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Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0041.PDF
JANUARY 20, 1921 The Roc/al &ero Clu. of the United Kii\gdo Hi OFFICIAL NOTICES TO MEMBERS HE COMMITTEE MEETINGA MEETING of The Committee was held on Wednesday,January 12, 1921, when there were present :—Brig.-Gen. Sir Capel Holden, K.C.B., F.R.S., in the Chair, Mr. Ernest C.Bucknall, Lieut.-Col. Spenser D. A. Grey, D.S.O., Lieut.-Col. Alec Ogilvie, Lieut.-Col. Mervyn O'Gorman, C.B., and theSecretary. Election of Members.—The following New Memberswere elected :— Flying Officer Hugh Lewis Pingo Lester, R.A.F.Flying Officer Louis George Paget, R.A.F. Capt. Thomas Laurence Purdom (T.F. (R.)).Albert Edward Thomson. James Percy Ashley Waller.Frank Yonge Urquhart Weldon (lateFlight-Comdr.). Federation Aeronautique Internationale.—The Meetingof the Bureau of the F6deration Aeronautique Internationale was held in Paris on Monday, January 10, 1921.Prince Roland Bonaparte was in the Chair, and repre- sentatives from the following countries were present :—America, Belgium, France, Great Britain (Lieut.-Col. Mervyn O'Gorman, C.B., and H. E. Perrin), Holland, Italy, Sweden,Switzerland. SCHNEIDER CUP The regulations for this year's Contest were drawn up.The date for entry was extended to June 1, and in addition to the Entry Fee, the entrant has to deposit 5,000 francsper machine as a guarantee of the machine taking part. This deposit is returned in respect of all machines takingpart in the Contest. The Contest is divided into three tests :— **r. Water-tightness Test.—For this test the machine must remain afloat for 6 hours, with a full supply of petroland oil for the whole contest. 2. Navigability Test.—For this test the machine must flyin a closed circuit over a course of 5 to 10 sea miles. During this test the machine must be taxied on the waterover two distances of half a mile. 3. Speed Test.—The speed test will be contested over adistance of 200 sea miles in a closed circuit of a minimum distance of 5 sea miles.Any repairs necessary after the Contest has started may only be carried out at sea, but these repairs must not modifythe original condition in which the machine was presented. Competitors not carrying out the navigability test satis-factorily, may start again for a second and last attempt. The date was provisionally fixed for September 30, 1921,Full particulars will be published later. AERIAL DERBY AROUND THE WORLDThe draft regulations drawn up by the Aviation Commis- sion of the Aero Club de France were presented, but it wasdecided to defer the consideration until they had been sub- mitted to the Aero Club of America. Several other matters were discussed, including Meteoro-logical Reports, Federation Aeronatique Internationale Brevets, Gordon Bennett Balloon Race. THE FLYING SERVICES FUND (Registered under the War Charities Act, 1916) Administered by the Royal Aero Club For the benefit of Officers, Non-Commissioned Officers and Menof the ROYAL AIR FORCE who are incapacitated while onduty, and for the widows and dependants of those who are killed or die from injuries or illness contracted while on duty. Honorary Treasurer: The Right Hon. LORD KINNAIKD.Committee : ; H.R.H. THE DUKE OF YORK, K.G. (Chairman).Lieut.-Col. A. DORE, D.S.O. Mr. CHESTER FOX.Squad.-Leader T. O'B. HUBBARD, M.C., R.A.F.Group-Capt. C. R. SAMSON, CMC, D.S.O., R.A.F. Secretary : H. E. PERRIN.Bankers : Messrs. BARCLAYS BANK, LTD., 4,London, S.W. 1. Pall Mall East, SubscriptionsTotal subscriptions received to Nov. 1, 1920.. Collected at Church of England ParadeServices at some R.A.F.^Stations Squad.-Ldr. P. Litherland Teed, R.A.F.(Ninth contribution) .. £17,166 s. d. 9 & 12 19 I 440 17,183 12 7Offices : THE ROYAt, AERO CLUB, 3, CLIFFORD STREET, LONDON, W. 1. HE. PERRIN, Secretary. No Drops from Eiffel TowerIT appears that the authorities are becoming a little chary of experiments from the Eiffel Tower. While theyallowed one Frenchman to demonstrate a device for climbing up a rope, they refused M. Damblanc permission to leap fromthe second platform with a view to testing his latest heli- copter parachute. It may be recalled that a parachutedrop from the Eiffel Tower in 1912 cost the life of M. Reichelt. "Airship Flights of Fact and Fancy" UNDER the above title Air-Commodore Maitland last weekgave on behalf of the Royal Aeronautical Society a delightful lecture for juveniles. He once again gave many fascinatingdetails of his voyage in " R. 34 " across the Atlantic and back and in his earlier remarks gave an outline of the big airshipsof the future as he visualised them. They were going to be the big aerial liners of the future,and before the boys present 'were quite grown up he was sure they would be travelling about the world in these largeairships, and they would find them very comfortable and nice. (Cheers). He showed on the screen the" aerial liner afew years hence, and said there was no reason why they should not fly to Australia via Montreal and Vancouver.(Cheers). And he did not see why they should not make the journey in about twelve days. They would have diningaccommodation ; the cabins would probably be on the top ; and the saloons would be comfortable. A rigid airshipwas now being completed, equipped and furnished in such a way, which would accommodate fifty people. The bigairship of the future would not land as it did today. It would fly up to a high tower, drop a cable, which would be attached to another cable on the ground, which went upthe centre of the tower, and be hauled down by electricity to the top of the tower, where she would be held by the nose.Passengers would then disembark into tne tower and come down in a lift. The airships used mostly in this country during the Warwere the small non-rigid type officially known as " S.S's.," which was short for " Submarine Scouts." These airshipswere operated entirely against the German submarines, and the operations proved to be a very thrilling and fascinatinggame of " hide and seek." After showing the audience, by a series of pictures, how the airships took part in the game of" hide and seek," Commodore Maitland referred to the use of parachutes during the War from kite balloons, aeroplanesand airships, but more particularly from kite balloons. Seven hundred and fifty kite balloon observers descended byparachute from burning British balloons, and only three failed to open Some 800 also descended from Frenchkite balloons. It required a courage all its own, and it was not everybody who relished stepping off a burning kiteballoon in a parachute ; but there was more than one instance of a kite balloon observer parachuting from hisburning balloon twice in one day. Had the War lasted much longer, he thought there was no doubt that parachuteswould, have been used from several types of aeroplanes. As it was, we dropped a number of spies in the dark behindthe German lines from aeroplanes, and the Germans retaliated by doing the same behind our lines. He was told that Germanspies, dressed as British officers, who had been dropped behind our lines by parachutes, actually misdirected thetraffic during our retreat in 1918.
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