the elevators act like trim-tabs and twist the horizontal tailplane. When Chuck Yeager saw the film his comment was “any pilot who attempted to break the sound barrier in the manner portrayed in the film [forcing the stick forward to pull out of a dive] would have been killed.” Actually from childhood I believed that was the way to fly supersonic; just as well I never got to pilot Concorde! I guess I got that idea second hand from this film, which might show how influential it was.

Another ‘error’ perpetrated by the film was the idea that Britain was first to break the sound barrier. The aforementioned American, Chuck Yeager would beg to differ. However quite a few recent films have America claiming British achievements, so we can let that one go.

So, to the aviation bits: The filming was done from the Vickers aerodrome at Chilbolton. Ariel sequences were filmed firstly from an Avro Lancaster (where at altitude all the film crew became unconscious) then a Vickers Valetta. Curiously the aircraft appearing were credited, but not all of the actors. They were; de Havilland Comet (the square window pre-metal fatigue version), Supermarine Attacker, de Havilland Vampire, Supermarine Swift and a Rolls-Royce Avon engine (though I don’t believe that was actually the engine shown). The scene in which the engine appeared, where the Ralph Richardson and Nigel Patrick characters stand in the test cell while it is spooled up, reminded me of a friend who used to test prototype jet engines, telling me what happens when a turbine ring explodes; you really don’t want to be in there…

There is also an uncredited Spitfire (the clipped wing version) and a Tiger Moth making a brief appearance – and dramatic exit.

Of local interest, there are scenes set at Seaford Head, and even Shoreham gets a disparaging mention.

If you haven’t seen it, it’s one of those films you should, if only to bask for a moment in the embraces of a more refined yet adventurous age. Paul is happy to lend you the DVD.

[Suggestions for other aviation films to review, or even better your reviews of aviation films welcome.]

Richard Griffiths

VoltAero launches hybrid powertrain for home builds

Fancy updating your aircraft with to hybrid power? The French electric aircraft company, VoltAero have what you need. Promising a maximum power output of nearly 300 HP while burning 28 litres per hour at cruise with a TBO of 1,500 hours, their combination of Kawasaki H2SX engine and electric motor is available. Let me know what it costs when you buy one. Details here: voltaero.aero/propulsion/hpu-210

Paragliding in a Thunderstorm

If you needed to be reminded about the perils of flying near a thunderstorm….

This YouTube video tells the fascinating tale of a woman paraglider who gets sucked up into a storm during a competition in New Zealand. It’s enough to put anyone off taking up the sport! Surprisingly, after the incident, she wants to get straight back into the air as soon as she is physically fit. Well worth a 50 min watch.

Paul Griffin

Chilsfold Farm Fly-in 21st June 2025

Morris dancers were up early on the 21st to welcome the solstice, and a few pilots too. The Shoreham TAF had rather too much thunderstorm for my microlight

TAF EGKA 210825Z 2109/2118 10009KT CAVOK PROB30 TEMPO 2111/2115 11015G25KT 3000 +SHRA +TSGS=

so I drove in. It didn’t stop a fleet of Bristells, and other aircraft making it though. The event has been captured by Richard Hasler in the slide show below.

As Richard H said “Farry was as generous as always, weather was kind and a good time had by all.”

Your Autonomous Air Taxi will be arriving soon (possibly)

At the Paris Air Show, the FAA has announced partnership with Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the UK to streamline certification and airworthiness for air taxis. Several are in development for launch before the end of the decade. Details in this US trade magazine website, Transport Topics.

Next Strut ‘Club Night’

At The Longshore is on Wednesday 2nd July, 7:30 pm.

For a full list of events go to the website Events page.