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Aviation History
1923
1923 - 0457.PDF
AUGUST 1, 1923 20 ft. across the wings and 21 ft. long. This machine iscapable of flying 75 to 210 m.p.h. The machine is in no way of freak design. It could beconverted to a high-speed fighter scout, capable of very high performances both in speed and climb. With fightingmachines of this type our Air Force would be placed in the supreme position of having the finest and best fighting scoutsin the world, and with a good margin of performance to spare. The " Sopwith-Hawker " is somewhat of a " dark horse,"about which we have, at the moment, very little information beyond that it is a small biplane of very fine proportions,fitted with a 400 h.p. Bristol " Jupiter." It has a span of 21 ft., a chord of 5 ft. \\ ins., gap 4 ft. 5 ins., and an overalllength of 19 ft. 3 ins. The power loading is somewhere in the neighbourhood of 5 lbs. per h.p., so the machine should beable to show a good turn of speed. As regards the other machines, we do not think it will benecessary for-us to pass any remarks on these, as each repre- sents a very well-known type and should by now be " familiarobjects of the air " to most of our readers. Air League Challenge Cup THE race for the Air League Challenge Cup will form part ofthe programme of the Aerial Derby meeting at Waddon Aerodrome, Croydon, on August Bank Holiday. It will be decided over a triangular course of about 100 miles.The course will be made known to the competitors one hour before the start. They will be started at intervals of twominutes, and the competitor who completes the course in the shortest time will be the winner. The following units have entered :— _ - ~; 1. Andover .. Wing-Commander J. T. Babington, D.S.O.2. Cranwell .. Flight-Lieut. F. G. C. Weare, M.C. 3. Duxford .. Flight-Lieut. L. M. Bailey, A.F.C.4. Eastchurch .. Flight-Lieut. H. S. Shield, M.C. 5. Farnborough Flying Officer G. W. Hemming, D.S.C.6. Flowerdown Flying Officer G. V. Howard, D.F.C. 7. Halton .. Flight-Lieut. E. B. Rice. 8. Henlow .. Flight-Lieut. C. E. H. Medhurst, O.B.E.,M.C. 9. Kenley .. Flying Officer Leslie Hamilton, M.B.E.,D.F.C. . -r 10. MartleshamHeath .. Flight-Lieut. J. Potter. 11. Netheravon Flight-Lieut. B. Ankers, D.C.M.12. Northolt . . Air-Commodore H. C. T. Dowdihg, C.M.G. 13. Old Sarum . . Flying Officer P. Murgatroyd. 14. Shotwick . . Flying Officer C, F. Toogood. 15. Spittlegate .. Wing-Commander A. S. Barratt, C.M.G.,M.C. 16. Upavon .. Flying Officer M. C. Waltho.All competitors will be on Bristol Fighters, fitted with 275 h.p. Rolls-Royce " Falcon " engines. In addition to the Aerial Derby and the Air League Chal-lenge Cup, the programme will include :— Exhibition flights by Nieuport " Nighthawks," fitted with400 h.p. Bristol " Jupiter " engines, piloted by Flight-Lieut. Rollo A. de H. Haig and Flying Officer John S" Chick, M.C. Flights by the Gnosspelius motor glider " The Gull," pilotedby Mr. J. L. Parker. LONDON TERMINAL AERODROME "•--• •__ Monday Evening, July 30, 1923 GOODS TRAFFIC on the Instone Air Line's London-Cologneroute has now assumed such proportions that it has been found necessary to provide a special " cargo-plane " to dealwith it. The old " City of London," the original commercial Vickers " Vimy," has been converted for this purpose, andmade her maiden vovage as an air freighter to Cologne today. All the seats and interior fittings have been taken out, andthe windows filled in, so that this machine is now nothing more nor less than a flying covered van. Among the many goodscontracts obtained by the Instone Air Line is one to convey 50 tons of tobacco from London to Cologne. This is broughtstraight out of bond in London into bond at the Customs House on the Aerodrome, and is then shipped into the machines forCologne as space allows. For the return flights consignments of something approaching 100 tons of dye-ware have been "secured.Something in the nature of a sensation was provided at the air station during the week, when it became known thatastute Germans had been travelling by air from Amsterdam to London and thence by air non-stop to Cologne, taking withthem as personal luggage large consignments of- marks. This, I understand, has been done in order to provide trades-men in Cologne with a sufficient quantity of this paper money to cope with the depreciation in the mark, and the airway isthe only method by which large quantities can be got into the British Occupied Area without confiscation. For the first time for a considerable period the weatherinterfered with the regularity of the air services on Saturday, and in consequence Sunday was an extremely busy day.Handley Page Transport had four machines fully laden between London and Paris, and the Instone Air Line neededfive D.H.34s to cope with their traffic on Sunday. Even the Daimler Airway, who do not usually run a Sunday service,had a special machine in from Amsterdam. A New Passenger Record HANDLEY PAGE TRANSPORT have created a new record for passenger-carrying by flying over 1,000 air travellers between London and Paris during the month of July, thus beating their previous best for any month—and this, of course, meansa record for any line. There is considerable satisfaction among a certain sectionat Croydon at the news that the Aerial Derby is to be flown from here, although it must be stated that some of the air-linepeople are not too pleased with the idea, as they believe that it interferes to a certain extent with the ordinary traffic. Thisis a moot point, and it is open to argument whether there is more advantage accruing to civil aviation by the crowdscoming to the Aerodrome and seeing how active civil flying really is. Trie only representative of the Aerodrome in the AerialDerby is Mr. Perry, who will probably fly a converted D.H.9, with a Napier " Lion " engine, which has been erected by theDisposal Company, and should have been flown in the King's Cup Race round Britain. The Daimler Airway's service to Berlin still continues tobe so well patronised that room cannot be found for all who wish to travel, and the two through machines each way duringthe week are always filled to their utmost capacity. On Saturday they had to refuse 14 passengers owing to the factthat all their machines were filled, and I am told that this is more or less a regular state of affairs at the present moment. The K.L.M. are filling their machines day by day withgoods, and have rarely room for many passengers. In this connection, the most noticeable fact is that, instead of thelight parcels which have up till recently been the mainstay of the air goods traffic, this firm are now getting many consign-ments of heavy goods, which, although they load the machine to its full capacity, do not take up the room that some of thelighter stuff does. In many cases, in fact, previously, it has been found almost impossible to load the machine to anythinglike its full capacity owing to the bulky nature of the con- signments. The Air Union are, of course, still getting the lion's shareof the goods traffic between London and Paris, and on one occasion this week one of the old five-seater " Spads " arrivedfrom Paris as an auxiliary machine, completely loaded. It is some considerable time since one of these machines was seenat Croydon. Rolls-Royce " Condor " Engine at Gothenburg WE wish to draw attention to the following correctionst6 the specification of the Rolls-Royce " Condor " aero engine •which appeared in our first Gothenburg Show Report, July 19last. In preparing same we had not then received from the makers the latest figures relating to the " Condor " Series IIIexhibited at Gothenburg, and therefore had to rely on the specification in our possession relating to an earlier model.The corrections are: Maximum crankshaft speed, 2,100 r.p.m. ; normal propeller speed (.428 reduction gear), 815r.p.m. ; weight—including reduction gear, propeller boss, exhaust pipes and screened ignition—i.e., engine complete, less radiator, water and oil, 1,336 lbs. The Supermarine to Defend the Schneider CupIT is gratifying to learn that last year's splendid triple combination of Biard-Supermarine-Napier, which won forGreat Britain the Schneider Cup, is to again participate in this year's event. The machine will be the identical one,with another of the Napier " Lions," which did so well last year with its 145 m.p.h. No doubt a little more may beforthcoming this time. However, here's wishing the one and only—so far—British defender the best of luck. 457
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