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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0018.PDF
FLIGHT, JANUARY 2, 1931 BOOK REVIEWS *R FLYING BY AMERICANS AND SOME OTHERS*M R. GOLDSTKOM has flown all the stages of the UnitedStates air mail from New York to San Francisco and he learnt a lot about that magnificent service.Apparently, he thought that this experience entitled him to write a history of flying ; so he proceeded to do so. A historyof flying, as seen through American eyes, might be made in- tensely interesting. One might expect to find much morefull accounts given of the work and exploits of American inventors and pilots (the Wrights, Lindbergh, etc.) than ofthe deeds of foreigners, and one would not complain overmuch that it were so—even though the name of A. V. Roe is nevermentioned in the whole of this book. It is not that aspect of this book which forbids us to praise it. The selectionand arrangement of matter is quite extraordinary, and shows a lack of balance and judgment in the author. The factthat he is not really au fait with his subject, though studied some features of it with great care and has roproithe results of his studies at considerable length. For instant the story of the first flight by the two brothers Wright hasbeen compiled and reproduced once more witli,Hsuch detail. Then a fairly long chapter is devoted to the djflfrate of OjntrilliWright with the Smithsonian Institute' The author is evidently strongly pro-Wright, but the'chaptfr throws nonew light on the true place of Professcy Langley in the history of aeronautics. The collection o*»s«tories • f great flights,:.those by Americans being recounted at mucn greater length1 than those by foreigners, hq* some interest ; but after aTl,there is nothing commercial in flying the Atlantic or sound the world, and this fact does not seem to have bees graspedby the author. The two chapters oa " European Air Trans- port " and " Other Foreign Countries " must have beencompiled from reference books of tW^j»ture r>f Whitaker's Almanac. The notice given of Cana(^Rwparticularly inade-quate, for it says not a word aboujwK wonderful work of the Royal Canadian Air Force in*orest fire patrols andsurveying. In fact, Mr. Goldstrom really justifies his authorshiponly when writing about the United States Air Mail. For his account of that, readers in Great Britain should be reallygrateful. The air mail is a wonderful piece of work, and Mr. Goldstrom describes it very well. If he had confined hiswhole book to this subject he would have done far better. The best thing in the book is the crash report of an air mailpilot, Dean Smith. It ran :—" Dead-sticked—flying low— only place available—on cow—killed cow—wrecked 'plane—scared me—Smith." F. A. DE V. R. crew, this great craft will be able to leave the water vith - sufficient to enable it to fly 3,750 mijes without aighfiriWe only hope it will. But we rnay exnr<-w !i>ub:s the seaworthiness of any existing or \>when down on the Atlantic IBS* gale., \ the wing-tip floats or the,'stabilisers ?plan be adopted, wha-ydjfperieace hav. •,,•_ ... ness ? Mr. Graha mgtjWhite appears to havethe subject, but fi take shares in a boats * A Narrative History of Aviation. By JohnObtainable from FLIGHT office. Price 17s. net. Gnldstrom (Macmillan). A HISTORY OF FLYING.* BOOKS on flying are now coming out in a perfect stream,which shows that the publishers now recognise the importance and general interest of the subject. This is a very gratifyingsign. Unfortunately, all the books do not possess a merit equal to the importance of the subject. A reviewer getsrather weary of scanning histories of the early investigations by Caley, Strongfellow, and the others. All honour to them !but repetition, even of the deeds of our worthies is apt to pall. Mr. Grahame-White tells this story twice, which isonce too often. The first time he tells it very well. I admit that I did not read the second account very carefully.The story of early flights, Bleriot across the Channel, and the Paulhan-Grahame-White race from London to Manchesterhas also been told before, but probably it will be fresh to many readers of this book. The chapter on the war is verysketchy, and the succeeding one on the great flights just after the war (Alcock, Ross Smith, and others) seems eithertoo short or too long. Mr. Grahame-White gets more interesting when he talks about the. present and the future,but he is surely rather optimistic when he takes for granted all that Dr. Rumpler hopes that his projected large flyingboat will do. We read that its estimated speed is 190 m.p.h., and that " even with 170 people on board, passengers and ur part we are not.ny which intends rtiss the Atlanti^'This implies nohe flying-boat j*nen properly used _-.,— eat Illture,, b^rt, as with other forms^vagant expectations may do it more harm t-~Uui]]y, Mr. Grah«fiH-White calls for a lavishby tjpPGovernment in establishing air i .-jiff figure of 10,000,000 per annum.•(withe idea of more gradual develop i tax-payers. F. A. DE V. R. • fifyini' 'aSi Ep'ilum-. and a Forecast. By Claude Grahaine-W'hite (Chattuin! \\:iri*ttt5>. Obtainable from FLIGHT Office. Price 12s. fid. A VERY READABLE BOOK* IT is very seldom that I have agreed with a, publishers'introductory effusion to any of the prolific crop of book;- on flying which have been published during the past feumonths. Mr. F. C. Chichester's book, " Solo to Sydney," is, however, a notable exception. In the introduction JohnHamilton states that " Mr. Chichester has proved himself, although a novice in writing, to be an expert writer, for hecarries his reader with him in his 'plane the whole course of the journey "—a sentiment with which I heartily agree.This book is undoubtedly one of the most readable and most worth reading which it has been my lot to review for a verylong time. It is, obviously, true that Mr. Chichester has had no great experience in either flying or writing, but, whereashe appears to have conquered the majority of difficulties in flying by intense and persevering application to the job,in his book he has at his first attempt produced a record of his flight which it is extremely difficult to leave, once onehas started reading it. His style is naive, but very pleasant: it is sincere and full-bodied without being superficial orflippant. He shows that he has a keen insight into all sides of human nature and that type of observation which makeslife worth living. Throughout the book his comments upon people and things are full of interest, and while they covera very wide range of things which affected him during his flight, they are never irrelevant. His style and constructioncertainly leave one with the impression that this is his first book, but whereas with many people this fault produces asomewhat annoyingly amateurish effort, it has in this case produced an extremely interesting and coherent account ofthe journey from what might have otherwise been a dry and uninteresting diary of the trip. I imagine that a largeamount of the success of this book is due to careful editing, but the fact remains that it is one which will be read andre-read by all who are interested not only in flying, but in the ambitions of youth widely conceived and tenaciouslycarried through to the bitter end. As is usual, the Daily Press did their level best to nullify the effects of his achieve-ment with their ludicrously inaccurate splash headlines— as, for example, referring to him as " a rich young man "and such-like things ; and it still further enhances the value of his flight that he succeeded not only without their prelimi-nary backing, but also in spite of their subsequent mis- statements of his circumstances. With regard to the printing, it seems incredible that in apublication of this class a proper sign for " degrees " was not used instead of a mutilated figure 8. " DAEDALUS '' * Solo to Sydney, by F. C. Chichester (John Hamilton, Ltd.). Obtainab!-from FLIGHT Office, 7s' firf. net. Fine Service by De Havilland "Hercules " Aircraft AT the close of 1926 the de Havilland Aircraft Co.,Ltd., built and supplied to the order of Imperial Airways, Ltd., five 14-seater, three-engined " Herfcules " air linersfor operation on their Middle East route. Interesting figures have just been received relating to the flying record of three of these machines, which have been in constant commisso.isince the service began early in 1927. The record shows ver ' big mileages and remarkable consistency, as follows :—Hercules aircraft G-EBMW, 171,696 miles, 1,971$ hour.-, G-EBMX, 182,152 miles, 2,105$ hours; G-EBMY, 178,404miles, 2,075$ hours.
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