CHAPTER XI
Harry got back to England on Saturday night, June 6th, 1914, and on the Sunday afternoon was at Brooklands, flying both the two-seater Sopwith and the Tweenie. He won an impromptu race with Sippé, who flew a Bristol. “Aeolus,” commenting in Flight on June 12th, said: “Place Hawker anywhere where he can get his hands on a machine, and you simply can’t keep him on the ground.”
On Tuesday, June 16th, ten days after his return from Australia, Harry looped-the-loop for the first time, both with engine on and off. He was flying the 100 h.p. machine. On the Wednesday he did twelve loops in succession. These displays were the forerunners of the looping exhibitions which Harry arranged to give at Brooklands every Sunday afternoon during the summer on the 100 h.p. Sopwith Scout.
Harry flew to Hendon on the 100 h.p. machine on Saturday, June 20th, and on returning to Brooklands in the afternoon he gave another looping display. On Sunday, too, he was looping again.
While the Hendon-Manchester-Hendon race was in progress on Saturday, June 20th, Harry had the misfortune to be taken ill in the air. In this race he was the scratch man, and, being favourite on the 100 h.p. Gnome-engined Sopwith, it was a great pity he had to give up.
He left the aerodrome at a high speed, about 25 minutes after the previous starter, Lord Carbery. No news of his progress was received, but an hour later he was seen approaching Hendon again. He made a perfect landing, but was in a state of collapse, from which he failed to recover for several minutes. Actually he had been as far as Coventry, and had had a fairly rough passage. This affected his stomach, and, after getting into dense fog and feeling he would be overcome if he continued, he decided to return. His action in not having landed at once may be criticised, but the fact that he got back safely, if almost prostrate, is the best evidence that he knew what he could do. Moreover, he had not experienced a forced landing with this fast machine, therefore he could hardly be expected to know its capabilities in this respect.
Dr. Leakey, who attended Harry on this occasion, expressed the opinion that he was suffering slightly from concussion due to partial rarefaction of the air about the pilot’s seat of this fast machine. This would tend, he said, to cause tympanum of the ear while the roar of the motor compressed the air.
On Saturday, June 27th, an Aeroplane Handicap was held at Brooklands over a nine-mile course. Of the twelve machines entered, the slowest had a flying speed of 35 miles per hour, while the fastest, the latest Sopwith piloted by Harry, was capable of 111 miles per hour. But he was too heavily handicapped, and the race went to Mahl, who was flying the 80 h.p. two-seater Sopwith.
The same evening Harry had a very narrow escape. About 7 o’clock he took up the 100 h.p. (monosoupape) Gnome Scout, and at 1,200 feet looped-the-loop with the engine shut off. The loop was effected properly, but when he had got the machine back on what seemed to be an even keel, it got into a spinning nose-dive. Seen from the paddock, the machine first dived vertically and then began to spin round and round about its line of descent, descending comparatively slowly. After a while—only a few seconds that seemed ages—the tail swung out and the dive resolved itself into a spiral form. Finally the machine crashed on its right wing in a coppice. The whole flight was described as ‘looking like a leaf falling,’ and the fact that Harry landed on the wing undoubtedly broke the fall and saved his life. As it was, he was found, standing by the machine, in the thick undergrowth, none the worse for the shaking.