TALONS OVER CORDOBA REPORT
Attracting over 166,000 visitors over the week this airshow has been the most successful in South American history. The first of an annual contest the ‘Talons Over Cordoba Contest’ is a chance for the best pilots in the world to show off their skills. The exhibition area attracted many companies; Curtiss, Boeing, TNCA, FMA, PZL, Kiran Industries, Alleppey Aeronautics, Spartan, Hawker, Gloster, Mitsubishi and Nakajima all showed off their latest products and made many demonstration flights. The first two new FAA Hawker Audax bombers made a very good attack during a mock combat scene with two new Vickers B tanks and sixty infantry men. Many other aeronautical component manufacturers also had stands. The Avro 626 Prefect demonstrator purchased this year made an excellent flying display during the opening ceremony piloted by Capitan Barron.
All contesting pilots have been assigned numbers in the order of application and nationality has not been a factor, pilots flying for their own glory.
No1 Capitan S Smith flying a bright azure blue FIAT CR.20bis
No2 1st Lieutenant P Salavdor-Conchez flying a blue and white FIAT CR.20bis
No3 Capitán Emilio Carranza flying a red Mexican Air Force Curtiss P-6E
No4 Engineer Lascurain flying his design, the prototype TNCA Tololoche II
No5 Flt Officer G. Curtis of the RANAS flying an elderly Sopwith Snipe
No6 Squadron Leader P. Parfitt of the RAAF flying a dark blue Gloster Gamecock
No7 Pilot-Captain Maulvi Geelani flying an orange Kiran Industries KI-2B Marut B
No8 Captain-Lieutenant Somnath Narayanan flying an Alleppey Aeronautics AF-5
No9 Plk Zenon Nowak is flying a black PZL P.7a adorned with a Polish double-headed eagle on the tail
No10 FengYuxiang from China is flying a sliver Shennong SF201-A with red cheat line
No11 Captain Fabris Lividicus from Atlantis is flying his personal sliver and red Spartan F-8 Cyclone
No12 Captain Dominic Balbossa, also from Atlantis is flying a Accrisius FN-7 "Archer"
No13 Ex-Regina Aeronautica pilot Bergamini is flying a black FIAT CR.32
No14 Ex-Regina Aeronautica pilot Vorbeck is flying one of the new Breda Ba.27 Metallico monoplane fighters
No15 Colonel "Oni" Goto Sachio is flying the brand new prototype Mitsubishi Ka-14 monoplane naval fighter
No16 The legendary Colonel Oonishi "Crash" Manzo is flying the prototype Nakajima Ki-11 monoplane fighter
No17 Marco Alabastro Filipino “ace of the revolution” is flying his personal elderly yellow and black Nakajima Ko-4
No18 Robert Novotny from Czechoslovakia flying the prototype Avia B 34
No19 Capitan Honero from the Bolivian air force flying a brand new Vickers Type 143 Bolivian Scout
No20 Flight Lieutenant K. Hotony from Hungary flying a white and green Fiat CR.20bis
No21 Flight Lieutenant J. P. Radetsky from Hungary flying a red Fiat CR.20bis
GROUPS
The groups were divided between biplanes and monoplanes.
1 Numbers 1, 2, 3 and 5
2 Numbers 6, 7, 8 and 10
3 Numbers 11, 12, 13 and 17
4 Numbers 18, 19, 20, 21
5 Numbers 4, 9, 14, 15 and 16
8 MILE RACE GROUP 1
This race was very hotly contested and 1st Lieutenant Salavdor-Conchez managed to gain the lead on the seventh lap after cutting inside Capitán Carranza on the second turn, Capitan S Smith suffered some engine trouble and the pilot was largely unconfident with his new machine. Flt Officer G. Curtis in his very old Snipe stood no chance but his tight turns nearly snatched third place from Salavdor-Conchez.
8 MILE RACE GROUP 2
The surprise winner was FengYuxiang, the SF201-A out flew the other competitors. Pilot-Captain Geelani achieved second place after a very close contest with his fellow Indian pilot Captain-Lieu Narayanan, at one time it seemed they might collide so close they flew together. Squadron Leader P. Parfitt managed to overtake Captain-Lieu Narayanan on the final straight to take third place. Parfitt’s Gamecock suffered some overheating and oil loss and had to have an engine change after the race with help from FMA engineers.
8 MILE RACE GROUP 3
Captain Lividicus easily won first place and seemed unchallenged by the other pilots after his early lead. Marco Alabastro was the outsider with his elderly Ko-4 but its turning ability was so good, as was the pilot’s skill to get second place. Bergamini suffered engine overheating and fell back to third and although Captain Balbossa fought to pass, Bergamini’s skill prevented him.
8 MILE RACE GROUP 4
This race was neck and neck all the way to the finishing line. The two Hungarian and Czech pilots risked collisions as they hared around the pylons. The order was, Radetsky first, Hotony second, Novotny third and the Bolivian Honero last.
8 MILE RACE GROUP 5
The most anticipated race was the Group Five, the monoplane group. The audience and many foreign observers wanted to see how manoeuvrable the new monoplanes were compared to the biplanes. The two new Japanese fighters seemed to steal the show and outclassed the other contenders. The turns were just as tight as any biplane fighter and both pilots’ skills were shown to full effect. Neck and neck for most of the race Colonel Sachio won and Col Manzo was second, much to his fury. Lascurain who knew every bolt on his aircraft having designed it flew a graceful race to clinch third while Plk Zenon Nowak and Vorbeck took fourth and fifth. Vorbeck having technical troubles with his Breda and discovering it lacked the manoeuvrability to tackle the Japanese fighters early on in the race.
8 MILE RACE GROUP FINAL
The winners of the five races then flew in this final. The Ka-14 and the SF201-A were equal in turning ability but the power of Col Sachio’s plane won him the race, Yuxiang was second. Captain Lividicus was right on the tail of Yuxiang but never managed to pass him, 1st Lieutenant Salavdor-Conchez brought up the rear and was easily left behind by the newer designs. He managed to out-fly Radetsky in an identical aircraft, he took last place.
27 MILE CROSS-COUNTRY FLIGHT
Flown over a course stretching 27 miles over hills and through a steep valley the course is designed to test the flat out speed of the fighters and the pilot’s navigation skills. All made single fights and were timed. Col Manzo had the fastest time, while some spectators thought he had cheated the judges aircraft did not think he had missed a turn. Vorbeck in his Ba.27 took second place after a very good run and a retuned engine. FengYuxiang took third and fourth place went to Capitán Carranza in his P-6. Squadron Leader P. Parfitt claimed fifth after a hair-raising moment when he nearly clipped a hilltop. Lascurain again flew very well to grab sixth place. The others did not qualify for points. Bergamini was seventh. Both Atlantis pilots took eighth and ninth. Col Sachio retired with engine trouble and 1st Lieutenant P Salavdor-Conchez broke his undercarriage after an emergency landing when he lost oil pressure. Capitan Smith in his FIAT CR.20 took tenth place.
10 MILE STRAIGHT
Each pilot was timed along a ten mile straight course during which the aircraft attempted a top speed after a shallow dive run-in to build up speed. The run was done at sea level to equalise the chances given the variety of aircraft and engines. First Col Sachio 440km/h, second Col Manzo 421km/h, third Vorbeck and Geelani 372km/h, fourth Bergamini 322km/h, fifth Yuxiang 321km/h, sixth Nowak 317km/h, seventh Novotny 315km/h, eighth Lividicus 314km/h, seventh Carranza 310km/h, eighth, Parfitt 308km/h, ninth Lascurain 300km/h, tenth Capitan S Smith 265km/h, eleventh Lieu. Salavdor-Conchez and Radetsky 262km/h, Radetsky twelfth 260km/h, thirteenth Honero 240km/h, fourteenth Alabastro 234km/h, fifteenth Flt Officer Curtis 192km/h and sixteenth Narayanan 190km/h. Captain Balbossa never made a run due to technical troubles and Hotony’s run was deemed illegal after a weight check.
ALTITUDE TRIAL
This trial was a timed mock interception. The pilot was timed from ‘Contact’, taxiing, take-off and a climb to 5000m or as high as the aircraft can reach this figure. Colonel Sachio won the trial and Col Manzo was the second fastest pilot. The timed climb section to 5000m was 5.57 and 6.15 minutes respectively. A time of 7.15 minutes gave Squadron Leader P. Parfitt third place and Vorbeck took fourth with a good climb time of 7.30 minutes. Robert Novotny flying the prototype biplane Avia B 34 took fifth with a time of 7.32 minutes. The judges and observers declared that the monoplanes had the advantage in this trial.
DUEL RULES
For safety purposes no machine guns were fitted to any aircraft in any of these contests. Ballast was added and for these duels a camera gun was fitted. Activated when the trigger was pressed these cameras take a picture, up to three minutes of film could be taken. The films were then judged by an international panel. Present were two WW1 pilots Eddie Rickenbacker and Hermann Goring, the Fuerza Aerea Argentina gunnery trainer H. Costellos, a former RAF pilot Sqd Leader G. Horricks and French pilot J. Tourette. Groups were the same as the 8 mile races. All pilots fought at once trying to down as many opponents as he could in the thirty minutes available.
DUEL GROUP 1
Capitan Smith managed to shoot down both 1st Lieutenant Salavdor-Conchez and Capitán Carranza. Flt Officer G. Curtis surprised many by claiming second place. He twisted and turned nearly stalling twice and managed to ‘down’ Salavdor-Conchez and got a one second burst to damage Capitán Carranza. 1st Lieutenant Salavdor-Conchez took third by downing Capitán Carranza after a ten minute duel. Carranza failed to down any pilots but got some ‘hits’ on Conchez.
DUEL GROUP 2
Pilot-Captain Geelani won the duel by downing all three opponents, only scoring sufficient hits on Parfitt in the final minutes with his final camera burst. Squadron Leader P. Parfitt took second downing both Captain-Lieutenant Narayanan and FengYuxiang. Captain-Lieutenant Narayanan managed to, in the judge’s opinion, seriously damage Pilot-Captain Geelani in a high-sun diving attack of which Geelani was unaware of until landing. His excellent flying skill enabled to him to outwit most of the attacks upon him. The poor combat training of FengYuxiang was evident and most of shots were either wasted and his deflection shooting was poor. Once he stalled into a spin and nearly crashed but recovered at 350ft.
DUEL GROUP 3
Captain Dominic Balbossa took first place downing two opponents Alabastro and Lividicus. Ex-Regina Aeronautica pilot Bergamini took second by sheer flying skill dispatching Lividicus evading any damage on his aircraft. His mastery of manoeuvres was among the best in the contest. Marco Alabastro took third, he managed to get hits on all of his opponents but none were judged to be kills. Captain Lividicus’s Spartan F-8 Cyclone suffered engine trouble right after take-off and was forced to retire after fifteen minutes but already he had been ‘shot down’ twice. He appealed to the judges but no rematch took place.
DUEL GROUP 4
Lieu. Hotony managed to get two long bursts into Novotny and Honero and so won on points. Novotny in the judge’s opinion shot down Honero and so claimed second place, he tried to contest the decision and claimed he got Radetsky but as he retired following an accident this claim was disallowed. Honero scored no hits and scored no points although his flying was of good skill. Radetsky retired when his port aileron detached in flight, he managed to land in one piece with superb airmanship but the aircraft was written off.
DUEL GROUP 5
Col Manzo was the winner; the judges were unnerved by his close-in attacks with short bursts. He nearly rammed Vorbeck by accident, so he claimed, and he successfully downed all his opponents. Col Sachio took second by shooting down Vorbeck and getting hits on most other aircraft, not Manzo’s though. Zenon Nowak claimed third place by downing Manzo, he managed to get off a three second burst after a superb Immelmann turn. Vorbeck secured fourth by hitting Sachio and Nowak and Lascurain was simply outclassed and was easily defeated. He scored some hits on Nowak but his shooting was not good.
WINNERS DUEL
The winners of the duels faced each other in a final showdown. Manzo got first place by downing Pilot-Captain Geelani and Hotony. Sufficient hits on Manzo and Capitan Smith gave Balbossa second place. Pilot-Captain Geelani took third by downing Capitan S Smith after a close chase and ground-hugging flight (nearly hitting a hangar in the process). Hotony claimed fourth place by a brilliant attack on Geelani. The judges decided all the rounds would have hit the cockpit killing Geelani in a real combat, Hotony himself dubbed his half roll, half loop with snap left as the ‘Hotony Hi-Flip’. Capitan Smith was outflown, although he got a two-second burst on Manzo, he suffered engine trouble and on landing the engine seized. A new engine was fitted overnight.
BOMBING
The target was a mock trench and gun emplacement. Each pilot had two runs; he had to drop the bombs with sufficient accuracy to knock out the gun emplacement or at least damage it. One strafing pass with gun camera was also allowed. Bombing height was left to the pilot’s discretion. The bombs were two 12.5lb dummy smoke bombs. 1st Lieutenant P Salavdor-Conchez, Flt Officer G. Curtis, Captain-Lieutenant Somnath Narayanan, Plk Zenon Nowak, Captain Dominic Balbossa, Col Manzo and Capitan Honero entered this part of the contest. Manzo scored two direct hits from a low 50ft pass and his strafing pass was also very accurate. Captain Balbossa, a bombing expert, managed one direct hit, one 8m overshoot, his strafing run was accurate. Captain-Lieutenant Narayanan has been well trained in these missions and a dive-bomb attack scored a four meter undershoot which would have damaged the emplacement. Flt Officer Curtis in his Snipe made a low 50ft attack and hit the trench and 1st Lieutenant P Salavdor-Conchez overshot the target but would have caused damage. Plk Nowak made a dive-bomb attack but missed by 20m. Honero’s aircraft needed modifications overnight to carry the bombs, this work overran and he nearly missed his slot, and faced disqualification. Both bombs missed by 40m, the judges felt he was attacking too high. On his strafing run he dived too low and struck the mock gun emplacement. The aircraft skidded into the ground and burst into flames. Honero was dragged out of the cockpit unconscious but unhurt. The judges felt he destroyed the gun but crashing into it was illegal and no points awarded. The twisted wreckage of the fighter was sold to a local scrapman.
FINAL SCORE
After totting up the points and successes the top three pilots were;
1) Colonel Oonishi "Crash" Manzo who won the Gold Talon Eagle Trophy
2) Colonel "Oni" Goto Sachio won the Silver Albatross Trophy
3) Captain Dominic Balbossa who won the Pilot’s Silver Plate
The judges also awarded a Silver Medal to Flt Officer G. Curtis whose skill enabled him to put up a sparkling performance despite his elderly Sopwith Snipe.
AN EXTRA CONTENDER
FMA revealed a new fighter during the contest flown by Major General F. N. Carron-Gomez. The FMA I-100 Barron designed by Jack Northrop, James Smith McDonnell Jr and Luis Barron is a modern monoplane fighter. The two American designers unemployed and recruited by FMA secretly since last year.
FMA provided a technical datasheet during its flying trials.
Dimensions: span 9.97m; length 7.35m; height 3.27m; wing area 13.58 sq m; wing loading 28.06 lb per sq foot; power loading 6.5 hp per lb
Structure: Metal monocoque fuselage with flush countersunk rivets. Metal wing with steel spars, all-metal split flaps and wooden ailerons with fabric covering. Rudder and elevators wood framed with fabric covering.
Weights: loaded 4,162lb
Powerplant: one 640hp Bristol Mercury VIS.2 radial
Performance: Maximum speed 318mph; range 310miles, initial climb 3000 feet/min; service ceiling 32,500ft
Armament: six Browning 13mm machine guns (two in fuselage, four in wings)
Maj Gen. Carron-Gomez achieved 506km/h on the ten mile straight, the faster than any fighter in the contest. The retractable undercarriage is a radical new development which has increased the speeds this fighter can reach. In a contest with Manzo, he was not allowed to fly the aircraft; the I-100 was much superior to even the Ki-11. It has outstanding rate of roll and a very small turning radius. Atlantis has already been examining the type for its air force and has expressed interest in a small order. The FAA has yet to make any statement on purchasing the revolutionary fighter.
FMA also announced sales of eight T-524 light aircraft to private customers and the FMA Llama also made a demonstration flight.
Quoted
I wasn't expecting to be against Venoms and A5Ms(almost).
Thursday, April 18th 2024, 4:16pm
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