“Gradually the time went along, and Hawker was still steadily travelling at his 400 feet altitude. Then Sopwith appeared on the scene at about four o’clock, and brought out his 70 h.p. Gnome Tractor biplane with the intention of cheering Hawker up a little. Taking Charteris as a passenger, he did one or two circuits, climbing up to Hawker’s level, then very skilfully cut across a sharp turn and came alongside. Hawker, in fear of not lasting out the time, had throttled down to the smallest amount he could fly with so as to economise petrol and oil; his machine was therefore very slow, and Sopwith had to switch off and dive a little so as not to pass him. The two on the Tractor waved frantically, and shouted encouragements, which, of course, Hawker could not hear at all, but which he undoubtedly understood. Down planed the Tractor again, leaving Hawker with just another half-hour to go through to equal Raynham’s time (which, by the way, was for 1 hour 35 minutes the British Duration Record).
“The next half hour was the worst period experienced by a great number of the Brooklands clan, and it is doubtful if any other event ever held on the ground has caused so much interest. Tea was forgotten altogether, and exact minutes and seconds were in the greatest demand, everybody walking about watch in hand. After ten more minutes had passed it was observed that Hawker had throttled really to the very limit so as not to run the slightest risk of running short of petrol. The machine was flying at a terrible angle, with the tail pointing strongly earthwards, and the spectators began to feel nervous. Another shutter was acquired, on which was whitewashed: ‘Keep your tail up,’ and this was displayed for the pilot, who, however, took but little notice of it.
“Gradually the minutes passed, and a little crowd gathered round the timekeeper, who slowly (horribly slowly to some) counted 9 minutes, 8 minutes, and so on. ‘One more circuit will do it!’ someone cried, and it did, and as the last seconds passed away, never to be recalled, a huge sigh escaped from the lips of everybody. To some it was a sigh of relief, to others perhaps not, but now the crisis was over everybody was sporting enough to express admiration for a very plucky flight.
“Hawker had evidently had his eye glued to the clock which he carried on board, for now his tail was up high again, the machine sped away full of life, and the time also slipped by much faster now that the face of the watch was not being scrutinised so carefully. Another half hour passed and darkness began to close in. It had been arranged that a huge petrol fire should be lit when it was time for Hawker to come down, an hour after sunset being 5.48 p.m. It was, however, quite dark at 5.20, and a difficult problem arose in the minds of those on the ground. It was naturally wished to make the flight as long as possible, and therefore to light the bonfire then would have been to bring him down unnecessarily early; on the other hand, complete darkness might quite possibly cause him to lose himself. A better arrangement would have been to light one fire half an hour before the specified finish, another one a quarter of an hour later, and a third when the time was up, leaving the whole three for him to land by.
“Any misgivings that may have remained in the minds of a few regarding the condition of the engine were quickly put at rest by Hawker at about 5.30 opening the throttle wide and shooting up to between 1,200 and 1,500 feet in so short a space of time as would have made some of our military competitors envious. It was evident he did this to run no risk of petrol running out when he was over the sewage farm or behind the sheds at a low altitude. It was now quite dark, and wanted but ten minutes to the time limit. At this stage one was impressed by the appearance of the long flame from the exhaust. The exhaust pipes were apparently quite red hot the whole time.
“Suddenly Hawker was seen to be intent on making a landing without further delay, and he came down in a perfectly straight line from the far end of the ground with the engine about half throttled. He made a very shallow angle of descent, apparently with the intention of striking as gradually as possible, as the earth could not be seen at all. Those in charge of the bonfires instantly realised the situation, and applied matches to the petrol, which flared up in the nick of time. Hawker straightened up, closed the throttle, and made a perfect landing seven minutes before the time limit.
“There was a rush for the spot where the machine was, and the next five minutes were occupied in cheering, congratulating, shaking hands and patting backs. Hawker climbed out of his seat, having been exactly 8 hours 23 minutes in the air, but he looked easily capable of undergoing the same trial again.
“Relating his experience, Hawker said: ‘When I got away first at about 9.15 I thought the new magneto had been timed incorrectly, because the engine was only turning at 1,600, and would hardly carry the load; before I had done a circuit, however, I discovered it was only a case of getting the engine warm, this taking a particularly long time, because we had fitted two radiators where there only used to be one, even in the summer, and I was carrying nearly six gallons of water all told. This I found afterwards to be really too much, because towards the end I tried to warm my hand on the water-pipe which runs from the bottom of the radiators and found it too cold to touch.
“‘Within five minutes of the start the engine was turning round at just over 2,000 revolutions per minute, and I realised that if I wanted to economise I must throttle down a little. This I did, and ran along steadily at about 1,800 revolutions. I was extremely worried to think that we had let Raynham get such a lead, but there was no hope for it, so I settled down to a long, slow job, determined to stick to it to the end.
“‘I was quite snug and warm inside the little body that had been provided, and the weather throughout was ideal. The engine ran splendidly, and I can truthfully say that it never made a single misfire for the whole period of 8 hours 23 minutes.