Any aviator will tell you that there is a direct correlation between the words “fast and loud” and airplanes and automobiles. My late colleague Ron Dick always referred to them as motorcars . . . very British. This tale is also very British.
The years after World War II in England were marked by a contrast between wartime rationing, which continued well into the 1950s, and the national importance of maintaining the Royal Air Force . . . the RAF. After all, they had defended the realm when the stakes were very high in 1940 and then carried out the only offensive available at that time. Bomber Command attacked Germany nearly every night.
Fighter Command was quickly supplied with the latest and fastest airplanes . . . the jet fighter. The advent of jets at the end of the war brought an end to the legendary fighters from just a few years before: the Spitfire and the Hurricane.
No. 64 Squadron was flying the latest, the Meteor 8. The pilots of No. 64 Squadron decided to expand their speed and noise obsession to include the motorcars they drove. Postwar pilots were young men who relished their opportunities to have the latest that filled the bill for fast and loud.
The entire group decided to drive the prewar Riley MPH, built for two years, in 1934 and 1935. Ron happened to have serial No. 1. There is a wonderful photograph of the pilots and their sports cars all together.
Ron always referred to the RAF as the greatest flying club on Earth. He said, “We got to fly these jets, as fast as they would go and often very low . . . and the Queen was paying us!”
No. 64 Squadron developed a flight demonstration team that became very well-known across the U.K. for its precision and formation displays. The team was chosen to be the fighter squadron in the huge RAF flyover for Queen Elizabeth’s coronation in 1953.
As they had to stay sharp, the team had to practice its skills and displays quite often. Ron told me that once an exercise was completed, or after an airshow some distance from where they were based at Duxford, the return flights often involved tail-chasing simulated dogfights. As he said with a smile, “After all, we had to stay sharp, as we were the tip of the sword.”
In the evenings, they struck out from the base in their Rileys and descended on the local pubs. Near the base, there is a small village where the houses are right next to the roadway. The village is named UGLI, and with the houses that close to the road . . . the Rileys would make a very satisfying roar, which then echoed . . . very loudly at 2 a.m. as they raced back before curfew.
Fast and Loud.
Ron’s career with the RAF spanned more than 38 years. He flew almost 60 different types of aircraft, including the huge delta-winged Avro Vulcan. That was after the RAF decided to have fighter pilots fly the big bombers when all the NATO air forces went to extremely low-level operations. The commanders felt they needed pilots with experience operating very close to the ground while going very fast.
There is no other large jet than the Vulcan to fill the bill of fast and loud. A good example of that is a photograph taken by a New Zealander who was fishing in Milford Sound when Ron flew through the sound at pretty much water level, looking up at the speeding Vulcan.
His career concluded with an assignment as defense attaché to the U.S. government from the U.K. His operation of any motorcar brought out the former fighter pilot. He said once that he was pulled over for speeding and greeted the cop with a very British . . . “Good afternoon, Constable. Was I going too fast?” He smiled and said, “I was really motoring.”
Blue Skies & Tailwinds is sponsored by Sinclair Community College and produced at the Eichelberger Center for Community Voices at WYSO.
