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Aviation History
1931
1931 - 1094.PDF
FLIGHT, OCTOBER 9, 1931 An improved version of the" Argosy " was introduced for the summer traffic during 1929. Thesemachines were fitted with the new " Jaguar Via " motors of 420 h.p.each, which gave them a rather better performance than the oldermodel, and were four in num- ber:—G-AACH City of Edin-burgh, G-AACI City of Liverpool, G-AACJ City of Manchester andG-AAEJ City of Coventry. Dur- ing the same period a further ex-ample of the " Hercules " was added to the fleet (G-AAJH Cityof Karachi), and also another " Calcutta " (G-AADN City ofRome), the latter machine, unfor- tunately, being lost in an accidentin the Gulf of Genoa later in the THE WESTLAND IV : A small three-engined monoplane first used in 1929 forspecial charter work. (FLIGHT Photo.) year.The first monoplane to be owned by Imperial Airways, Ltd., waspurchased towards the close of 1929. This was the " WestlandIV " G-AAGW. Fitted with triple J05-h.p. " Cirrus-Hermes " motorsthis machine carried four pas- sengers and two crew at a topspeed at 110 m.p.h., and was attached to the Special Charterdepartment. In addition to the " Calcutta "G-AADN, two further aircraft were destroyed in accidents dur-ing 1929. Handley-Page W.10 G-EBMT was lost in the Channeland " Hercules " G-EBMZ was crashed at Jask. Also, the oldW8.B, G-EBBH, was withdrawn from service as obsolete, as wasthe " Sea Eagle " G-EBGK ; the ' Hampstead " G-EBLE wassold ; and the " Hamilton " G-EBIX was rebuilt as a twin-motored craft with the new Rolls-Royce " F " motorstowards the close of the year. This fleet, a total of 20, was augmented by four new air-craft during 1930, but one, the " Hamilton " G-EBIX, was written off the assets, being destroyed in an accident. Thefour new machines consisted of two further examples of the " Calcutta " type, being G-AASJ City of Khartoum andG-AATZ City of Salonica ; also two more " Hercules," G-AARY City of Basra and G-ABCP City of Jodhpur. Thislatter machine had been purchased from West Australian Airways, Ltd. The three older model " Argosies " wererefitted with the " Jaguar Via " motors in place of the earlier " Mk IV " prior to being dispatched to Cairo foruse on the Cairo-Khartoum section of the South African service.The. present year has seen many changes in the composi- tion of the Imperial Air Fleet. Three new types have beenintroduced—foremost, perhaps, being the Handley-Page 42. These machines, which have recently been fully describedin FLIGHT, are definitely among the world's largest land-planes. At the moment of writing five examples have THE AVRO 10: Another type of three-engined monoplane, added to the fleet in 1931. (FLIGHT Photo.) been delivered—these being G-AAGX Hannibal ; G-AAUCHorsa ; G-AAUD Hanno ; G-AAUE Hadrian, and G-AAXC Heracles, all, with the exception of the last, of the Easternmodel, i.e., for operation on the Cairo-Karachi section of the India route. The " Eastern " version has accommoda-tion for 18 passengers only, the remainder of the cabin space being allotted to mails and freight. The four othermachines of the Handley-Page 42 type will be of the " Western " model, with accommodation for 38 passengers.These aircraft have been given the markings G-AAXC Heracles (already delivered), G-AAXD, G-AAXE andG-AAXF, and will be used on the European routes. Thus, when all aircraft of this type are delivered there will be atotal of eight machines, four each of the " Eastern " and " Western " models, with a combined passenger accommo-dation of 224. With the exception of the cabin arrange ment both models are absolutely identical. The second new type introduced this year was the Short" Kent " flying-boat, which is a quadruple-motored version of the earlier tri-motored "Calcutta," These craft arefitted with the same motors as the Handley-Page 42's— 555-h.p. Bristol " Jupiter " Mk X F.B.M.— are used on r THE HANDLEY PAGE 42 HANNIBAL : One of the latest additions to the Imperial Airways fleet—a four- engined, 42-seater biplane. (FLIGHT PhotuA 1024
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