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Aviation History
1929
1929 - 1302.PDF
FLIGHT, JUNE 20, 1929 EDDIES WHAT a chance for the " Yellow " journals was theunfortunate air liner mishap! Whole pages ofillustrations, from all points of the compass, and then— some. Not forgetting columns of "interview dope," andwhat not to work up the 'orrors. And almost as an after- thought, except in about two papers, just a few words of themillions of miles and tens of thousands of passengers carried by Imperial Airways with never a slip. Then take bycontrast, on the same day, a boating accident, with five people drowned. In one of these papers, there appearedabout three inches of type, in a remote corner, and I fail to find even mention of it elsewhere. "Well, I supposeBritons get the newspapers they deserve, and so that's that. THE twenty-five years' old French airman, M. Assolant,who, with his companions, last week flew the Atlantic in the " Yellow Bird," has quite outdone Hollywood in matrimonial eccentricities and hustle honeymoons. Married only a few days before, he was away by air back to France—minus his newly-acquired wife. ;- : „:. .,:_._ THEN as to the stowaway, Schreiber, who is stated to bea newspaper reporter, and the pity of it. Decent newspaper men can hardly be proud of such a brother scribe, who, by his selfish action, endangered not only the life of the pilot, but of his two companions, Lefevre and Lotti. Yet there are those who would make a hero of a pest like this ; about on a par with one kissing a burglar good luck after he had had a pot shot at you and missed. Surely the pilots were taking sufficient risk in their adventure without this added handicap. It seems to me, prosecution for fraudulently travelling would more fit the case. •:.... T is heartening to see that Commander Kenworthy,M.P., who has now been joined up by the Socialist Government, is sound on aviation progress. Speakingthe other day at an Air League dinner he said :—" I am speaking here as a party man, and while the money will becut down, I hope this League will see that public opinion demands that a fair share will be expended in what I thinkwill be the cheapest and the most efficient and greatest arm of the future. The new Government is prepared to give everypossible assistance to the development of civil aviation." Englishmen. We had no soldiers and no means of enforciruauthority except with our tongues. The aerodrome, situated between the two armies only 400 yards from each other, wasraked with a devastating cross-fire. We had to take the risk and telegraphed for aeroplanes. When the machinesarrived in sight we gave the signal to both armies to cease fire. Fortunately for us they obeyed the signal. The aero-planes landed in silence and the King and his ladies, escorted by unarmed Englishmen from the Legation, went to the wait-ing machines and were flown safely to India. There is no doubt whatever that the R.A.F. on this occasion, by theirgallantry, not only saved the city and the foreign legations from a terrible fate, but probably saved England fromanother war." [R. W. C. BRIDGEMAN, the Chairman of the Governors, filled up the gap, modestly left by Sir Francis, by saying how proud Shrewsbury was of their old scholar who had saved the situation at Kabul by his great courage, coolness and knowledge of the idiosyncracies of those with whom he had to deal. THE tenth anniversary commemorative gathering atthe Savoy of the Alcock-Brown Atlantic Flight has certainly brought it home to those who somewhat innocently had attributed to others the first crossing of the ocean. Both in London and in Canada the celebrations were very enthusiastic, and it must be somewhat of a shock to Colonel Lindbergh's supporters to learn now that he was not only not the first to fly the Atlantic (except as a solo flyer), but that he is only number 43 in the scale, by bringing in the 40 who travelled in R.34. IN another direction, France, indeed, has reason to blesstheir aeroplane organisation. By that means in the recent catastrophe in Morocco, magnificent work was put in in relieving the besieged garrison at Ait Yacoub. The greatly reduced garrison were at their last stand when the help came from the air. A report states that victory appeared to be only a matter of hours for the tribesmen when over the mountains there swooped French bombing aeroplanes. 'Plane after 'plane dropped its load of bombs on the attackers, who scattered wildly to their mountain stronghold, closely pursued by the machine-gun fire from other aeroplanes. In all, over 600 bombs were dropped by the 'planes. The garrison in the fort signalled to the airmen that they were short of food and medical supplies. More aeroplanes, loaded with these necessities, were soon flying over the fort dropping the much-wanted supplies for the worn-out troops. BARON VON HUHENFELD, who with Capt. Koehland Col. Fitzmaurice, on the Bremen monoplane, made the first East-to-West Transatlantic flight lastyear, before his death presented this historic machine to the City of New York. Now it is announced the " Bremen "is to find a permanent resting-place, suspended from a ceiling, in the main concourse of the Grand Central Stationof New York. Which would appear to be hardly an appro- priate or the best abiding place for so famous an exhibit.Irrespective of its possibilities in that position of a glorious dust-collector, one of the leading aerodrome buildings wouldsurely have made a better home. Possibly there is some good reason—sentimental or otherwise—unseen on the surface,for this selection, which presently may emerge. THE never-to-be-forgotten work of the Royal Air Forcein the evacuation of Britons and foreigners from Kabul, and the splendid work of Sir Francis Hum-phrys, the British Minister at Kabul, received further tribute last Saturday, when Sir Francis, in distributing prizes athis old school, Shrewsbury, gave the following further facts regarding the R.A.F. men :—" I want to tell you," said SirFrancis, " something about an epic of the air which is unparal- leled in history. When all means of communication byland were hopelessly cut off, aeroplanes flew to our rescue from Baghdad, and even from Egypt, covering as much as1,100 miles in a single day. These machines had operated before only in hot climates at a maximum height of 4,000 ft.,and they were suddenly called on to fly over snowbound, inhospitable mountains at heights far greater than the Alpsin a temperature 30 deg. below zero, and to land on a strange aerodrome in 2 ft. of snow with a fierce battle raging in theneighbourhood. But never once did they refuse my call. More than 80 journeys were made and 35,000 miles flownwith the loss of two machines, and 600 British subjects and foreigners were conveyed to safety without a singlecasualty. " There was one exciting incident. King number two,beseiged with a garrison of 5,000, was given 24 hours' ulti- matum to surrender to an attacking force of 16,000. Thealternative was a murderous assault with scaling ladders, no quarter, and a general loot and massacre. The Kingreplied that nothing would induce him to come out unless the safety of himself and his ladies was taken in hand by N quite an interesting direction aviation has made a new record by bringing to England a "package" containing a very rare shrub—Zelkova—from the high mountains of Crete, which it has long been sought to bring into cultivation in this country, through the help of the Iris Society. The plane carrying the Indian air mail, which stops at Suda Bay, Crete, recently, through the courtesy of the Imperial Airways, Ltd., under arrangement with the Iris Society, took delivery of a package on a given Thursday, addressed to Mr. G. P. Baker, an ex-President of the Society. Within 20 minutes of the arrival of the aeroplane at Croydon, on the following Sunday evening, it was duly handed to him safe, in good condition, and the plants are now at the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kew. Under the old method of transport by steamer, the survival of this unique species would have been almost impossible. \ PPARENTLY the recent failure of the Graf Zeppelin to cross the Atlantic has developed a certain amount oi friction, as report gives voice to the resignation ofHerr Alfred Colsman, the Managing Director oi the combination of airship companies which years ago orewthe world's attention to the then insignificant town oi Friedrichshafen. The official explanation is that he desires to devote himself to problems of political economy. somehow the real explanation is to be looked for in diflerence f dpbetween himself and Dr. Eckener, AEOLUS. 512
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