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Aviation History
1933
1933 - 0126.PDF
FLIGHT, JULY 20. 1932 mail service really useful to Indian commercial interests was that it should be carried straight through to Calcutta. This has now happened. Henceforth Karachi is no longer a terminus, but a mere junction, which .is as it should be. Letters dated in Calcutta, Tuesday, July 11, were delivered in London on Monday, July 17. That is something which was really worth doing. It is perhaps rather hard for people who have never lived in India to realise the great importance of the Home mails to the commercial communities in the three great Presidency cities, which are also the three greatest centres of commerce. The old method, on which Indian commerce flourished very well for many years, was for the mails to arrive at Bombay by P. & O. boat on Friday morning, and the Calcutta and Madras bags were then hurried across the sub-continent by mail train, which took about 30 hours to do the journey. The letters when they arrived were 16 or 17 days old. The Home ward mail steamer left Bombay on the Saturday of the following week, and letters had to be posted on the Thursday, so that the merchants of Calcutta and Madias had but the inside of a week in which to take action on the letters from their London offices and to write their replies. So important was the gain of a few more hours that the telegram-letter became very popular. This was wired from Calcutta to Bombay on the morning of the steamer's departure, and the Post Office in Bombay posted it as a letter on board the steamer. It was useful, but there was no privacy about it, and it was subject to telegraphic errors by clerks who were working in a foreign lan guage. Now a private letter can get from Calcutta to London in less than a week. This is a very great step in advance, and as the business people grow accustomed to the use of the air mail—it must be recognised that even this great boon will only receive gradual recognition in a land largely governed by dastur or custom—the material benefits to commerce will be very great indeed. * • • •> By a curious coincidence the last few days have seen repeated examples of the progress which flying has made since M. Louis Bleriot flew across the Channel 24 years ago, on July 25, 1909. General Balbo, the Italian Air Minister, and his T/50 gallant companions have successfully flown from Rome to Chicago in 24 Savoia flying boats via Holland, Ireland, Iceland, Labrador and Canada. The feat is one upon which the Regia Aeronautica is to be very heartily con gratulated, and the whole British aviation community will rejoice at the success of our very good Italian friends. It was a particularly unkind stroke of ill- luck which resulted in damage to one of the 25 machines which originally set out from Italy and unfortunately not without loss of life, in a trivial mishap in Holland, but the nature of that regrettable accident was not such as to detract in the least from the merits of the flight as a whole. Of a very different nature is the solo flight from New York of Mr. Wiley Post, who is at present on a flight around the world. FLIGHT does not approve of these landplane flights across wide stretches of ocean, but the long stages flown do afford evidence of the technical progress made in the design and con struction of aeroplanes and aero engines. Bleriot's flight across the Channel was distinctly worth while because the feat had never been accomplished, and because it foreshadowed the manner in which aircraft were to span the seas. On July 25, 1909, Great Britain virtually ceased to be an island. If we look back and try honestly to assess the progress made since Bleriot's historic flight, it is inevitable that we must concede a great share of the honours to the aero engine manufacturers. Improve ments in the aeroplanes themselves there have been, certainly. The modern all-metal aeroplane is a very different engineering structure from the " stick-and- string " contraptions which the early pilots flew. But very useful work could still be done on most of Ihose early aeroplanes if they were fitted with modern engines. The reverse would not apply. The finest modern light plane built would be comparatively useless if fitted with the little 25-h.p. Anzani " fan " type engine which just managed to drag Bleriot across in 1909 but gave up almost before the English coast was reached. Overheating, plug troubles, lubricating troubles, mechanical breakages, all were not merely everyday occurrences, they hap pened every few minutes. What a contrast is afforded by the announcement made this week by the De Havilland Company that the top overhaul of their " Gipsy Major " engines after 150 hours' running is now regarded as super fluous, and that complete overhauls, which have hitherto been deemed advisable after 450 hours' running need now be made only after 750 hours. Taking the cruising speeds of most aeroplanes in which the " Gipsy Major " is likely to be fitted at the low average of 100 m.p.h., we have 75,000 miles flown before the engine needs overhauling! The De Havilland Company has not arrived at this very satisfactory stage except by dint of real hard work. For example, those in close touch with the company know that every week a meeting is held, at which the General Manager presides, and which is attended by the engine designer, the chief draughts man, the chief inspector, the works manager and the experimental engineer. At these meetings letters from operators are carefully considered, particularly those containing complaints, and ways and means for effecting improvements are discussed. During the past seven years the firm has produced close upon 3,000 " Gipsy " engines, and the career of almost every one of these has been followed with consider able vigilance. Extensive racing experience, with large numbers of engines running for long periods at full throttle, has helped materially in weeding out any weak parts of the design. Everyone concerned is to be congratulated on the progress of which this De Havilland announcement bears evidence. • •!• • • Few of the figures in the statistics published in the Report on Civil Aviation in 1932 give cause for greater satisfaction than those showing the reliability achieved by Imperial Airways' routes. For the whole year 3,504 flights were scheduled Imperial on the European routes, and 3,280 were Reliability completed, 39 were not completed and 185 were cancelled. On the London Egypt service 593 flights were scheduled and 593 were completed. On the Egypt-South Africa route 2,314 flights were scheduled "and 2,304 were com pleted. On the Egypt-India service 995 flights were scheduled, all of which were completed. That, we submit, is a record of which Imperial Airways may well be proud, and which speaks well not only of the aeroplanes and engines used, but of the efficiency ot Imperial's maintenance service.
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