A really cool race to mark fifty years since Louis Bleriot first flew across the English Channel. It would make a cracking film, sort of Those Magnificent Men In Their Flying Machines meets It’s A Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World.
Here are some articles I came across in The Press newspaper, from Christchurch, New Zealand.
From The Press, 14 July 1959.
Arch To Arc In 58 Minutes
(NZ Press Association—Copyright (Rec. 11.30 p.m.) LONDON, July 13.
Captain Rory Walker, of the Special Air Service, today left the Marble Arch in London and, travelling by motor-cycle, boat, helicopter and jet aircraft, arrived at the Arc de Triomphe in Paris 57min 48sec later. The distance is 214 miles.
He was the first contestant to arrive in a race of speed and ingenuity between 131 Frenchmen and Britons to reach the heart of either capital for a £10,000 prize. The race marks the fiftieth anniversary of Bleriot’s first cross-Channel flight.
Captain Walker’s route from the Marble Arch check point was motor-cycle and dinghy to Chelsea Reach, helicopter to Biggin Hill, Provost jet to Villacoublay, helicopter to Issy and motor-cycle to the Arc.
A former Royal Air Force pilot, Keith Johnstone, the second arrival from Marble Arch, checked in at the Arc de Triomphe control post after completing the dash officially in one hour, three minutes and 59 seconds.
Johnstone told reporters his journey went off “very smoothly” except for the final stretch when he ran into three red traffic lights. He travelled from Issy in a supercharged sports car.
Britain’s Stirling Moss, who left only one minute behind Captain Walker, had still not arrived at the Arc half an hour after Captain Walker’s arrival there.
At 9 a.m. G.M.T. Lord and Lady Montagu of Beaulieu, dressed in Edwardian clothes and with Lady Montagu at the wheel of a 1909 two-seater Humber, set off from the Arc for Le Bourget where a plane was waiting to take them — and the car — to Lydd, Kent. Their maximum land speed is 30 miles an hour. But they are candidates for the originality — not the speed — prize.
The contestants will cross the Channel in everything from jet airliners to a replica of Bleriot’s machine in the race, which is Sponsored by the London “Daily Mail.”
On land, improvisation and inventiveness will count. Vehicles will range from high-powered racing cars to vintage “old crocks” and some competitors will resort to running for at least part of the race.
Entrants seem to be split into three groups — serious attempts at winning the £10,000 prize for the fastest Journey; those seeking a £1000 special prize for initiative and originality in the type of transport; and those after publicity for themselves or firms sponsoring their attempts.
One entrant, Lieutenant Commander William Boaks, left the Marble Arch on roller skates for Millbank, by the Thames, but he said before he left that he did not expect to get to Paris today —he had no means of transport across the Channel.
By: Dave Homewood - 25th March 2024 at 09:26
From The Press on 25 July 1959:
R.A.F. Officer First In Bleriot Air Race
(Rec. 11 p.m.) LONDON. July 24
Squadron Leader Charles Maughan, the 35-year-old commander of No. 65 R.A.F. Hunter Squadron at Duxford, Cambridgeshire, was last night declared winner of the “Daily Mail” £10,000 Bleriot anniversary race between the Marble Arch, London, and the Arc de Triomphe. Paris.
His time for the 214-mile run of 40min 44sec, using motor-cycle, helicopter and Hunter jet, earned him a £5000 cheque and a trophy.
Second place went to Mr Eric Rylands, 50-year-old managing director of Skyways (41min 41sec), who received £2500, and third to Group Captain Norman Ryder, 44-year-old former Battle of Britain pilot (42min 6sec), who received £1500.
The £1000 prize for the most outstanding, original and praiseworthy effort was awarded to the Bealine syndicate—the combination of B.E.A. executives and colleagues who crossed by bus, diesel train, Comet and taxi in just over an hour.
According to the “Daily Mirror” today, more than 120 men and women out of the original 168 entries successfully completed the course. In the 11 days, just over 200 trips were made by competitors between the two capitals.
The newspaper said the money for the first prize would go to R.A.F. charities. But the solid silver trophy would be engraved to Squadron Leader Maughan and would remain his personal property.
Britain’s revolutionary Hovercraft will leave Calais for Dover today, pioneering a new means of cross-Channel travel on the eve of the anniversary celebrations for Bleriot’s historic flight 50 years ago.
The Saunders-Roe Hovercraft is expected to arrive this morning from Cowes in an Admiralty lighter. It will give a 60-minute demonstration in front of the Calais beach before setting out on its air-cushioned journey.
At the same time, more than 40 light aircraft from all over Europe will be landing in England for the two-day Bleriot air rally, which will include on Saturday a banquet and an open-air ball. On Sunday, aerobatic displays will be given by the R.A.F. and the French Air Force. The Hovercraft’s Channel crossing is expected to take about one hour. Bleriot made it in 37 minutes.
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March 25, 2024 at 9:26 am