'Eight Miles High' - a sortie in Mk 3 WB492

摘要

"The weather at Woodford on January 30, 1952 was pretty miserable - cold, moderately overcast sky and visibility reduced by smog to a couple of miles. Every now and again the wintry sunshine would have a go at melting the slushy remains of the weekend's snowfall. At exactly 12.20hrs, Jimmy Nelson pushed the throttle levers forward in the cockpit of an Avro Ashton and, with a terrific surge of power from the four Rolls-Royce Nene jets, 33 tons of aircraft began hurtling down the runway. Just 15min later, Oswestry, 50 miles south-west of Woodford, was 26, 000ft below and we seemed to be poised, motionless, in the centre of an inverted bowl of the most intense blue I have ever seen. The warmth of unwinking dazzling sunshine penetrated an icy outside temperature of -20 degrees C and caused deep shadow in the cockpit.