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Aviation History
1919
1919 - 0607.PDF
MAY 8, 1919 lism. WHEN we were small (and deary-me, how long ago that was !) we used ' to sneak out privily and buy forbidden " bloods " at a penny, which had more bite in them than the rather goody-goody literature authorised by the home authorities. There was always an aerial Raffles in them, a criminal of unlimited resource, who got away with the swag in a flying machine of wondrous design, dropping the corpses of his victims over-side with a series of sickening thuds. Now it is seriously argued by the daily press that steps will have to be taken to prevent just this sort of thing, and America already possesses a winged policeman. These appendages are not visible in the photograph, which shows the customary heavy-jawed Irish-American " cop," " fly cop " in fact, to use another hallowed Americanism. They are of M. Eiffel's section, unknown to angels, and he is to chase the coy house-breaker with them. PERUSING the popular prints, it would seem that it is much easier now to buy an aeroplane straight off the counter, so to speak, than to secure delivery of a motor-car. The Grahame-White Bantam, the Blackburn Monoplane, and several other light and handy vehicles for the private owner, are selling round about four hundred and fifty pounds. We shall see them in the " Bargain Basement " yet, with an " eleven-three " tacked on to the end of their price ! PARODYING Moliere, we can say " Ou la reclame va'i-elle se nicher ?" Mr. Harry Tate announces with an awful gravity that he intends to be the first comedian to fly round the world. " Sweet are the uses of advertisement ! " But we don't fancy that this gentleman with the mirthful moustache will girdle the earth until about the time when his classic car has reached Brighton. THE scribes of the dailies (a queer breed) have dredged the dictionary for adjectives to describe the work of the Australian pilots on the occasion of the recent " march past " from the Mall to the Mansion House. " Heroic glory-laden soldiers," " spectacular steeple-chasing in the sky," " death-defying aerobatics," "aerial jazz display," etc., etc. We who were working soberly in the cloistered calm of one of the Inns of Court wondered who had started a saw-mill outside when the business began. Several ripe old residents were heard to express a wonder as to whether the pilots could not read the sign prominently displayed here : " The Porters and Police have Instructions to remove any Persons making a noise within these Precincts." As for the adjectives of the chroni clers, we extemporised a few that were much more pungent, but no matter ! * — — — " No strap-hanging in the air," the Daily Herald assures us. Thank the kindly gods for that. We have strap-hung (unbeautiful verb !) in tubes, in railways, we have tittupped on our toes (or somebody else's) ever since the War began : the bones in our wrists are sore, and it's a relief to hear that there is some place where one sits. But if ever the traffic combine butts into the aerial business you may be sure that their vehicles will have little leather flaps underneath from which you are to swing by your teeth (passengers with false teeth may have halters). In central Africa the District Railway would do very well, for we believe the denizens of those parts have been thoughtfully provided by nature with tails for the purpose indicated. SPEAKING seriously for a moment, nothing could be more regrettable than the sensational and ill-informed publicity now being given to aeronautics. On the strength of one short trip in an aeroplane any facile scribbler feels privileged . to inflict his jejune opinions on the credulous public, together with all the wildest flights of his rudderless fancy. " It is not, nor it cannot come to good." Any glib clap-trap about aviation is sure of a place in the press, so it be sufficiently sensational. Anyone who ventured to point out with sobriety the wildness of these prognostications would be indeed a prophet in the wilderness. The awakening, and the attendant revulsion, will come, we fear, after the first bad accident in which a passenger machine is concerned. After that aviation may be saved from its soi-disant friends, and will be free to develop as it listeth. B CIVIL BBS AVIATION FLIGHTS OF NOTE SINCE the ban on civilian flying was raised on May 1 there has been so.much activity that it is only possible to record the outstanding flights, and a few which are but typical of many others. The first flight under the new regulations was that of a D.H. 9 with 250 h.p. B.H.P. engine, which left Hounslow before dawn, with a parcel of Daily Mails, for Bournemouth. Unfortunately, fog was encountered in the neighbourhood of Portsmouth, and a forced landing on the Portsdown Hills resulted in the machine being wrecked and the pilot, Capt. H. J. Saint, D.S.C., and passenger, Capt. D. Greig, being injured. The London to Bristol airway was opened on May 1 by a Bristol-Rolls-Royce " Coupe," which brought Mr. H. J. Thomas, Director and Works Manager of the British and Colonial Aeroplane Co., Ltd., to town to keep an appoint ment with Maj.-Gen. Seely at the Air Ministry. The machine, which was piloted by Lieut. Uwins, is a fast one designed to carry one passenger in a warm closed-in coupe, fitted with a writing desk and other conveniences, including telephonic communication with the pilot. In spite of strong wind and heavy showers of rain, a quick passage was made, and the machine landed at Hounslow 58 min. 5 sees, after taking off at Filton. During the afternoon a Handley Page Rolls-Royce machine, with ten passengers on board, was flown to Manchester by Lieut.-Col. W. F. Douglas, M.C., D.F.C., and a Sopwith Gnu, with 200 h.p. B.R.2 engine, was piloted by Capt. Allen from Hounslow to Lympne aerodrome with a parcel of papers. A Bristol " Fighter," with a load of film was taken by Capt. West from Reading to Manchester. On ^May 3 a four-engined Handley Page Rolls-Royce, in m The Accident to Gen. Sykes AN aeroplane taking Maj.-Gen. Sir F. H. Sykes, Con troller-General of Civil Aviation, to Paris, met with an accident on the afternoon of May 3, at Kenley. The pilot, Capt. E. M. Knott, A.F.C., was killed. Maj.-Gen. Sir F. H. Sykes was badly shaken, but was able to motor to London. He was removed in the evening to a private nursing home, and is making good progress. The accident happened at a height of about 50 ft., soon after piloted by Mr. Clifford B. Prodger, flew from Belfast to Car lisle, Newcastle. York, Doncaster, Lincoln, Boston, and across the Wash to Bircham Newton, a total distance of 410 miles, in four hours and 20 min. The weather was very bad and at one point the machine ran into a hailstorm. A twin-engined Handley Page, with seven passengers, piloted by Maj. Foot, M.C., flew from London to Brighton, then on to Eastbourne and St. Leonards and back to Crickle wood, packets of newspapers being dropped at each place. Mr. Sydney Pickles, on a Fairey Rolls-Royce seaplane, rose from the Thames at Westminster during the afternoon and carried packets of the Evening News to Westgate and Margate, afterwards returning to Blackfriars Bridge, where the machine was hoisted on to a barge which serves as a temporary hangar. Carrying newspapers and ten passengers, the Daily Mail two-engined Handley-Page Rolls-Royce aeroplane made a fine non-stop flight of 370 miles on May 5. It left Manchester at 5.20 a.m. and passed over Carlisle, Dundee, Aberdeen, Montrose, and Edinburgh. At Aberdeen Maj. Orde Lee descended by " Guardian Angel " parachute in order to pay a visit to a friend. The machine carried 1,500 lb. of news papers, which were dropped along the route by parachute. On May 6 Col. Douglas tried to fly back to Carlisle, but was forced to land at Penrith owing to bad weather. On May 6 the twin-engined Handley Page Rolls-Royce, made a trip from Cricklewood to Filton, Bristol, then going on to Exeter and back to Plymouth, dropping parcels of papers at these points. The machine, piloted by Maj. Foot, left Cricklewood at 5.43 a.m., reached Bristol at 7.20, Exeter at 8.35, Plymouth at 9.20, and landed at Bristol at 10.40, having covered 3io"miles in 4 hours 57 min. m m the machine had begun to leave the ground. Gen. Sykes scrambled out of the machine, and extricated Capt. Knott, but the latter was so severely injured that he died on his way to the hospital. Forest Protection in Canada MR. STUART GRAHAM, who was a naval air pilot in the R.A.F., has arrived at Ottawa to take charge of two planes released by the Canadian Department of Naval Affairs for forest protection in Quebec. 607
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