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Aviation History
1926
1926 - 0350.PDF
pointed out that what the country needed more than anything else at the moment in order to encourage private flying was an aerodrome at every town and every village in the United Kingdom. When aero- drome facilities were to be found almost anywhere, it would be possible to use aeroplanes for touring and other private use. Until such facilities existed there was some difficulty in making full use of the advantages which the aeroplane had to offer. Com- mander Perrin's remarks seem to indicate that he has arrived at very much the same conclusion, and he recommends the formation of a committee to look into the subject, not perhaps so much the establish- ment of new aerodromes and landing grounds as a careful survey and tabulation of existing ones suit- able for privately-owned aeroplanes. It will, of course, be common knowledge that there is already in existence a publication which deals with the larger aerodromes and landing grounds both at home and abroad, under the title The Air Pilot, monthly supplements to which are issued. This work, published by order of the Air Council, and sold by H.M. Stationery Office, deals, however, mainly with air stations under the control of the Air Ministry, i.e., service stations, and with existing licensed civil aerodromes. Before the ideal advocated by Mr. Cob- ham can be realised, it will, of course, be necessary to locate a vastly larger number of landing " fields " suitable for use by civilian machines, and although the Air Ministry cannot well be expected to under- take this work in its entirety, the task is of such a magnitude that Air Ministry assistance is almost essential. The Royal Aero Club, and the light 'plane clubs, can do a great deal of useful work, and one of the first lines of attack on the problem would seem to be an appeal to all the large cities of the Kingdom to help by at any rate not placing obstacles in the way of the establishment of suitable landing grounds in "their vicinity. It is quite obvious that it would be to the advantage of all British towns to have their own aerodrome facilities, but the problem of con- vincing them of these advantages is not likely to be one easy of attainment. The existing light 'plane clubs could probably do a great deal of good in this direction, and could also make a very good start by carrying out aerial surveys along the routes joining the different club aerodromes. If fields suitable for forced landings could be located at fairly close intervals along these routes, visits by the aeroplanes of one light 'plane club to the aerodrome of another light 'plane club would be greatly facilitated, and the paying of " calls " by air would no doubt help materially in awakening a much wider interest in the subject of flying. Incidentally, club members would derive a great deal of pleasure, not to mention the value of the experience, from the carrying out of such surveys, which experience would stand them in good stead later wrhen taking part in cross-country races such as will certainly take place during the years to come. To the Royal Aero Club would naturally fall the task of receiving and collating the information gathered by the light 'plane clubs, and to make arrangements with the owners of such landing grounds for permis- MAY 27, 1926 sion to use them. The task will be a very large one, but with goodwill on all sides it should be possible to make a useful start almost immediately. Turning now to the statistics published in the Royal Aero Club's Official Notices this week, it is seen that civilian machines, not including those of Imperial Airways, covered during the strike no less than 44,733 miles, of which 33,174 miles were flown by the emergency services organised and conducted by the Royal Aero Club. Out of these totals, the de Havilland " Moths " appear to have accounted for something like 15,445 miles. As far as shown by the Royal Aero Club statistics, eight " Moths " were in service, so that the average mileage of each was approximately 1930 miles, a record of which both makers and owners of these machines may well be proud. The honour of having put up the greatest mileage, in the " Moth " class, goes to G-EBMF, of the London Aeroplane Club, to whose credit stands a mileage of no less than 3,384. If further proof were needed of the capacity for hard work possessed by the de Havilland " Moth " and its " Cirrus " engine, it is provided by these figures, which we have no doubt will come as something of an eye-opener to man 7 who had looked upon them as " toys." The light 'plane clubs themselves have probably been surprised, in spite of the record of good service which the " Moths " have established in ordinary club work, and altogether the service given by these little machines calls forth the most unreserved admiration. Of individual performances by machines of higher power, it would seem that that of Col. Henderson on a D.H.9 with Siddeley " Puma " engine, stands well above the average, with a total mileage (and the same pilot throughout) of 5,046 miles. Taking the average speed of the machine as 100 m.p.h., this appears to indicate that Col. Henderson did something like 50 hours' actual flying during the strike, no mean performance when the nature of the flying is taken into consideration. It is impossible to refer to and comment upon in detail all the splendid air work done during the strike, but one interesting fact emerges from a perusal of the statistics ; No less than three machines whose identi- fication letters commence with G-EA took part in the emergency services. These letters indicate that the machines must be fairly ancient, the oldest being one belonging to the Southern Counties Aviation Co.. and which carried the identification letters G-EAAY. All three machine? were Avros, and the oldest of the lot, G-EAAY, managed to get in 540 miles, which is not bad for a veteran. One knows, of course, that the Avro 504 as a type is immortal, but this shows the longevity of individual machines. For the benefit of those not familiar with the system of identification letters, we may explain that when the system first came into use, the first British civil machine was given the identification letters G-EAAA, the next G-EAAB, and so forth until G-EAAZ had been reached, when the next machine received the letters G-EABA. Thus the identification letters are a fairly good index to the age of a machine. TO OUR READERS. With the present issue of " Flight," which, we are afraid, will reach our readers some 24 hours' late we once more approach normal publication after the delays inevitably caused by the late hours late, w General Strike. Next week's issue will go to press at the usual time, and will be distributed lat Nex in the normal manner. 304
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