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Aviation History
1915
1915 - 0438.PDF
f/DeEIJ break of war, the stories and illustrations sent home are frequently of a highly amusing nature from the point of view of technical accuracy. That all German machines should be termed Taubes, irrespective of type, is there fore not much to be wondered at, and, as pointed out in " Eddies" some time ago, even German aeronautical journals have lately accepted the name and are using it to denote all military German machines. When one correspondent states that certain types of aircraft reach "unattainable heights," one only smiles and puts it down to a slip of the pen, or a pardon able ambition to get into " Jimmy " Percy's next " Bull book." Humorous as are some of the written ac counts, the illustrations that accompany them are often even more so. The illustrators of aviation incidents of the war in several cases show a fine disregard of con structional details, such as for instance leaving out nearly half of the chassis struts, or fitting long skids and no wheels to Morane monoplanes. One of the worst ** howlers " that I have as yet come across was brought to my attention by a reader, who was good enough to send me a page from one of the many catch-penny war pub lications that have sprung up since the outbreak of hostilities. The photograph in question shows a Morane " Parasol" in the foreground, while behind it and facing it is a M. Farman biplane. From the somewhat be wildering perspective of the wings of the two machines the writer of the title has been inspired to a highly enter taining explanation embodying the information that it is " a Morane Parasol, a new and particularly effective type of huge and powerful French triplane." This title is made all the more fascinating by the fact that the photo graph appears at the foot of a page written by a writer who is not altogether unknown in the aviation world. There are times when one can scarcely help questioning the advisability of having the aviation part of the war illustrated. XXX As a rule, I thoroughly enjoy the various exhibition flights by the Hendon pilots at week ends, but the other Saturday I happened to witness a piece of flying that I willingly admit gave me cold feet. Time after time the old five-seater biplane made short flights with four people up, staggering along with her tail down, and going out over the houses in Collindale Avenue at a particularly low altitude. Should the engine have failed, it did not seem as if it would have been possible to reach the aero drome, and the old five-seater is not exactly the most suitable 'bus for landing in a small field. The pilot's JUNE 18, 1915. faith in the 100 h.p. Green engine is highly flattering to its makers, but even a Green can occasionally get a little bit fractious. So long as the live load consists of pilot and mechanics, who, one must suppose, realise the possi bilities, no warning should be necessary, but when it comes to taking up passengers who are not aware of the risks they are running, it is time that the practice was re considered. Hendon's record has been spotless in this respect up till now, and no end of harm might be done should a forced landing in the fields adjoining the aero drome result in a nasty mix up. It is with this in view that I venture to plead for the discontinuance of pas senger carrying on the five-seater unless it be kept within gliding distance of the aerodrome. XXX Little has been heard recently of Collyns P. Pizey, the well-known Bristol pilot, who was lent by the British Government to start and organise a flying school in con nection with the Greek Navy, except that in the list of aeroplane pilots'certificates granted by the Royal Aero Club there appear several taken at the Greek Naval School. I notice, however, a telegram from Athens, dated June 13th, in Le Temps, which states that " Capitaine de freigate Paysie, of the English Naval Commission, has died of dysentery, and that the body will be taken to Athens, where the funeral will take place on Monday." Unfortu nately there seems to be no doubt that it refers to " Little Happy " Pizey who did such splendid work in connec tion with the Bristol Schools at Brooklands and Salisbury Plain a year or so back, and who will be in the minds of a very large number of FLIGHT readers. XXX When the Northern Aircraft Co. took over the sheds and machines of the Lakes Flying Co. it soon became evident that the activities of the new firm would rapidly outgrow the then existing accommodation. Since then the number of pupils has steadily increased until at the present time the school 'buses available are no longer sufficient to carry on the instruction work at a satisfactory rate, in spite of such time-saving devices as fast motor boats, from which pupils change places on the machines without stopping the engine, and therefore without the delay caused by swinging the propeller before each flight. It hardly, therefore, comes as a great surprise to hear that several new machines will be added to the school shortly, whilst additional hangars will be provided for housing them and for extensions to the works. All of which sounds like a further great increase in Windermere "tickets." "^OLUS." © ® ® © FLYING AT HENDON. FLYING at Hendon last week-end was both varied and plentiful. On Saturday, which was fine though windy, the proceedings opened with a flight by J. H. Moore on his 45 h.p. L. and P. biplane, and one by M. Osipenko on the 50 h.p. G.-W. school 'bus. Moore made a second trip immediately after, whilst Osipenko started a busy afternoon's passenger carrying. J. S. B. Winter then went up on the G.-W. 'bus, and W. Birchenough tested a Maurice Farman biplane. C. B. Prodger next got going on the 60 h.p. (Wright) Beatty biplane, and Marcus D. Manton took up a passenger on the 50 h.p. G.-W. 'bus. How quickly the London and Provincial Co. can effect a repair was then demonstrated, when Moore, after completing another flight on his L. and P. biplane, unfortunately smashed a strut through colliding with the railings. A spare strut was immediately pro. cured, and within a few minutes the machine was up again. In the meanwhile flights were made by Prodger on the 60 h.p. Beatty, W. Roche-Kelly on the 50 h.p. Beatty, Manton on the 50 h.p. G.-W., and G. Virgilio on the 50 h.p. Ruffy-Baumann, whilst Osipenko took up three passengers on the 100 h.p. G.-W. five-seater. Two more trips were made by Moore on his L. and P. biplane, and Virgilio also did some stunting on the 50 h.p. Ruffy- Baumann. J. L. Hall then came out on the new 50 h.p. Hall tractor biplane that has just been built in his hangar. This machine, which may be described as a " fuselage Caudron," not only shows a good turn of speed, but climbs exceptionally well. It also lands quite as slowly as the 35 h.p. Caudron, and so should prove a 438
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