No Icecreams Today

Among all the planes and displays, heroes' life histories and flight simulations at the Fleet Air Arm Museum, I noticed this report in a section celebrating the various roles of women during the war, being the solution to an urgent WWII situation, namely, how to train Fighter Direction Officers to control the speed, position and direction of several aircraft simultaneously without using - possibly losing - real planes. They employed ice-cream-sellers' tricycles to act as aircraft.

Within a 100 X 100 yard square that represented
an area of 100 X 100 miles area of air space, the tricycles were pedalled at speeds governed by gearing and a musician's metronome, following radio instructions and compass bearings.

WRNS Aircraft Direction Control Officers were trained to a high level of competency using this safe and simple technique. When fully trained, an officer could keep up to five aircraft moving in the grid at any one time, without collision.

Another exhibit I found interesting was a toy black cat carried by Airship SS-13 as a mascot. Apparently any airship series thirteen needed a cat to counter the unlucky number - there was one also in the ops room of the Ark Royal aircraft carrier display.