Thrilling Aerial Display

Nearly 6000 people assembled at Darton Field one evening towards the end of last month to watch a thrilling display by the aerobatic team of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, and to get their closest-yet view of a Canberra bomber showing its paces.

It was a cold, overcast evening, and the display ended in deepening twilight, making photography difficult.

The Canberra made a number of speed and low-level runs over the aerodrome before zooming off into the clouds with a terrific display of power. Then the Harvards took over and gave a fine exhibition of formation aerobatics, after which the leader of the team gave a solo display.

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With smoke trailing from their exhausts, Harvards sweep into the air above Darton Field.

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Looping the loop

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Fantastic patterns

A high degree of skill was shown by all the pilots who took part in the display, not least the man piloting the big Bristol Freighter, whose supply drops were right on the target. The three pictures above show the big plane coming in to land on arrival on the Sunday. At top it comes in to the field past an NAC DC.3, and the other pictures show it making a perfect 3-point landing.

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The Harvards taxi-ing over the aerodrome, still in perfect formation.