FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1921
1921 - 0635.PDF
SFPTEMBER 22, igzt LONDON TERMINAL AERODROME Monday Evening, September 19 -THE weather has not been at all good for flying during the week ; but, with the exception of today, very few scheduled journeys have been missed. There have been mist, low cloud, and gales in the Channel, at various times during the week. On Saturday, for instance,' Dungeness reported a continuous easterly gale from 4 o'clock in the morning until 8 o'clock in the evening ; but all the scheduled flights were duly carried out, though outward machines exceeded their usual times on their journeys. The Vickers' " Vimy," piloted by Mr. Powell, occupied three hours and ten minutes on the outward trip on Saturday, while the usual daily consignment of Bristol " fighters " for Spain were having to land at Lympne for petrol. Today there has been practically nothing doing in the way of flying. Clouds have been below 150 feet all along the route, and " visibility " as low as 50 yards in many places. The result was that, after waiting until noon, all outward " air expresses " were cancelled. No aeroplanes from the Continent reached Croydon, either ; though a Belgian machine, leaving Brussels, got as far as Ostend and then abandoned its flight. A Novelty in Goods Transport THE K.L.M. have again provided something new in the matter of freight carriage. A party of Dutchmen who had been visiting London, and had been greatly taken by the flavour and novelty of the Lyons' " ice-bricks," decided that they would like some of these ices at a dinner they were holding in Amsterdam. The K.L.M. and Lyons' were approached, and on that particular day it was found that the Fokker monoplane would not be leaving Croydon until 1 p.m. The ice-cream " bricks " were packed in a container, which was placed in a bucket and packed round with ice ; and the whole consignment arrived in perfect order at the dinner at Amsterdam while the meal was actually in progress, and in time to take its proper place in the menu. Mr. Duke, one of the K.L.M. British pilots, has developed a new hobby. In addition to composing music, he is building model aeroplanes to compete in a model competition in Amsterdam. • He tells me he has discovered a method of making 3-ply so thin that it is nearly transparent. He strips the paper from the back of Japanese veneer, and then pastes three of the resultant sheets of wood together. It would seem to be an operation requiring much patience ; but Mr. Duke assures me that the models obtained fully justify this. The 5,000 Miles " Air-Taxi " Trip MR. ALAN COBHAM, in a De Haviliand Aircraft Company's " 9," arrived back from his European flight on Thursday. He covered a distance of over 5,000 miles, and visited most of the capital cities of Western Europe. His passenger, Mr. Lucien Sharpe, an American, created a mystery by with- holding his name—a proceeding which obtained much more publicity for the flights than would otherwise have been the case. Perhaps that was his idea ! Although the Continental passenger traffic is still showing a slight falling off, the amount of goods carried is increasing somewhat, and the various air transport firms are now canvassing actively for more merchandise to carry. It is not, of course, expected that it will be possible to make up for the autumn and winter decline in passenger traffic by the increased amount of goods, but it is confidently expected, now, that there will be enough combined traffic to make winter services worth while. The parcels' collecting vans of the various concerns must, to a certain extent, draw attention to the air services. The other day, for instance, passing down Ludgate Hill in a stream of traffic, I saw two Ford vans, within a few yards of one another, both with air advertisements prominently displayed as they went on their collecting rounds. Such " over- lapping " as this has, however, another aspect. It is, I suppose, inevitable at the moment ; but it certainly seems wasteful when the air services should be studying every economy in order to make themselves commercially self- supporting. Mr. Barnard, of Instone's, is up and about again after his motor-cycle crash. He was at the aerodrome for the air races on Saturday. In his absence from business Mr. Game continues to " carry on " for the Instone air-line, and Mr. Chattaway has, for the time being, become " O/C Work- shops," while Messrs. Powell, Robins, and Holmes fly the " D.H. i8's " and the " Vimy " to and from Paris. Dismantling the Airship Mast THERE is renewed activity in the vicinity of the airship mast, for the work of dismantling it has begun. The electrical gear is being torn up from its concrete foundations and carted away in lorries. " Puffing Billy " has departed, and the mooring-head is in process of being demolished. What is to be done with the 100 tons of concrete blocks sunk into the old Beddington aerodrome is still a mystery. The Air League of the British Empire, having decided to take a film of the various activities in commercial aviation, a cinema operator was down at the aerodrome by 9 a.m. on Saturday to film the loading and starting of the Fokker monoplane for Amsterdam. The arrangements were in the hands of the Daily Mail Art Department, who, with their usual enterprise, seized the opportunity of doing a little pro- paganda on their own. Thus, before the Air League film was started, a short length was taken showing the loading of the monoplane with the regular consignment of newspapers, while the " net sale " of the Daily Mail was displayed prominently on the fuselage of the machine. It is proposed to have, in addition to the Air League film, a set of slides of " airway " activities ; and both the film and slides will be loaned to the various branches of the Air League throughout the country, together with a short lecture on air transport. It is hoped that this will help to popularise flying all over the British Isles. The Happenings on Saturday APART from the Aero Club races, Saturday was an exciting day. On the 10.30 a.m. Instone service to Paris, the " City of London " carried Mrs. Asquith, her daughter Princess Bibesco, and Mr. Anthony Asquith as passengers. They had a very stormy journey, as the wind was " bumpy " and head on as far as Lympne. The inward-bound Messageries Aerienne machine, a Breguet with one passenger, which left Paris at 9.40 a.m., was caught by a violent gust when manoeuvring into wind prior to gliding down to the aerodrome, and had a nasty smash. The passenger, a Mr. Lambert, suffered from bruises on the ankle, but the pilot, M. Rousillion, escaped unhurt. M. Didier tells me that the machine was a " write off." The peculiar part of the whole incident was that, though the aerodrome was literally swarming with Press photographers, who had come to photograph Mrs. Asquith, and were stopping for the races, none of them appeared to get wind of the acci- dent, which was only a few hundred yards away, hidden behind a church and some trees. Among the numerous pilots who are " ferrying " Bristol fighters to Madrid, is Mr. Frank Courtney, Government test-pilot. On Saturday he left with his second machine, and, as he had evidently felt lonely on his first journey, he took Mrs. Courtney with him this time. She was quite excited at the prospect of the 1,000 miles' journey. On his last air trip Mr. Courtney obtained some wonderful photographs of Major de Havilland crossing the Pyrenees. These show a veritable sea of mist, with the'jagged peaks of mountains sticking up like islands. Not at all pleasant country to fly over ! A Tale of a Parcel ' MRS. COURTNEY told me an amusing story of the parcel post. When Mr. Courtney was testing the " D.H. 6" fuselage fitted with the experimental " Alula " wing at Brough, Yorkshire, the weather was rather cold, and he was wearing his " Sidcot " suit. This he left with the " Alula " people ; but, owing to the approach of the winter months, he wrote them last week asking them to send on his " Sidcot " by post. When Mrs. Courtney was unpacking it on arrival, three mice suddenly ran out of one of the sleeves, and, on further examination, it was found that they had built a nest there. Considering the way the Post Office usually treat parcels, the mice must have had a pretty rough journey ! The meteorological arrangements on the aerodrome are, by their excellence, attracting the attention of both French and Dutch weather experts. On two occasions this week Mr. Hay, the meteorologist-in-charge, has had visits from weather officials of foreign air-ports, who wished to see " how it was done." This morning, for instance, a gentleman from Holland was immersed in the mysteries of weather-reporting for air- men, explained ably by Mr. Hay. Mr. Leysmith, who is at Lympne erecting searchlights in order to bring that station up to night-flying standards, visited the aerodrome on Saturday. He tells me that the work on the searchlights is proceeding well. When they are finished the whole of the British section of the Continental " airway " will be equipped sufficiently for night-flying. A report reached the air-port on Sunday that one of the pilots " ferrying " a Bristol fighter to Spain had crashed in France, and had been injured. The name was given in a cable as " Ernest Elstros " ; but no pilot of this name, or anything like it, has left for Spain. 635
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
