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Aviation History
1929
1929 - 0472.PDF
MARCH 7, 1929 EDDIE! SINCERE congratulations to " Crazy-Flying " Sqdr.-Ldr. J. Noakes, upon his complete recovery and resumption of flying after his unfortunate mishap at Martlesham last year during the test of a new machine. COLONEL LINDBERGH'S popularity is still ascending, judging by a report that the Mexican Government, fearing that he might be kidnapped by bandits, has provided a strong military escort to accompany him, his fiancee and her father when they indulge in a week-end visit from Mexico City to Mr. Morrow's country house at Cuemavaca. But the question arises : Which Government is it ? THE much-discussed case of the Hon. Violet Douglas- Pennant, who was dismissed from the post of Commandant of the W.R.A.F. in 1918, is, I hear, likely to be reopened shortly, by reason of fresh evidence which it is stated has reached the hands of the Petition Committee since the issue of the findings of the Select Committee appointed to go into the case by the House of Lords in 1919. The House of Lords is being asked again to open a further enquiry. " AT Christmas, 1916, I was with a squadron of aeroplanes in the Vosges. The Germans had just captured a British captain in the same circumstances as Capt. Fryatt was taken, and they had condemned him to be shot. " I got orders direct from the Admiralty to load up all machines and be ready to go over the nearest German town and bomb men, women and children if the execution was carried out. Those orders from the Admiralty were allowed to leak out in Berlin. The man was not shot, but he would have been if we had not been ready to carry out the threat." Thus Lord Halsbury, at a League of Nations Union meeting the other day, when emphasising the fact that to protect civil populations from attack from the air we had to be strong enough to threaten reprisals. Such a moral lesson as the above should silence once and for all the petty quibblers who have nothing better to put forward than " Don't hurt your enemy." A TYPICAL postcard from an old artist contributor to FLIGHT, in which the little " flyer " which the snowed-in artist has launched from the Cotswold Hills conveys its own commentary on the recent arctic weather, its label request A BIG demand is foretold for the latest road abortion in the form of a 14-wheeled motor lorry to carry 100 tons ! Just fancy this contraption careering along His Majesty's highways without a speed limit in force ! One comfort is that by the time a few thousand of these Juggernauts are on the road most folk will be taking to the air as the only safe element in which to gyrate. ANOTHER enlightened Education Committee—the Glam- organ—has made itself conspicuous by deciding that none of the students under their control shall be nominated for apprenticeship in training for the R.A.F., in like manner to a ban which they had previously placed on the other fighting services, the idea being that they should not nominate any boy for training in the destruction of human life. All of which is quite good for the Glamorgan Committee, but I am just wondering what opinion they would hold individually should a few of them happen in some city when the inevitable poison gas bombers arrive. It may then dawn upon them that prevention would certainly have been better than calmly taking the medicine provided by those who differ with us. VERY remarkable in disclosing ancient camps and cities are the results of photography from the air, the sites of which have hitherto been but vaguely known. One of the most recent disclosures in this respect is the scheduled Romai site of Caistor Camp, some 3 miles from Norwich. It is well that the Air Ministry permit a hand to be taken in this splendid work thus helping forward archaeology. P that an official decision has been given regarding the first flight in England by a British subject, it might be as well to note that, according to Mr. R. D. Galbraith, in a letter recently to the press, the Daily Mail is acclaimed as " the Father and Mother of aircraft." reading " If found please deliver a brace of Scotch, etc.," and incidentally depicts one of the latest clever " Zephyr " models which stand to the credit of that Oxford Street model enthusiast, Mr. A. E. Jones. WHERE the sun has been shining. The pilot of a Handley- Page-Napier air liner which made Croydon from Cologne last Saturday, reported that during the whole of the journey he was flying in brilliant sunshine, not a single cloud being seen during the 325 miles' flight. ANOTHER aspirant for flying :— Flying.—A writer in the Mechanics' Magazine announces that he has succeeded in constructing an apparatus for flying, far exceeding in strength and lightness, anything produced by nature, and offers to dispose of a fourth share in the profits of a discovery so important for £1,500. It might be well to note, however, that the above is a paragraph which appeared on March 1, 1829, in our contem- porary the Observer. THERE is sound commonsense in the views expressed by Major L. V. Stewart Blacker, of the Corps of Guides, in the Journal of the Royal United Services Institution, in regard to mechanised warfare in Asia, in which he gives priority to the Autogiro type of flying machine in the necessary air units of fighting groups of mountain brigades. These machines and armoured cars, he says, could be employed by the Scout Company for close reconnais- sance, but at the rear of a brigade a supply flight of four heavy aeroplanes could be used for ammunition and rations. " Air distances in mountain warfare are always very short, hence we may expect both supply aeroplanes and autogiro ambulances to do more than one trip in the day." IN a particularly illuminating vision of the city of the future, Mr. Howard Robertson recently, at the Architectural Association, gave one a good deal to think about. Possibly some of his ideas may appear to be at the moment somewhat far-fetched, but on the whole he should be congratulated upon his very broad views. I am glad, incidentally, to notice that he did not omit to give a word of warning as to the provision for aircraft landing facilities during this remark- able forecast. In his view " the roofs of London, as we see them today, form one vast space ; with our steep roofs we lose the opportunity for a magnificent thoroughfare, not to men- tion their future utility as aircraft landing platforms. The new Charing Cross should be schemed with an eye to its roof being used as a landing-place for air taxis. This station, if carried out, will provide a splendid chance for future needs. Men of wide vision should be consulted before its design is settled." , 188
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