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Painted in oils on canvas. 2000. 450mm x 650mm. |
‘On course to win’For the 1935 King’s Cup Air Race, the Phillips & Powis team prepared no less than thirteen Miles-designed aircraft, including Hawk Majors, Falcons and two types specially built for the race – the Hawk Speed Six and the Sparrowhawk. With just eight weeks to go, F G Miles had decided he would like to fly in the race himself and, because of the heavy workload to which he was already committed, the design of the Sparrowhawk, adapted from a standard Hawk Major, was undertaken by his wife, ‘Blossom’. The first day of the event was an elimination race of almost 1,000 miles around the country, starting and finishing at Hatfield, with compulsory stops at Glasgow, Belfast and Cardiff. It soon developed into a duel between the two designer-pilots, Miles in the Sparrowhawk and Edgar Percival in his more powerful and faster Mew Gull. However, while Percival ‘nursed’ his engine and ‘protected’ his handicap for the next day’s final by flying at some 75% full power, Miles threw caution to the wind and flew at 95% full power over the whole course. Leaving Cardiff some three minutes behind Percival, Miles must have thought he was in second place as he dived across the finish at Hatfield. However, to his surprise, the Mew Gull suddenly appeared ahead of him, flashing towards the finish from the wrong direction. Somehow, in the final stage, Percival had failed to see the airfield and had flown past some miles to the north before realising his mistake. After nearly six hours chasing Percival, Miles eventually beat him after all - by less than three minutes. In the next day’s final, the Sparrowhawk carried a handicap that put it well out of contention, but its win in the elimination race was just the prelude to the most successful King’s Cup Air Race ever enjoyed by any aircraft manufacturer. _____________________ |