FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0150.PDF
MARCH 12, 1925 THE ROYAL AIR FORCE AS A CAREER" THERE is a very common impression abroad that the Royal Air Force is an unsatisfactory career for an officer because there cannot be enough high appointments to give a young man a fair prospect of ever rising to air rank or even to Group Captain. This, perhaps, and also the belief which still persists that flying is excessively dangerous, probably affect the minds of parents whose sons would like to fly ;. though they would cheerfully face the prospect of a boy waiting for years for promotion in a line regiment or alternately breaking his neck in a cavalry steeplechase. Probably it was to combat the fears of a dangerous calling, coupled with a bad business proposition, that the Air Ministry have just pub- lished a neat little illustrated volume entitled " The Royal Air Force as a Career." We rather wish, however, that the two points mentioned above had been seized, like the proverbial bull, by the horns. It is not rubbed in hard enough that the excessive proportion of junior officers to senior ones is dealt with to a great extent by the grant of short service commissions. No figures are given of rates of pay, allowances and pension—no doubt they can be found elsewhere, but they ought to be included in this volume ; and no stress is laid on the growing safety of flying. Of course, service flying will never be as safe as civil * His Majesty's Stationery Office. 3s. net. flying ought to be ; but the risks are not so great as to deter a young man (or his parents) who will face either steeple- chasing or submarine work with equanimity. The prospects of airmen as contrasted with officers, are, however, put well and attractively. Nevertheless, the book seems to be written for prospective officers more than for prospective airmen. The appeal made is to the sporting side of life in the force, to the joys of beagling at Cranwell, of travel, of sport in the East, with reference here and there to the delights of flying itself. There is a useful chapter on service overseas, which gives a list of the stations where R.A.F. units are quartered. We might point out in passing that Peshawar is not in the Punjab, but is the capital of the North-West Frontier Province. It is described as " about forty miles from Kohat," which is something like saying that London is in the neighbourhood of Hertford. The photographs which illustrate this chapter are well chosen, but might be better reproduced. The book might, in fact, be better than it is, but it give:, a clear and concise account of the Royal Air Force and its varied activities and branches. The chapter on Cranwell Cadet College is the best. The book should help to clarify muddled thought on the subject with which it deals, and we hope that it will serve a useful purpose. It certainly ought to be supplied broadcast to headmasters of public schools. AMERICAN ORDERS FOR AIRCRAFT (ARMY AND NAVY) SOME interesting figures, showing the number, type, etc., of aircraft ordered by the U.S. Government for the Army and Navy, are given in our American contemporary Aviation, and in view of the fact that our own Air Estimates have been just recently in the limelight, we think some of these figures may be of interest to readers of FLIGHT. Perhaps the most important of these relate to the Govern- ment orders for aircraft scheduled for the fiscal years 1924-25 and 1925-26. Bearing in mind the fact that the following figures involve future commitments and certain other indefi- nite factors, they do, nevertheless, show generally that the various U.S. Government Departments plan to purchase less than 500 aircraft during the next fiscal year. The figures are :— On Order, Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1925 :—Naval Service.—82 machines (Curtiss, Packard, and Wright engines) from the Boeing Co., the order for 68 of which to be placed before July 1, 1925 ; 75 type CS 1 (575 h.p. Wright) from the Glenn Martin Co., and 72 machines (200 h.p. Wright water- cooled and air-cooled engines) from the Boeing Co. Army Service.—50 type PT 1 (200 h.p. Wright) from Consolidated Co. ; 10 (200 h.p. Wright) from the Huff Daland Co. ; 3 from the Cox-Klemin Co. ; 130 type DH 4M (400 h.p. " Liberty ") from the Atlantic Co. ; 10 (400 h.p. " Liberty ") from the Douglas Co. ; 12 (400 h.p. Curtiss D 12) from the Boeing Co. ; 9 (400 h.p. inverted " Liberty ") from the Loening Co. ; and 15 " Dusters " (200 h.p. Wright) for the Department of Agriculture. A total, for both services, of 400. Scheduled for Order, Fiscal Year ending June 30, 1926 :— Naval Service.—27 fighters (400 h.p. Curtiss D 12) ; 43 observation (400 h.p. Wright air-cooled or Curtiss) ; 59 three-purpose torpedo ; 23 scouting ; 20 patrol : and 40 training. Army Service.—158 primary training, advance training, ambulance, and observation ; 50 bombing transport (800 h.p. Packard) ; 50 Persuit (400 h.p. Curtiss D 12) ; and 10 Attack (Wright or Packard). A total for both Services, of 480. The following figures give the total number of machines, and types, ordered for the U.S. Army Air Service during the four years 1920-23 :—(«) 1,61(1 remodelled DH machines. (b) 681 new machines ordered from the Industry of the following types—XB 1A (42) ; SE 5A (50) ; MB 3 (62> ; MB 3A (200) ; Orenco D (50) ; PW 5 (10) ; PW 8 (25) ; MB 2 (20) ; MBS 1 (85) ; GAX (10) : OW 1 (1) ; MBL 1 Barling (1) ; VE 7 (7) ; YE 9 (27) ; TA 3 (10) ; TW 3 (20) : messengers (26) ; Loening seaplanes (8) ; transport (10) ; single-seater Persuit (3) ; Verville-Sperry racers (3) ; Curtiss Eagles (3) ; Thomas Morse racers (3) ; Loening racers (3) ; Curtiss racers (2). (c) Ten machines from McCook Field as follows—PW 1(1); TP 1 (1); GAX (1); CO 1 (1); CO 2 (1); TW 1 (1); XB1A (2) ; CO 5 (1) ; VCP 1— Verville-Packard racer—(1). A totalfor all classes of 2,301. AERODROME WIRELESS ORGANISATION WIRELESS communication is an important factor in the organisation of the airways, and it is being increasingly used in the air services which are being developed all over the Continent of Europe. In connection with the programme of development in Roumania, the Roumanian War Ministry has ordered from Marconi's Wireless Telegraph Co., Ltd., two aerodrome wireless stations and twelve complete aircraft sets. The aerodromes and machines will be so equipped that communication between them can be maintained at all times, and the ground stations will be able to communicate with one another to exchange weather reports and other information of value in connection with the service. The ground station equipment will consist of ^-kilowatt valve transmitters for telephony and telegraphy. They will be of the cabinet tvpe, operated from the receiving station by remote control.' The receiving stations will include the well-known Marconi type 12A direction finder, as used at Croydon, Berne, and many other aerodromes and coastal wireless stations. This receiver, when not engaged in receiving any particular station, can be adjusted to receive calls from all directions, but by a single switch movement the operator can concentrate on one direction only, and obtain bearings of a transmitting station or use the directional effect to eliminate interference with ordinary reception. Line amplifiers are also installed at the receiving station to magnify land line speech before it reaches the transmitter. This device enables conversation to be carried on direct with the ordinary telephone system to an aeroplane via the wire- less transmitter. A small switchboard in the receiving room enables the operator to control the distant transmitter, and also to complete the connection between the land telephone system and the wireless system. The twelve aircraft sets are of the Marconi AD6 type tor telephony and telegraphy, the transmitter using 150 watts. The complete equipment is contained in one instrument case, which can be installed in the machine in an out-of-the- way corner, and is controlled from the pilot's seat by a remote control switch. This allows the pilot to make fine adjust- ment in tuning, and also to change over from send to receive. A great advantage of th,is system'is the absence of apparatus in the close vicinity of the pilot, so that he is free to attend to his flying duties while maintaining full control of his wire- less installation. The range of the AD6 set naturally varies in accordance with local conditions, and therefore in common with all wireless apparatus it is impossible to give a definite range of transmission and reception ; but telephonic communica- tion can be usually relied on over distances of from 100 to 150 miles, while telegraphic communication can be main- tained over approximately twice that distance. 150
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
