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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 0288.PDF
FLIGHT, MARCH 27, 1931 AIIIPIPCIRY NEWS CROYDON NOTES •*HE beautiful weather of the past week has keptus busy, and the services have run to schedule. Such weather as this, and our numbers of passen-gers carried in and out of this airport should rapidly increase. On Tuesday Mr. A. A. Salem, of Magdalene College,Cambridge, an Egyptian undergraduate, left here for Egypt. He was flying G-EBYP, the Moth on which Capt. W' L.Hope won the King's Cup several years ago. This aircraft has been of great service to Air Taxis, Ltd., on special charterwork all over the Continent. Mr. Salem is flying home for his Easter vacation. Highly-placed Egyptian officials gatheredto give him a send off, including the Egyptian Minister. The first inward-bound African Air Mail arrived onThursday, piloted by Mr. Wheeler. As may be imagined, it was the subject of much photography by the press. During the same afternoon, a " Berline Spad " arrivedfrom Hanworth on its way to Paris. It is so many years since we saw a Spad, we were quite bewildered. This machine,which belongs to M. Bleriot, was being taken to Paris by M. Darnaud, of the Air Union Co.Mention of the Air Union Co., a considerable number of their flight engineers have taken their pilot's tickets, andare operating the services. They all appear to be very sound pilots, and there is little doubt that in a very shortwhile they will rank with the leading pilots. This seems a splendid idea of the French Co., to give theirmechanics a chance to advance themselves, and they will undoubtedly be well repaid with the faithful service of thesemen. Every mechanic must have moments when he visualises himself as a pilot, and this company are giving their moreexperienced flight engineers a chance to prove their abilities. When the Belgian Night Air Mail was leaving on Thurs-day, for Brussels, Mr. Knight, the well-known Customs Officer at Croydon, went out to seal up the doors of themachine. While carrying out this duty, the pilot obliged by opening up his left engine, and in consequence, Mr.Knight had his pince-nez whisked off, and shattered to atoms on the ground. Some pilots are very apt to playthis trick—it really isn't fair. Mr. Knight is making a claim for his glasses, and quite rightly. The incident washumorous to those whom it did not concern. Endeavouring to help pilots still further in bad weather, and particularly in fog, a wide chalk line, 600 yards long,is in course of construction on the aerodrome at the south end. The line runs approximately from east-south-east towest-north-west. Croydon was concerned on Saturday with supplyingmachines for the boat race. Every available machine was booked. Twenty-four aircraft left here, and had there beenanother twenty-four, they could have been filled. Imperial Airways had five full loads, comprising two Argosies twoHandley Page W.lOs, and a De Havilland 50. Surrey Flying Services, Rollason Aviation Co., HendersonAviation Bureau, and Personal Flying Services all had their share of passengers. After the race Imperial Airways hadanother two large parties awaiting flights. The smaller companies were busy throughout the week-end,and business was exceptionally good. If the season carries on like this, everyone in the business of joyriding should prosper.The National Aircraft Factory failed to fall under the hammer on March 10, and is now up for sale by privatetreaty. It is appalling to see such an enormous place going into decay for want of attention. Walking around thererecently, one was dismayed to see the utter desolation everywhere, junk, rank weeds, windows broken, and yet itcould be made into a veritable hive of industry by some enterprising concern. Lt.-Cmdr. Glen Kidston, R.N., is now- ready for his flightto the Cape. He will be accompanied by Mr. Cathcart-Jones as assistant pilot, and Mr. Tom Villette, of the MarconiCompany, as wireless operator. We wish them all good luck and hope to see the Lockheed Vega back here soon.A rather amusing incident occurred on Sunday morning Mr. Caspareuthus, well-known for his Cape flight, was due toproceed to Paris as second pilot on the outward-bound morning service. Being rather fond of taking his meals in the air, heordered his eggs, bacon and coffee to be put aboard the machine. Unfortunately for our hero, his flying kit requiredquite a lot of adjustment, and he then discovered that some- one had " borrowed " his wireless gear. Meanwhile thegiant air liner had proceeded to taxi towards its taking-ofl position, and finally when she took the air poor old Caspareu-thus was heard to exclaim " There goes my breakfast! " The traffic figures for the week are : Passengers, 525 ;freight, 38 tons. P. B. HESTON NOTESH ESTON has had a particularly encouraging week-end. Throughout Saturday and Sunday there were between 20 and 30 private machines on and roundthe aerodrome, and the club house was thronged with members and visitors. There were many interesting arrivals and departures OnFriday, Mr. Sanaika, after only 30 hours' flying experience, left with a friend in a Moth for Egypt, after"saying goodbyeto the Egyptian Minister, who came to see him off. He is the third Egyptian to return homeward by air. On Saturday morning, Capt. Dan Cameron left earlyfor Nairobi in the Avro V, which has just been overhauled for service in East Africa with Wilson Air Lines.Lieut.-Comm. Glen Kidston, R.N., paid two visits with the Lockheed-Vega, which was immediately beseiged byinterested visitors. As is well known, he leaves shortly to attempt a record flight to the Cape and back.On Sunday, towards evening, a sudden roar announced the arrival of Flt.-Lieut. Staniland, who put up a superbperformance on the Fairey " Firefly," and disappeared as quickly as he could without landing for applause.The new " Meteor II " arrived from Brough shortly after- wards, and on being opened was found to contain Mr. GordonSelfridge, Junr., who intends to take it to Seville next week. It differs from the " Meteor I " in having a metal fuselageand the construction has been modified so as to place the centre of gravity further forward. It has a pay load ot350 lb. more than the " Meteor I." DEVELOPMENTS AT HULL UNICIPAL Airports in Great Britain are notgrowing in number at a very great rate—so far, developed as an airport with this end in view. The financiaaspect of such a scheme has, however, prevented it iron1 only eight " official " Municipal airports have been being proceeded with in any practical form, but the announce-established—but some of those that have got ment made recently that a rival scheme was put forwa" i a going are showing a keen enthusiasm in the developmentof their airport. For example, the Hull Municipality, for some time past, have been making every effort to developand improve their airport at Hedon, with a view to making it one of the premier airports in Great Britain. At present, activity at the airport is mainly confined toclub work and joy-riding by National Flying Services (N.F.S., it will be remembered, have a club house at Hedon), occasionaltaxi services, etc., but it is Hull's ambition that the airport should be the centre of internal and international air services.In fact, just recently, the question of a mail and passenger air service to Denmark and Norway has been given seriousconsideration. Hull, it has been pointed out, is very favour- recentl rivalNewcastle has stirred Hull into activity. , A few weeks ago, Alderman B. Pearlman, chairma i olthe Corporation Aerodrome Committee, Sir Arthur Atkn:^>n, chairman of the Hull Aero Club, Councillor F. Till, cbaii manof the development Committee, and others, met the --of Mayor at the Guildhall to discuss the state of affairs. Ai pat-ently, it is now only a matter of finance—Councillor li ..J...J i AI x :x _i j. V:rn r\t\f\ u i : ] j-U**va irnlll i ^stated that if about £50,000 could be raised there woui . little difficulty in establishing an air line to north Eu; ~>P • with probable help from the Air Ministry.Meanwhile, Hedon is being developed in other res • ^ • for the aerodrome and its vicinity is being offered as a ••• >njiisiucriiniuii. nun, n nas Deen pointed out, is very iavour- able locality for aircraft works, and in this respect, <••• ' ^ ably situated for such a service, especially with a seaplane many advantages. One firm, in fact, is already estabr.-!1base located on the Humber at Paull, and Hedon was there—i.e., the Civilian Aircraft Co. 272
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