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Aviation History
1920
1920 - 0505.PDF
MAY 6, 1920 In Tunis the fee upon letters transmitted by air has beenraised from 30c. to 75c, and an air-post stamp of the higher •denomination is about to be provided. A new 10 centavosexpress letter stamp, issued by the Republic of SanJDomingo, has for its design a vignette of a biplane in flight, but it isnot stated if letters bearing this supplementary fee are con- veyed by aeroplane. THE recent calamity to Maj. Moon and his companionshas given Maj. T. Orde Lees another good text for hammering in the necessity for providing parachutes against emergenciessuch as this episode. Maj. Lees writes : " Nothing calls attention to the need for life-saving appliances in aircraftso much as loss of life for the want of them. The death of Maj. Moon, a very gallant officer, and three companionsin a flying-boat is a case in point. As reported, the air-boat got out of control at 1,700 ft. This would have given mostof the crew ample time to use their parachute had they been fitted. Just a year ago the writer fitted a parachute to oneof the flying-boats at Felixstowe in the presence of Maj. Moon, who said at the time that he considered them un-necessary on this type of aircraft, as fire in the air was un- known, and in the event of other accidents a flying-boatcould almost certainly alight on the water. Since then the writer has made several parachute descents from flying-boats—one of them from the Transatlantic American NC 3 —and is able to say that they are the easiest type of aircraftfrom which to make an emergency drop in a parachute ; they also lend themselves more readily than any other typeto the installation of life-saving parachutes." WHETHER the following " parachute " adventure, as de-tailed in the Daily Chronicle, is to be welcomed as a con- tribution to the solution of the subject, is more than doubtful,however. A 16-year-old page-boy, Sydney Thompson, at Orton Hall, the Peterborough seat of the Marquis of Huntley,a short time ago informed the servants' hall of his departure in a message reading, " I have run away. You won't see meagain because I am fed-up.—Sydney." Nothing further has been heard of the lad, in spite of diligent enquiry throughpolice and other sources. The idea that he is " cinema struck " would appear to have more than a mere surmiseto justify the suggestion, as the following little one-boy drama bears witness. Sydney, about a fortnight previously,it is related, secured a piece of chintz, used by the Hall housemaids for dusting the fire grates, tied the corners to-gether and attached a piece of cord to form a parachute. It was a very gusty day, but, undeterred, he went up the watertower of the Hall and took a flying leap from a height of between 30 and 40 ft. No sooner had he left the tower thanthe wind carried the parachute out of his hands. Fortunately ior the lad, he fell on the leads, 6 ft. below, with nothingworse than a severe shaking. The parachute was carried some distance, lodging in thetop of a tree in Orton Churchyard, where it still remains. It is stated that Sydney had been in communication with a•cinema firm in London, and he may have gone there to seek his fortune. But how about those boys the R.A.F. areasking for ? This servants' hall hero seems very aerially inclined. DISTANCE possibilities of visibility in connection with thestatements by " Aeronaut " reproduced in FLIGHT on April 22,are in reply forthcoming from Mr. G. M. Butterworth, " before the War, of Christchurch, N.Z." The wonderful views, whichMr. Butterworth is able to recall accurately, as having seen, carry with them useful evidence upon this subject of distanceand visibility. He summarises his " views " as follows :— England : Once, and only once, did I see from the top ofDunkery Beacon the Malvern Hills, no doubt the Hereford- shire Beacon—distance at least 80 miles. France : From the top of Mont Blanc from 9.30 a.m. to H SI A Meeting at BournemouthIN spite of rain and wind, a successful meeting was held at Bournemouth on May Day. Crowds witnessed the events,but there were not as many passengers as were expected. Mainly due to the bad weather, only three Avro's, no h.p.,took part in the race, and all the machines started together. The course was from the Aerodrome to Longham Water-works and back three times, a distance of 12 miles, and the machines were in view of the crowd the whole time of theTace. They rounded the turning points in a bunch, and the winner only won by a length. Sergt. -Pilot Tollerfield was the winner, completing the coursein 7 min. 10 sec. Capt. Saddler was second, arriving 2 sec. 10.15 a.m. the view was perfect; the whole Arc of the Juraclear in every detail from Aaran to Geneva—the Appennines in sight. The chalet and its out-houscs on the Weissensteinabove Solothurn visible to the naked eye—distance 95 to 115 miles. In turn, from the top of the Weissenstein, MontBlanc in every detail was plainly visible to me for three days. New Zealand : From the top of Banks Peninsula I have,day after day, year after year, walked for hours at a time devouring the procession of the view commencing at CapeCampbell (the Kaikourar), and ending with Mount Cook, the monarch of our Southern Alps. The mountains are 230miles apart as the eagle flies. As I walked I was 120 miles away from the Kaikourar and 100 miles from Mount Cook.As the sun continued to move north from his rising, so peak after peak in orderly succession appeared, and commencingat the north-east end of my view, one by one and in regular turn disappeared. Mount Cook : I have bicycled from Ross (20 miles south ofHokitika) to Greymouth, on to Reefton, down to Westport, and so on to Seddonville with Mount Cook constantly insight—at Seddonville he must be nearly 175 miles away—and seen from Seddonville he is almost as glorious a sight as MontBlanc seen from the Dole. But is there any sufficient reason to doubt the statement ofthe keeper of the Rest House on Mount Egmont, that more than once in north-west weather, froni the summit of MountEgmont (8,260 ft.), he has clearly made out Mourit Cook in spite of the intervening 350 miles ? and surely the Hills ofCarthage are visible from the top of .(Etna ; and I believe (but dare not be sure) that my father—a very accurateobserver—saw them. In New Zealand the " nor-wester " annihilates distance ina manner and to a degree which the incredulous European cannot be made to comprehend, but then for years he treatedour Pelorus Jack as but a legendary dolphin and the hero of an incredible fish yarn. ANOTHER correspondent, Mr. Stephen Wilkinson, A.F.C.(late Pilot Officer, R.A.F.), writing upon curious balloon achievements; sets out a very remarkable adventure, which,as he suggests, as a feat, has never been done before and is extremely unlikely will ever be repeated. Mr. Wilkinsonrecalls the story of his trip as follows :— On the night of May 30, 1918, I was pilot in charge of aballoon detailed for a night flight from an aerodrome near London with eight R.A.F. officers under instruction. Theballoon was of the ordinary spherical type, containing 80,000 cub. ft. of coal gas. I left the "ground at 10.15 p.m., and at aheight of 5,000 ft., proceeded almost due north-west, until, when over Hammersmith, I descended to about 600 ft,to find the wind blowing almost south-west. I continued at this altitude until we were well over Richmond Park, andit was at this juncture that I decided to try and return to my original starting place. This I eventually succeeded in doingby manoevring at different altitudes for varying currents, and I eventually landed exactly as a neighbouring clockstruck midnight, within a few feet of my original starting place. The time in air was 1 hour 45 minutes, and the totaldistance travelled was some 10 miles. The night was a very dark one, there being no moon, and I piloted my way by meansof a J-in. to the mile map, making note of the few dim lights below in the form of railway stations and trains, which werediscernible from time to time. As it was during the War that the flight was made there were very few lights to be seenbelow. To those readers who are interested and understand suchmatters, I would add that I did not use the trail rope or grapnel, neither of which were uncoiled. I have heard ofcases where a balloon has landed within a mile or so of its starting place in the daytime, but the above flight took placebetween 10 p.m. and 12 midnight, on a very dark night. later, with Capt. Mathews third. A trophy was given to thewinner, and 25 guineas by the Bournemouth Town Clerk, Mr. W. H. Ashling, who complimented Sergt. Tollerfield onhis second success, and also commended the enterprise of the Bournemouth Aviation Co. During the afternoon a descent on a Guardian Angelparachute was most successfully carried out by Miss Doris Marshall. Although the weather precluded dancing on thegreen, the Winton Town Band was in attendance, and gave selections in one of the hangars. The Westland Limousinevisited the grounds during the afternoon, and made a very favourable impression, and another aerial visitor was Mr.Chapman, of Leatherhead. 505
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