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Aviation History
1914
1914 - 0125.PDF
/*NUARY 31, 1914. t/U^I PRINCE HENRY CIRCUIT, 1914. THE Prince Henry competition will this year take place, between May 17th and 25th, over a course shown in the accompanying sketch map. The first part of the programme will consist of a reliability test. The first section will be over a distance of 775 kiloms. (477 miles), to be carried out between the morning of May 17th and 8.30 p.m. of May 19th. First Round.—Start from Darmstadt, fly over, controls at Mannheim, Pforzheim, Strassburg, Speyer, Mannheim, Worms, and landing at Frankfort. Distance 400 kilom. (250 miles). Dura tion of_ stops in the Frankfort control in the discretion of the •competitor. Second Round.—Start from Frankfort, fly over controls at Wiesbaden, Coblenz, Cologne, and back to Frankfort. Distance 375 kilom. (227 miles). The second section will be over a distance of about 1,000 kilom. .(625 miles), to be completed between the morning of May 20th and 8.30 p.m. of May 22nd. Third Round.—Start from Frankfort, fly over controls at Marburg, Cassel, Brunswick, landing at Hamburg. Distance 440 kiloms. (275 miles). Duration of stop in the Hamburg control is in the discretion of the competi'or. Fourth Round.—Start from Hamburg, fly over the controls at Hanover, Minden, Herford, Miinster, Osnabriick, Bremen, and return direct to Hamburg. Distance 565 kiloms (350 miles). The second part of the programme will include a strategic recon noitring flight from Hamburg via Miinster to Cologne on May 23rd. and a military practice flight of a tactical nature near Cologne on May 25th. Flying after dark will only be permitted in exceptional cases, to enable a flyer to reach the next control or the destination of the day's flying. No machine will be allowed to leave a control before 4 a.m. or after 8 p.m., nor will flying over controls be permitted except between 4.30 a.m. and 8.30 p.m. Competitors will be divided in two classes, viz., military pilots, i.e., officers (oh army machines) and civilians. The Kaiser prize will be awarded to that class of which the highest percentage of competitors has successfully completed both the reliability trial and the military test. The other group will be awarded the Prince Henry prize. A "Prix d'Honneur" will be awarded to the pilot who has covered the reliability test in the shortest aggregate flying time, and who ha-! successfully passed through the military tests. ® ® CORRESPONDENCE. The R.A.F. and the Industry. j 1828] I read the recent Times articles on aviation, and have kept them, and there is a lot of sound common sense in them. I must tell you that we have received every help and attention from the R.A.F., and that they have assisted us in all ways possible to execute our work. Our relations with them have been, and still are, of the most favourable nature. All they demand is that their work is well done, and on that they insist, and we do our best to satisfy them, and I may say, with some pride, that I think we have done so. It is only fair to say this, as it has been implied that all the " trade " constructors dislike the R.A.F. and its ways. What is really wanted to encourage the construction in this country is a friendly relationship between them. At present they are all trying to ruin each other. The rich firms are building machines at a dead loss in order to ultimately get all the orders, so that when they have achieved this they can demand any price they like having once got them. This is, of "course, hopeless, as new firms will spring up, and again build for less. If the existing firms would fix a price between them, a fair price that would pay them and pay the Government to get them made out of the factory well and up to the R.A.F. standard, the existing firms would have no reason to grumble. The present state of the aviation trade is for the large and rich firms to try and undersell the small ones, therefore no one is satisfied, the rich firms are losing enormously, at a far greater rate than the poorer ones, and even if they succeed in bringing a few small firms to ruin, they cannot hope to keep the market to themselves long enough to get back all they have spent in reaching this end. For every penny lost by a small firm a big firm must lose ten times more at the very least. Unity means power ; if the individuals are so occupied in fighting each other, they cannot have strength to fight for the cause. If they would unite in keeping aviation construction as good as possible, and in asking a reasonable price for good work, their complaint against the R.A.F. would vanish, they would get a return for all they have spent, and have time and money over for new experiments. The War Office want machines as quickly as possible, and they are therefore now build- HAMBURG BRtmtN •..ERfORD •BlELEFteLD. HOVER VBRUN5WICK / COBLEN WIESBA STRASSBOWh PF0R7HIEM O S5 SO 73 100 Hirb Altogether 71,000 mark, i.e., .£3,550, will be available for cash prizes. Six prizes, amounting to 56,000 mark, will lie awarded to the pilots with the shortest aggregate flying time, and the remaining 15,000 mark will be distributed among the other competitors. ® ® ing quite a number by day and night shifts at the R.A.F., to be ready by March. I think all these machines would have been given out to firm? if they could have produced them in time, but they could not do so, because they have been so occupied in killing each other. The small firms have lost too much on each small contract to extend, the big firms have been lamenting their excessive expenditure, and the lingering life of their prey. HEWLETT AND BLONDEAU. per H. B. Hewlett. Omnia Works, Vardens Road, Clapham Junction, S.W. [We deal with this letter editorially elsewhere.—ED.] Mr. Hucks Raises Points. [1829] I have read with much interest the remarks of" Will o' the Wisp" in last week's " Eddies," in connection with looping-thc- loop flights, but there are several points raised that I would like to see thoroughly thrashed out in the columns of your valuable journal. Point No. 1.—Your contributor says that when Pegoud first looped the loop in this country, be took up the position that it was of the utmost importance to aviation from a scientific point of view, but that as a circus performance there was not much in it. It has always annoyed me that aeronautical writers should refer, on occasion, to any forms of exhibition flying as " circus perform ances," for it seems to me, in common with other pilots, that the use of this term casts a slight upon this branch of the profession. Cannot they find some other term which is more in keeping with the prestige of aviation ? In the ordinary way there is nothing degrading in a circus per formance, but it is the manner in which this term is used in con nection with aviation that brings with it a certain discredit. This is all the more annoying in view of the fact that the men who specialise in giving exhibition flights do a very great deal towards popularising aviation in the provinces ; and it must be remembered that the general public must be made enthusiastic about aviation before it will become possible to obtain really large grants for the development of the aeronautical departments of our Services. Point No. 2.—Your contributor says it is a pity I so far forgot 125
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