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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0119.PDF
FLIGHT, FEBRUARY 6, 1931 • tween the top and bottom wings at some distance• ther side of the hull. Oil tanks are fitted in the nacelle and the main fuel tanks in the top wing. Auxiliary fueltanks are provided as standard equipment, although Eclipse electric starters and generators can be fitted, if desired,adjustable metal propellers are standard equipment. The wing structure is of the biplane type. The wings areof wooden construction, fabric-covered, with duralumin tube compression struts and wire internal bracing. The interplanestruts are of steel tube with streamline wire bracing, wing- tip floats being of duralumin construction. The following are fitted as standard equipment :—Instru- 1lie,,ts Airspeed indicator : altimeter, turn and bank indi-cator ; rate of climb indicator; eight-day clock ; P-3 compass ; two r.p.m. indicators ; two oil-pressure gauges ; two oil thermometers ; two fuel contents gauges ; two fuel-pressure gauges ; complete set of mooring and navigation lights. Miscellaneous Equipment—45-lb. anchor; boat hook ;wing lines ; set of canvas cockpit covers, and four fire extinguishers. Other instruments, such as voltmeter andammeter for electric generator, etc., if installed, can be fitted at extra cost. An easily demountable undercarriage type of beachinggear can be supplied at extra cost. This beaching gear, which is equipped with two main wheels and tail wheel, canbe readily fitted or removed by the crew of the machine without the assistance of a landing party, enabling themachine to be run on the beach or runway under its own power. Handley Page automatic slots can be fitted to themachine, if desired, at extra cost. BRITISH AIR MAIL TRAFFIC DURING the quarter ended December 31, 1930, 24,7401b.of letter air mail were carried from this country ascompared with 21,037 lb. during the corresponding quarter of 1929, an increase of 17£ per cent. The carryingsto India were again larger than those to any other country, viz., 9,330 1b. as compared with 7,955 lb. in the Decemberquarter of 1929, an increase of just over 17 per cent. The Christmas mail carried by the Indian Air Service in December,1930, amounted to 4,450 lb. as compared with 3,800 lb. in 1929. The mail of December 13 weighed nearly 1,800 lb.,which constitutes a record for a single flight by this or any other air service from this country. The traffic to various destinations for the December•Quarters—1929 being in brackets—was as follows : Indian Air Service (including F.gypt, Iraq, Palestine, etc.), (10.770lbs.) 13,496 lb. ; Iraq (air from Gaza), (2,3131b.) no ser- vice; Australian Internal Service (1,072 1b.) 1,208 1b. ;south African Internal Service (1,133 lb.) 2,393 lb. ; Other E-tra-European Destinations (1,148 1b.) 1,502 lb. ; Con-iinental Air Services (4,601 lb.) 6,141 lb.'; Total (21,0371b.) 24,7401b. The development of the Imperial Air Services was satis- factory, and the proportion of mail for Empire destinationsamounted to more than one half of the total mail carried during the quarter. The traffic for European countries con-tinued to grow, and showed an increase of 33 per cent, as compared with the December quarter of 1929. There was aslight decrease in the amount of parcels carried by air to European destinations, the figures being 31,669 lb. in theDecember quarter 1930, as against 34,477 lb. in the corres- ponding quarter of 1929. So far as the year 1930 was con-cerned, the total weight of air letter mails despatched was 41 tons as compared with 30 tons in 1929, an increase of about37 per cent. The traffic for all Imperial destinations was 43,715 lb. in 1930 as compared with 23,708 lb. in 1929, anincrease of 84 per cent. The proportion of the Imperial mails to the total mails grew from 35 per cent, in 1929 to 48 percent, in 1930. The Continental Air Services carried 26,200 lb. of mail as compared with 18,653 lb. in 1929, or an increase of40 per cent. The weight of air parcel mails despatched in 1930 was 65 tons as compared with 58 tons in 1929, an increase of12 per cent. The weight of all air mail, letters and parcels despatched during 1930 was 106 tons as compared with 88tons in 1929, or an increase of 20 per cent. THE LONDON CHAMBER OF COMMERCE, THE G.P.O., AND AIR MAILS WE have already recorded in FLIGHT the activities onthe part of the Aviation Section of the LondonChamber of Commerce regarding the development of •our Air Mails, and it will bs remembered that a deputationfrom the Chamber was received on December 16 last, by the l'ostmaster-General. The latter promised to consider thevarious suggestions put forward, and below we publish his considered reply together with a further letter from theChamber to the P.M.G. The post office communication is as follows :— " I am directed by the Postmaster-General to refer to theImputation from your Chamber which visited this office on The 16th December last, to discuss various questions in con-nection with Air Mail Services, and to say that the suggestions made on behalf of the Chamber have received careful con-sideration. "Night Air Services in Europe.—With reference to the sugges-tion that the Post Office should organise a series of night air mail services from London to the European capitals, I am toobserve in the first place that at the present stage of develop- ment, air services cannot offer the same reliability andregularity as ordinary land or sea services ; night air services are peculiarly liable to cancellation or delay on account of adverse weather conditions, and the recent experience ofthis Department indicates that, in winter at any rate, it is not possible to guarantee even so much as a 50 per cent,regularity of arrival. The suggested system would, therefore, leL' f ^ to attract only a very small proportion of the totaletter traffic to European countries, since regularity and hr y oi arfival of mails are regarded by the posting Ty- as of even greater importance than speed of trans- nif»h+ ^6 second Place, the organisation of a network of 1 gnt air services across Europe would involve very large "oil K rC and could obvi°usly be undertaken only'by the _ iiaDoration of the various countries affected. As explained *t 7leTDePutation. the matter had already been discussed n lnternational Conference held in October last. That Conference decided to take steps to obtain full data from allcountries concerned and to hold a further Conference, at which every country in Europe would be represented, duringthe present year. The chamber will realise, therefore, that this question must rest in abeyance for the moment. " Control of Air Subsidies.—As regards the suggestion thatthe Post Office should undertake the responsibility of sub- sidising the air services from this country, the Postmaster-General would point out that Parliament has imposed this duty upon the President of the Air Council by the Air Trans-port (Subsidy Agreements) Act, 1930. In considering the institution and extension of air services, regard must be hadnot only to the carriage of mails, but to the needs of ordinary freight and of passenger traffic, and also to questions of policywhich lie wholly within the domain of the Air Minister. The function of the Post Office is to keep in close touch with thedevelopment of Air communications, whether British or foreign, and to offer to the public the use of any service whichoflers material advantages for the conveyance of mails. The present system ensures that the control of the developmentof British aviation, and the payment of subsidies shall be vested in a single authority, and this arrangement appearsto be the one most likely to secure economy. "Air Mail to India.—The question of accelerating theservice to India is a matter for the consideration of the Air Minister ; but in this connection I am to say that, while agradual improvement in speed is to be hoped for, the Post Office would be reluctant to see the adoption of an acceler-ated schedule which could not be regularly maintained in practice. Irregular arrival, so far as the users of the serviceare concerned, is the most fruitful cause of criticism ; and an accelerated but irregular service would undoubtedly fail toattract more traffic than one which allows a suitable margin for the ocasional delavs which are inevitable on a long distanceflight. " Completion of Air Route to Australia across India.—The Postmaster-General sympathises with the desire of the Chamber for the extension of the air service across India 115 D 2
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