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Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0085.PDF
FEBRUARY 3, 1921 A IRIS MS' FR.OM THE FOUR. WINDS " R.34 " mishap is a misfortune at about as inopportune a momeut as could well have been selected. It may give the final quietus to the immediate prospects of Governmental support for lighter-than-air craft. A plausible excuse was all that was wished for, and this may be found in the disaster. But what a different tale would be forthcoming were a cordon of mooring masts in being at airship centres ! That will no doubt come in time, and we hope before similar endings are risked to the magnificent aircraft already in commission and the latest vessels now nearing completion. THAT we are not alone in pinning our faith tk mooring masts is evident from a paragraph in one of the daily picture sheets when recording the mishap to " R.34." Thus our contem- porary :— " General Maitland said this morning that if the crew had bsen provided with mooring masts the ship, which it was found impossible-to house, would have ridden out the gale." Carelessness indeed. These things should be carried quite as much, as a matter of course, as a wrist-watch. BRENTWOOD, Essex, has set the pace for pilot guidance ! On the roof of the G.E.R. station the name now appears in letters 15 feet long. Why should not ^very suitable station in the country follow suit in due and reasonable time ? WHITEHALL STAIRS, on the Embankment^ appears to be the site most likely to be selected for the erection of the R.A.F. memorial. This will be the public memento of the geat sacrifices of the R.A.F. in the War, whilst the other aims of the Fund seek to provide schooling for airmen's children and assistance for disabled men or their dependants. PARACHUTING is becoming quite the vogue in France. Angoulem? is the centre for these little adventures, and -the other day when M. Blanquier, a demonstrator, failed to be on time, his 65-year-old father, promptly and sportily offering himself as a substitute for the drop, was taken up by M. Desmoulins in his Sopwith, and made a perfect landing from a 300-metre jump. He deserved the ovation which awaited him from the assembled " audience." THOSE awards for Inventions, announced last week in the first Report of the Special Commissioners and published in FLIGHT, are just a wee bit misleading. What we should like to see in most cases is a statement of account after E.P.D., income-tax and a few other miscellaneous annexa- tions have been deducted. Oh, what a difference in the result ! _ A GOOD many months ago in these columns we recorded an example of " It's an ill wind," etc. The case was of one James Green, who, when serving in France, was sentenced to death for desertion, but the sentence was commuted to five years' penal servitude. As a result of a German air raid on a railway station, where Green was waiting with an escort, who were taking him to a detention station, the escort and other people were all killed, and Green alone escaped. One would have thought such a providential escape would have helped to have reformed the prisoner ; but it would appear as if it had rather helped to settle him upon a deliberate life of crime, as following his various delinquencies, as noted at the time in FLIGHT, Green was again bsfore the London Sessions Judge last week for housebreaking, and, following a sentence of three years, boldly announced AT THE DINNER OF THE FAIREY AVIATION SOCIAL AND ATHLETIC CLUB : A very pleasantgathering last week held at the Park Hotel, Hanwell. Mr. Fairey, who occupied the chair, is on the extreme right seated against the wall, and Mrs. Fairey is on his right. • ."•"• V.--.:, _ 85 . . %-?:•-.: .
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