King's Cup Air Race

Info about King’s Cup Air Race winners

Hi,
I followed your discussion about the winners of King’s Cup Air Races. In EBAY you can get information about your blancs by calling following items: 380117961738, 380117960519, 380117959510, 380117956665, 380117955925, 380117954890, 380117953942, 380117953209,380117952254, 380117949355, 380117947394, 380117946428.

Hats off by such engaged pilots like you

Best wishes from Germany
ww2airmen

Thanks for re-discovering this thread, which has answered a question for me.
I always thought that the Kings Cup air race was held at the 1983 Wethersfield Airshow, but looking at the list of events, it was an F/1 race.
On the Friday before the show, I was on my way home to High Garrett, Braintree, having carried out a survey in Thaxted, having to pass through Wethersfield any way, I thought I’d wander up the Toppesfield road and see if there were any early arrivals.
The airfield is not very good for seeing anything from the road so I went to the north crash gate. On the way I noticed swarms of small brightly coloured a/c buzzing about but didn’t register what was happening.
When I got to the gate, I wondered what the strange pylon was that had been erected just inside, I soon found out, it was one of the turning points and the competitors were having a practice, flying so low that I got very nervous and beat a hasty retreat, how they were missing the security fence was beyond me.
I don’t remember much about the event on the day of the airshow, I was probably more interested in the heavy metal and American hospitality on the day, I think I’d just aquired my new toy which was a very nice Canon 100-400 telephoto so I’ve probably got some good slides of the event somewhere.

Alex henshaw

It looks like this thread is dormnt, but you never know. I am not a serious aviation buff and wouldn’t pretend to be. However, I am a new friend of The irrepressible Alex Henshaw. Those who are interested enough to check out my website, may well be in for a bit of a treat. Remember to thoroughly check out the site including its blog

www.carvery.zoomshare.com
[email]carvery@zoomshare.com[/email]

Transportraits, please do post them they will be of great intrest and a bit of history.

Sonic boom at Southend WOW shame they cant do it anymore event at Seaside events.

Supermarine Spitfire G-AISU/AB910 was also damaged in heavy landing at the same event.

I was at the 1953 air races at Southend! I still have one or two photos from the day, though the quality is not good enough to be worth posting (I was only about 11 and the camera was an ancient box Brownie). There was a tragedy on the day and my memory tells me it occurred in the final event, the King’s Cup itself, when two Proctors collided over the (still) open land to the south-east of the airport, having just passed over Warner’s Bridge (a road bridge over the Southend-Liverpool St rail line) and over the crowd immediately prior to that. One of them, G-AKWV, fell to earth and instantly burst into flame. The pilot was killed. The other aircraft landed safely, with a damaged leading-edge if I recall correctly. The Navy Dragonfly (WS-51) was scrambled to the scene, but by the time it had started-up, lifted-off and got there the Proctor had all but been consumed. Along with a horde of other morbid souls, I tramped over there at the end of the day, to see an aeroplane-shaped patch of blackened earth with the engine sitting at the front end and a few bits of charred wood and metal fittings. The police had thrown a rope barrier around the scene, but it was only a few feet from the outline, so we could all see the details quite clearly.

If I am right as to the race, then the event mentioned by Merlin3945 in an earlier posting was not the one and only time there has been a death in the King’s Cup. Come to think of it, Miles Falcon Major G-AENG crashed at the foot of Scarborough Cliffs during the 1937 King’s Cup, with the loss of both crew members.

The course flown by the aircraft in the races that day at Southend may have varied according to event, I do not know, but all of them saw the participating aircraft flying across the airfield from north-west to south-east, along the line of what is now the unused ‘short’ concrete runway (Southend was all-grass in 1953) several times during each race. The open-to-the-public area ran from the old clubhouse near the current control tower round the southeast corner and along the eastern boundary by the rail line up to a point somewhere near where the Vulcan G-VJET is current parked. I guess the rope barriers ran more or less where the current taxi-way lies. So every race saw entrants passing straight over the crowd (and it was quite a public turnout) every lap and the finishing line was quite close to the front og the public enclosure near that southj-east corner. If you think all that a touch hairy, it was nothing compared to the French Stampes doing formation stall turns time after time right over the crowd! At the bottom I doubt they were much more than 20 feet above our heads and the images remain very vivid in my memory.

The one other memorable event of the day for me was the solo Sabre breaking the sound barrier (in a shallow dive, of course) aimed at the airfield from the south-east. The ‘boom’ was most distinctive and we all clearly saw the aicraft pulling out of its dive. Sonic booms were still a rare novelty then, so one was deliberately built-in to air shows and the like (so long as an intended participant was actually capable of achieving Mach 1) as a public ‘amusement’. Ah, those were the days……

RA – a useful book to have (if you can find it) is Putnam’s ‘British Racing & Record Breaking Aircraft’, published in 1970.

Thanks for that – I’ll see if I can track down a copy.

King’s Cup 1930

Somebody told me that either same picture or a picture of the same event was published in Flight magazine and that it might be available from their archives although i can’t seem to get a contact for Flight on the web.

King’s Cup

Slowflyer – the book that I mentioned in my previous post – ‘British Racing & Record Breaking Aircraft’ – has a picture on p.211 of D.H.60M Moth serial G-AAXG. The pilot is named as A.S. (Alan) Butler, who was presumably your wife’s grandpa. The year was indeed 1930. Copyright of this photograph in the book is ascribed to Hawker Siddeley – perhaps those nice people at the DH Museum in London Colney may have a lead on how to obtain a print?
Of course, there is always the possibility that this is a ‘stock’ shot of the aircraft and may not relate to the race at all.

Many Thanks. Will upfollow.

Slowflyer

Thanks OF for the memory. Note that in event one you have the Autocar with an incorrect reg. G-AY.. came a lot later than 52. Didn’t think that they had “out of sequences ” that early though.

Thought you may like to see a 1930’s Kings Cup entrant currently being worked on in Sydney.

We hope to get her flying with Pobjoy engined VH-UVC either at the end of this year or the start of next.

As Bert Rutan says, “We do it for the “F” word, we do it for FUN”

The 1952 Kings Cup was held at Southend I have copied the flying programme: just look at events 8 & 10!

The 1953 National Air Races
The National Air Racesof 1953 were held at Southend Airport on the 20th June. The Flying programme begain at 2:30pm:

Event One: Grosvenor Challenge Cup Air Race:
Chilton DW1 G-AESZ
Taylorcraft Plus D G-AHGZ
Taylorcraft Plus D G-AHGW
DH Moth Minor G-AFPN
DH Tiger Moth G-ADHE
Auster Autocar G-AMFP
Auster Autocar G-AYJJ
Hawker Tom-Tit G-AFTA
Miles Messenger 4a G-ALBE
Miles Messenger 4a G-AKZX
DH Leopard Moth LN-TVT

Event Two: Landings.

Event Three: The Norton-Griffiths Challenge Trophy Air Race:
Miles Hawk Trainer G-AIYD
Miles Messenger 2a G-AJYZ
Miles Messenger 2a G-AJFH
Miles Hawk Trainer 3 G-AKPE
Miles Whitney Straight G-AEUJ
Miles Hawk Major G-ACYO
DH Leopard Moth G-ACMA
DH Chipmunk G-AKDN
Miles Hawk Trainer 3 G-AKRV
Percival Proctor 5 G-AHWU
Percival Proctor 5 G-AHWR
Perciavl Proctor 5 G-AMTJ

Event Four:
Landings.

Event Five: The Kemsley Challenge Trophy Air Race:
Miles Falcon-six G-ADTD
Percival Proctor 3 G-AIKJ
Percival Proctor 1 G-AVHG
Percival Proctor 1 G-AHGA
Percival Proctor 1 G-AHNA
Percival Proctor 3 G-AKWV
Hawker Hart G-ABMR
Miles Nighthawk G-AGWT
Miles Gemini 1a G-AKKB
Miles Falcon-six G-AECC
Miles Hawk Speed Six G-ADGP
Percival Mew Gull 2 G-AEXF

Event Six:
Landings.

Event Seven:
Solo display of aerobatics by a Gloster Meteor T7 of the Central Flying School of the RAF Little Rissington.

Event Eight:
Four RAF English Electric Canberra B2’s of 101Sqn.

Event Nine:
Solo display of aerobatics by a North American Sabre if the Royal Canadian Air Force Fighter Wing North Luffenham.

Event Ten:
Four RCAF North American Sabres perform team aerobatics from North Luffenham.

Event Eleven:
Winching demonstration by a Royal Navy Westlands-Sikorsky Dragonfly HR3 of 705Sqn.

Event Twelve: The Kings Cup Air Race.
All British First Four highest placed in the first three races.

Event Thirteen:
Landings

Event Fourteen:
Patrouille D’Etampes Display of aerobatics by the French Aerobatic Squadron, Nord SV4C Stample’s

Event Fifteen:
Joy Flights & departure of visiting aircraft

Slowflyer – further examination of the photo previously mentioned reveals that it has what appears to be a ‘racing’ number on the side, which is either ’55’ or ’65’, so perhaps it could be in the context of the race.

King’s Cup race 1930 and 1931:Can anyone help with trying to find original literature from that race or pictures? My wife’s grandad came 2nd in, I think, 1930 in a DH MOTH60. Any leads appreciated. Thanks

Slowflyer – the book that I mentioned in my previous post – ‘British Racing & Record Breaking Aircraft’ – has a picture on p.211 of D.H.60M Moth serial G-AAXG. The pilot is named as A.S. (Alan) Butler, who was presumably your wife’s grandpa. The year was indeed 1930. Copyright of this photograph in the book is ascribed to Hawker Siddeley – perhaps those nice people at the DH Museum in London Colney may have a lead on how to obtain a print?
Of course, there is always the possibility that this is a ‘stock’ shot of the aircraft and may not relate to the race at all.

I think Charles Masefield’s P-51 was white, not gloss but more matt – it looked as if someone had had a tin of Dulux eggshell white they didn’t know what to do with.

Roger Smith.

Hi Roger,

You are right about the colors. We did talk about this on a different thread last year. It also wore roundels from the Air Force of Katanga as part of its use in the movie “Dark of the sun” starring Rod Taylor.

http://forum.keypublishing.com/showthread.php?t=50101&page=1&highlight=N6356T

T J

Odd fact – According to Putnam’s ‘Blackburn Aircraft since 1909’ a brace of Kangeroo late-WW1 era bombers were entered in the first Kings Cup in 1922, a mind-boggling idea these days but fairly typical of the spirit of the time, I suppose. They didn’t make it to the finish.
RA – a useful book to have (if you can find it) is Putnam’s ‘British Racing & Record Breaking Aircraft’, published in 1970.

Haven’t visited British Pathe for a while. Just did, and downloaded the Kings Cup race from 1967. Great footage showing Charles Masefield winning in P-51D N6356T. 😀 All silver with race #100, and British roundels. Lots of gems in that archive. 😎

T J Johansen

I think Charles Masefield’s P-51 was white, not gloss but more matt – it looked as if someone had had a tin of Dulux eggshell white they didn’t know what to do with.

Roger Smith.

Not the King’s Cup but….

I thought these may be of interest. Alex Henshaw won in 1936 and 1937 – note the autograph. I can scan my 1937 programme if anyone’s interested.

He won the Kings Cup in 1938 though in G-AEXF, as a rather fine Michael Turner print on my wall attests 🙂

TT

King’s Cup race 1930 and 1931:Can anyone help with trying to find original literature from that race or pictures? My wife’s grandad came 2nd in, I think, 1930 in a DH MOTH60. Any leads appreciated. Thanks

During the Kings Cup Air Race 1928 one particular aircraft crashed while it is thought the pilot became disorientated in low cloud. He crashed near St Marys loch in the Borders.

Have a look here and search for ANEC Missel Thrush G-EBPI. Just searching by the serial will give you a look at the photos from our outing. Bloody hard work treking those hills for what little was found but worth every step to know that we found the aircraft.

To my knowledge he was the only fatality ever during the air races but if you know different then please let me know. Contacts are on the site homepage.

Kings Cup Air race

Haven’t visited British Pathe for a while. Just did, and downloaded the Kings Cup race from 1967. Great footage showing Charles Masefield winning in P-51D N6356T. 😀 All silver with race #100, and British roundels. Lots of gems in that archive. 😎

T J Johansen

Just found this thread,I was present at that air race,Tollerton,Nottingham
Unfortunately my camera wasn’t working,I seemto remember Sheila Scott taking part in her round the world cessna.