QUICKY QUIZ! #10 WHEN DID THE FARNBOROUGH AIR SHOW DISASTER TAKE PLACE?

Year Published: 1950s

Format: 16mm

Description: This short film is one of a series entitled "Quicky Quiz!", which were developed and produced by Los Angeles TV personality Jim Hawthorne. Billed as the "TV's biggest little show", each Quicky Quiz! posed a question for viewers to answer. In this case, the question is "what year did the Farnborough Air Show Disaster take place?" The background on this incident is as follows: A prototype de Havilland DH.110 jet fighter crashed during an aerial display at the Farnborough Airshow in Hampshire, England. The jet disintegrated mid-air during an aerobatic manoeuvre, causing the death of pilot John Derry and onboard flight test observer Anthony Richards. Debris from the aircraft fell onto a crowd of spectators, killing 29 people and injuring 60. If you got the right answer, you must be very smart so take a bow! Short format shows of this type don't really exist today, but back in the early era of television -- especially during the live era when show lengths were irregular -- programs such as Quicky Quiz! were important to fill dead air. The cause of the break-up was later determined to be structural failure due to a design flaw in the wing's leading edge. All DH.110s were initially grounded, but after modification to its design, the type entered service with the Royal Navy as the Sea Vixen. Stricter safety procedures were subsequently enacted for UK air shows and there were no further spectator fatalities until the 2015 Shoreham Airshow crash in which 11 people died Jim Hawthorne (1918 –2007) was a beloved radio personality, disc jockey and TV comic actor who produced (in addition to Quicky Quiz!) the short format show "Jim Hawthorne's Funny World". He worked for a variety of TV stations including KLAC / Los Angeles Channel 13, where he created the first late evening talk show on television, "This Is Hawthorne."