The fast show
TOP ROW: Billy Butlin in a helicopter; Prince Michael of Kent exits a Vickers VC10 via a rope; the RAF’s Hawker Siddeley Harrier hovers over London. BOTTOM ROW: The Empire State Building, both a start and a finish point for the air race; businessman Tony Samuelson in the cockpit of a Spitfire; hot air balloon pilot Christine Turnbull; Olympic champion Mary Rand on the tube en route to Stansted airport
SHUTTERSTOCK/GETTY IMAGES
If you had been walking along the streets of eastern Manhattan on 5 May 1969, you would have been greeted by a curious sight. Hovering in the skies above the great metropolis like a giant steel kestrel was one of the most technically advanced military aircraft in history. Instead of rolling down a runway, the plane slowly descended vertically to the ground in a cloud of dust. Once it touched down, its canopy opened and a pilot hopped out and zoomed off towards the Empire State Building in a red motorcycle.