The 1927 Race

The 1926 race was the first were all the teams fielded pilots from their armed forces, and Britain was not to be caught out. Shortly before that race, the RAF formed the High Speed Flight at Felixstowe to provide a dedicated team to provide the British team at the 1927 race which was held at Venice in September of that year.

The Italians, confidant that a development of the 1926 winner, the Macchi M39, would beat all-comers began work to this end. However, problems with the engines saw one of the training flights end in the death of one of the Italian team members and these problems were never fully cured before the race. The United States entry did not gain any backing from the government and it was left to several individuals and generous donations from companies to fund the team's entry. This failed to materialise as trials had shown that the aircraft would not provide any serious competition to the European nations and the team withdrew.

Britain however, was in a very strong position. Having missed the 1926 event, the High Speed Flight had carried out many training flights on a Gloster I, but a number of differing designs were ordered to equip the team - a pair of Supermarine S5s, 3 Gloster IVs and a further type, the Shorts Crusader. This latter aircraft featured a very distinctive 'helmeted' cowling to cover its Bristol Mercury engine, and this gave rise to its name. All six aircraft were taken to Venice, the Crusader as the slowest being used as a training aircraft until it was written off in a crash when one of the wings caught a gust of wind and hit the water, spinning the aircraft round and splitting the fuselage. The pilot, Sqn Ldr LJ Slatter was fortunate to escape with bruising and facial injuries. The cause of the accident was later identified as crossed control wires being refitted when the Crusader was rebuilt after its journey.

The first aircraft to become airborne for the race was the Gloster IVB piloted by Flt Lt SM Kinkhead. This was followed at five-minute intervals by the first Italian Macchi M52s, Flt Lt SN Webster in his Supermarine S5, the second M52 and finally Flt Lt OE Worsley in the second S5 trailed by the third M52. This aircraft had barely crossed the start line when its engine gave up forcing it's pilot to retire. At the completion of the first lap, the leading Macchi pushed one of its pushrods through the crankcase and became the second retirement. This was followed a few laps later by the little Gloster which began to lose speed. After coaxing the stricken aircraft back to it's hangar, an inspection of the engine revealed a split some ¾ of the way round the shaft.

The forceful flying of the remaining Italian pilot, attempting to keep up with the two Supermarines, came to no good as, on the sixth lap, a fuel pipe broke, spraying the pilot with fuel and forcing him into retirement. This left the British aircraft to finish first and second, but not without a scare for Flt Lt Webster. To keep a tab on the number of laps completed, Webster punched a hole in a sheet of paper as he crossed the start/finish line. But as he punched a seventh hole, which would have meant the race was finished, he calculated that the time was some five minutes less than anticipated and he elected to continue and complete an eighth lap just to make sure he had not miscounted. In the event, he had counted correctly and need not have continued.