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Aviation History
1925
1925 - 0458.PDF
JULY 16, 1925 AERONAUTICS AT WEMBLEY ON Thursday last the Air Ministry organised a special visitto the aeronautical sections of the British Empire Exhibition at Wembley. Following the inspection—which lasted abouttwo and a half hours—a lunch took place in the Garden Club, at which Sir Philip Sassoon, Under-Secretary of State forAir, and Sir Sefton Brancker, Director of Civil Aviation, delivered short addresses on the importance of interestingand educating the general public in matters aeronautic, and as to how the Air Ministry were endeavouring to dotheir bit in this connection by means of the air exhibits at Wembley. We have previously made brief reference in FLIGHTto the air exhibits at Wembley, but on Thursday we had our first opportunity of making a thorough inspection of thesein their completed form. It must be admitted at the outset that we were agreeably surprised at the thoroughness withwhich the important subject of aeronautics has been treated— for rumour had it that aircraft had been somewhat left outin the cold at Wembley this year. The aeronautical exhibit has been divided into three mainsections—two in the Government Pavilion, dealing with the Royal Air Force side and the civil side respectively, and athird section in the Palace of Transport and Housing, which is devoted to the transport side of aviation. Starting atthe Government Pavilion, we first inspected the section dealing with aerial survey and photography. This branch ofaviation is, as we have frequently stated in FLIGHT one ofconsiderable importance, and the various exhibits at Wembley demonstrate this in an excellent manner, Numerous examplesof photographs are shown illustrating the methods employed in aerial map-making, surveying, etc., as well as specimensof the various instruments employed. One very interesting exhibit consists of a large map of Canada showing vast tractsof uncharted areas, and another map of the same area which was recently completed by means of aerial survey. Whereasin the former map little else but blank spaces were to be seen, in the latter map every bit of space is filled in to theminutest detail. Some of the mosaics are extremely interest- ing, especially that relating to the Irrawaddy delta, completeda year or so ago. Another wonderful exhibit in connection with aerial survey work is the Camera Plastica. This instrument consists of two projectors throwing theimages of a stereoscopic pair of vertical photographs on the same area of a horizontal screen, i.e., the two vertical viewsare superimposed. We are afraid we are unable at the moment to describe in detail the operation of this instrument,but, briefly stated, it may be explained that the image indicates points which are at different levels by the amountof overlap of each picture at that particular point. The horizontal screen may be raised or lowered—which movementcorresponds to a scale of altitude in relation to the image— by the operator, thus enabling a plan to be drawn and theapproximate elevations of various points to be determined. We could have remained in this section for hours, but we hadto push along as there was still a lot to be seen. We next inspected a beautifully made model of an air-port of thefuture, in which the general lay-out was realistically and artistically shown, and a similar model of an airship port.There were also excellent models of the various types of air liners, suspended in mid-air in beautiful and natural" settings." Airship transport was illustrated by a model showing embarking, or vice versa, by means of the mooringmast ; whilst a second model showed a section of the proposed Burney airship, exposing to view the very complete andelaborate arrangements of the cabins, etc. A special illumi- nated map indicated the air routes of the world. Before leaving this section we spent a short time—far tooshort, but time was limited—looking over the extremely interesting historical exhibit that has been arranged byMr. J. E. Hodgson. This consists of a picked selection of prints, manuscripts, books, relics and models, mostly fromMr. Hodgson's own valuable collection, relating to those very early and fascinating records of ballooning and notaltogether successful attempts at mechanical flight. Having managed to tear ourselves away from here, we proceeded tothe R.A.F. section, on the other side of the Government Pavilion, where the Service side of flying is presented in anexcellent manner. As far as the general public is concerned, perhaps the most popular exhibit here consists of some fortyscale models of aircraft, from the early Lininthal and Pilcher gliders to the latest types of commercial and military machines.Then there is a model of the R.A.F. station at Halton, where the R.A.F. aircraft apprentice is trained, beautifully set out,from which, together with accompanying explanations, an excellent idea of the day's life—and a happy one it appearsto be, too—of an aircraft apprentice can easily be visualised. The significance of aerial warfare is emphasised by the displayof a fearsome-looking bomb, 12 ft. high, carried by the large bombing planes and capable of doing considerable damage.In contrast, a baby incendiary bomb, 3 in. long, is shown alongside. For the more technical-minded there is a modelwind channel from which the method of obtaining data relating to the characteristics of an aerofoil may be seen inoperation. An instructive exhibit—and a popular one too—:.onsistsof a full-size cockpit complete with instruments and controls, above which is a model aeroplane, the control surfaces ofwhich are geared to move in sympathy with the full-size controls below. The latter are made to'go through variousmovements necessary in the control of an aeroplane, and the model, following each movement, takes up the position inthe air which it would if the surface had been moved in actual flight. There are many other interesting exhibits inthis section, such as examples of metal and wood air screws, instruments, testing methods (arranged by the A.I.D.), etc.However, we are now due in the third section in the Palace of Housing and Transport, and so must proceed to describewhat is to be seen there. The exhibit in the Palace of Housing and Transportoccupies a space of about 14,000 sq. ft., and is undoubtedly one of the popular attractions of the building. This exhibit shows available types of aircraft used in theRoyal Air Force, in Civil Air Transport services and various navigational and medical instruments of an interestingnature. The Service exhibit consists of three aircraft—a De Havilland9A, a Sopwith Snipe and a Bristol Fighter. The first two of these aircraft are of special interest to visitors as the D.H.9A,is a day-bombing aircraft for use as counter-offensive air- craft against enemy territories, and the Snipe is a defensivemachine for use against enemy bombers. Both of these are Home Defence aircraft. " | The third Service machine—a Bristol^Fighter—was •originally designed for fighting purp1!8S7"l5ult™isncfw* used ™ for co-operation with the Army—in particular for recon-naissance purposes with the cavalry, infantry and tanks, and for both reconnaissance and observation duties withthe artillery. Communication with the land forces is main- tained by radio telephony or wireless telegraphy. Thesemachines also carry out photographic reconnaissances as required. Before passing from the exhibit of fighting aircraft one mustnote the Martinsyde high-speed fighting aircraft which has been developed by the Aircraft Disposal Company from amachine which was largely used by the Royal Air Force during the Great War. The aircraft is loaned by the A.D.C.,who also exhibit other " selections from their repertoire." An S.E.5A is also shown without the fabric covering, so thatthe method of construction may be seen. On the civil aviation side two large passenger and freightaircraft have been loaned to the Air Ministry for purposes of exhibition by Imperial Airways, Ltd. ; these are a VickersVulcan freighter and a Bristol ten-seater tourer, which are exhibited as illustrating civil types used on the Continentalair routes. A Parnall " Pixie "light 'plane placed under the wings of the " Vulcan " presents an interesting contrastin aircraft design. The most important of the navigational exhibits is a full-scale replica of the Control Tower at Croydon Aerodrome. The Control Tower is a model approximately true to scaleof the original Tower at the Croydon Aerodrome, and contains a certain amount of apparatus similar to that used in theoriginal. A " Loud-speaker" is installed which repeats the conversations carried on between the Control Officer atCroydon and aircraft flying to and from the various aero- dromes in Western Europe ; the conversations are relayedby special direct land line from the Croydon Wireless Control Station to the Control Tower at Wembley, so that the visitorto the exhibit can obtain a very accurate idea of the system of communication used in controlling the latest form of tran-sport. To a certain extent this wireless telephony fulfils the part played on the railway by signalling devices. Theprogress made by the air liners during the day is marked out on a chart in the control tower. A duplicate of the automatically-operated aerial lighthouseinstalled at Cranbrook in Kent on the Croydon-Continental route is also exhibited. A medical exhibit which possesses novel qualities is theReid time reaction apparatus for testing pilots, which is loaned by the Royal Aero Club. It enables " air doctors "to test on the ground with accuracy the potential abilities 458
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