Buccaneers landing head-on to each other, V-bomber scrambles, and the demonstration of a VTOL jet, were just some of the highlights that the crowds at the 1960 Farnborough airshow were able to enjoy.
The Flying Programme Described
UNRIVALLED HIGHLIGHT of the 21st S.B.A.C. flying display, which otherwise contains relatively little in technical novelty, is the supremacy in practical VTOL flight demonstrated daily by the Short SC.1. Reports of its successful transitions, now totalling something like 100 in number, have provided ample proof in recent months of flat-riser practicability, but the first public showing of its extraordinary capabilities is more convincing and impressive than any story can be.
The SC.1 rises on its shimmering lift-engine efflux as a symbol of significant progression towards the ideal of automatic VTOL operation for nearly all types of civil and military aircraft. Its three-axis, three-channel auto-stabilisation system has simultaneously facilitated the solution of the many complex problems of stability and control at zero airspeeds with those of lin…
