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Aviation History
1923
1923 - 0497.PDF
AUGUST 16, 1923 LONDON TERMINAL AERODROME Monday evening, August 6, 1923 LITTLE doubt can now be felt even by the most pessimisticthat air transport has become a recognised form of travel and has taken its place in the ordinary scheme of daily life. Sogreat has been the traffic in the past month that there have been not nearly enough machines to deal with it, and theshort-sighted policy either of the Air Ministry or of the firms • themselves—it is difficult to say which of the two groups isthe more to blame—is being felt acutely now that the turning- down of passengers has become a daily occurrence on all lines. Handley Page Transport have some remarkable figures forJuly. They carried 1,200 passengers in 118 flights, while for the corresponding month last year there were five companiesoperating on this route, and in 434 flights the whole of the five companies only carried 1,271 passengers, or 71 more thanHandley Page alone have carried this 'ear. The holiday traffic has broken all records, and Handley Page again in thefirst four days of August have carried 250 passengers. All other lines have been doing business on a similar scale,and the Daimler Airway have been compelled to suspend their London-Manchester service over the holidays in order to copewith the rush of traffic to Berlin and Amsterdam, while the Instone Air Line have been taxed to the uttermost to carrythe passengers wishing to fly to Cologne and Brussels. The goods traffic to and from Cologne continues to growapace, and after the first two or three consignments of tobacco which were flown to Cologne the contract was increased from50 to 100 tons, with a promise of more to follow, and the Vimy is now flying every day in an effort to cope with the goodstraffic. The first direct flight in one day to Prague was made onSaturday, when one of the Vickers Vulcans of the Instone Air Line, piloted by Mr. Barnard, left Croydon at 9.30 a.m., and,stopping at Brussels, Cologne and Eger, arrived at Prague at 7.30 p.m., the actual flying time being only 7|- hours. Iunderstand that the flight was made to map out the route, and that at each stop the aerodromes were inspected. Sir Samuel Hoare, the Minister of State for Air, accom-panied by Lady Hoare, travelled to Gothenburg in a special Daimler D.H.34, which had been equipped in a luxuriousfashion for inspection at the Gothenburg exhibition. The ordinary seats had been removed, and four specially largearmchairs, with air cushions, had been installed, two facing forward and two at the forward end of the cabin facing towardsthe rear of the machine. Between the two sets of chairs two tables of polished mahogany had been installed, and two electricreading lamps were placed on these tables, while the wireless telephones had been extended into the cabin for the occasion.This machine will no doubt further enhance British air prestige at the exhibition. On Friday morning, Major Hemming, piloting the D.H.37,left the aerodrome at the early hour of 5.39 a.m. en ronte for Rotterdam, to take part in the race from Rotterdam toGothenburg. He carried as passenger Princess Lowenstein, and Major Tymms of the Air Ministry also travelled with himas navigator. Capts. Macmillan and Malins were also scheduled to leave the same morning, but after getting awayfrom Bristol they had carburettor trouble, and had to return, eventually leaving Croydon on Saturday morning and flyingto Gothenburg in a single day. Major Hemming arrived back from Gothenburg on Monday morning in time for theAerial Derby. On Monday Paul Sprecht and rtis band of 17 performersflew to Paris, complete with their instruments, in two Handley Page aeroplanes, though it is not known as to whether theyplayed some, of their famous foxtrots on the way. Monday evening, August 13, 1923 THE Aerodrome has settled down once more after the excite-ment of the Aerial Derby. Speaking to one of the C.A.T.O.'s on the question of how far the race had interfered with theregular traffic, I was informed that this year there had been remarkably little interference. In fact, there were no com-plaints whatever from cross-Channel pilots other than those with regard to their being unable to sec the race. The boom in passenger traffic still continues at a highsummer level. Handley Page Transport continue to create new records in passenger-carrying. On Saturday last nofewer than 95 people were flown on the Handley Page machines between London and Paris. This month, so far, they havecarried a total of 700 people. These figures are all the more remarkable when it is remembered that Handley Page haveonly three machines at their disposal. On other lines, too, there is no lack of traffic. The DaimlerAirway could comfortably fill at least one machine per day between London and Berlin, and seats on the Berlin serviceare generally booked up for days before the machines go. During this last week telegrams have been received fromvarious parts of the country asking for seats to be reserved on the Berlin machine, and as far ahead as Thursday next allavailable seats are booked up. • On the Instone Line to Cologne goods are looming largelyin the traffic, although there is, of course, a goodly number of passengers. The regular service to Prague is due to begin running thisweek, and there are also rumours that the Handley Page extension to Zurich is to be started very shortly—an O.400being scheduled to make an experimental trip this week. I understand there is some difficulty as yet with the FrenchCustoms authorities, which prevents the Southampton- Channel Isles service being run on to Cherbourg. As it is,however, the journey to the Channel Isles from London will be cut down from between 9 and 10 hours to 3J hours fromleaving Waterloo by train for Southampton to arriving in the Channel Islands by flying-boat. Mr. H. Shaw, who has for some time been controlling thedestinies of the Shell Mex Company on the aerodrome with such success, has been appointed to the control of the entireaviation side of Shell Mex, a well-merited advancement. The Shell Company are to be congratulated upon securing such apopular figure as Mr. Shaw to control their aviation depart- ment. H H H H H 0 H A Stahlwerk Mark R.III lands in Unter den Linden : On July 7 this machine was successfully landed in front of the Opera House in Berlin. H H H H 0 S 0 H H H 0 B H 0 H H El 0 0 0 H 497
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