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Aviation History
1933
1933 - 0324.PDF
FLIGHT, AUGUST 10, 1938 GLUfwrt /tea/a FROM HESTON M ARSHAL CHANG TSUI LIANG, flying from Hamble in an Avro 626 aeroplane, landed at Heston on August 4. On August 3, 39 members of the Deutsche Verein, a social organisation of Germans living in London, attended their fortnightly dinner which was held at Heston. Among those present were the Chancellor of the German Embassy, Herr Achilles, Herr Van Scherpenberg, the German Air Attach^ (whose father-in-law is Dr. Schachts, President of the German Reichsbank), and Capt. Von Salzmann (a member of the Heston Airport Club), who, besides being the writer of Richtofen's memoirs, was the first man to make the complete journey on horseback from Peking to Berlin. The menu naturally included sausages and sauerkraut. Countess Resy de Baillet Latour made her first solo last week on a " Cadet " after 7 hr. dual instruction. Madame Neumegen, who came over from Belgium, was also a first soloist. Lady Londonderry- is another keen pupil. Last week 23 new pupils joined the school. The popu larity of the new " Cadet " is shown by the fact that during July an average of 120 hr. per machine (63 hr. up on the previous record) has been achieved. On Sunday, July 30, 13 machines cleared Customs at Heston. An aeroplane from the British Air Navigation Co. took a photographer to secure pictures of Miss Gleitz during her Channel swim. A regular customer of this firm is a crippled gentleman who travels by aeroplane because he says that he feels less sickness in the air. This week they flew him from Le Touquet and back again. On Sunday night Birkett Air Service flew back from Paris with pictures of the finals of the Davis Cup. Maj. Digby, of this firm, flew to Scarborough and back on Monday in the roughest weather he has ever experienced. The wind in the Liverpool and Midland area over which he flew was officially reported to have reached a speed of 67 m.p.h. Capt. Birkett flew to Lille on Tuesday for Press pictures of the cotton factory fire. Mr. Loel Guinness took delivery of his Bellanca machine at Heston this week. E S A NEW SOARING WORLD RECORD Ws few sandwiches, a pound of apples, a bottle with cherry juice and half a pound or so chocolate, young Kurt Schmidt settled down in his " B. Loerzer," a sailplane he had built together with his comrades in the sailflying camp of Korschenruhe, near the townlet of Brandenburg (only to be found on a few large-scale maps, south of Kbnigsberg beyond the PoliQh Corridor), in the dunes on the shores of the Frische Hafi, shortly after 7 o'clock in the morning of Thursday, August 3, and was let off at 7.26 on a flight that will go down in the annals of history as one of the most memorable achievements of motorless flights. For 36 hr. and 37 min. Schmidt soared day and night over a stretch of coast about two kilometres long, constantly under official control and with the necessary instruments on board to enable this new world record to be filed for international recognition. The weather was by no means so propitious as one would expect it to have been. What was at first a stiff northern breeze later became squally and eventually, as the wind gradually turned to blow from the west during the night from Thursday to Friday, even rain came on, so that more than once Schmidt thought he would have to land. But he braved the squalls and was in such splendid spirits that as soon as the weather became better in the course of the Friday he made all sorts of little pranks up in the air with his machine for the amusement of his friends on the ground and of spectators that had gathered. Kurt Schmidt, who was born in 1906 at Strassburg, has practically all his life resided in East Prussia, and now is student of philology at the University of Konigsberg. He has been a sailflying enthusiast for many years, having received his first course of instructions in the Korschen- ruher camp, which he followed up with further courses in the school of Wolf Hirth at Grunau. He has qualified for all sailflying certificates that can be procured, and' has assiduously prepared himself for this world record flight, which has been his one great ambition so far. No one believed that it would be possible to beat the world record, standing at 21 hr. 34 min., held since December 18, 1931, by the American, W. A. Cocke, Junr., in Germany, as the weather conditions were considered too unpropitious. Schmidt's machine is an intermediary type between the old Zogling and the latest high efficiency machines, and it Flying Boat Equipment SIR PHILIP SASSOON, in the House of Commons, on Wednesday, July 26, informed Mr. O. E. Simmonds, that the Royal Air Force had no Flying boats in commission whose range with normal service load exceeds 1,500 miles; has frequently been used for starting by motor planes. Schmidt carried through a large number of long duration flights with this machine, including night flights, and was once as long as seven hours in the air. He kept very fresh all these thirty-six hours and no trace of fatigue was evident when, having been commanded to come down shortly after 8 o'clock on Friday evening, he sprightly jumped out of his machine. Only once, after he had been in the air for thirty hours, did sleep threaten to overcome him. But he effectually warded it off and, in fact, greatly regretted being commanded to stop, as he felt he could have carried on some hours longer. That, however, would have jeopardised his success, as possibly he would have been forced down during the night some distance away and out of control. Schmidt could screw himself up to a height of 315 m. It is difficult to say exactly what dis tance he covered while in the air, as he kept closely within sight of the camp, where numerous fires were lit during the night and illuminated sheets were spread out to show him the direction the wind was blowing. Generally also vocal instructions could be given and received. Schmidt naturally is being celebrated in Germany, and among the numerous telegrams of congratulations one of the first he received was one by the German Chancellor, Adolph Hitler, to whose S.A. troops he belongs. The history of this record, now again in German hands, is interesting. 30.8. 13.9. 18.8. 19.8. 24.8. 21.1. 22.1. U.S. 26.7. 1921, 1921, 1922, 1922, 1922, 1923, 1923, 1924, 1925, 2.10.1925, ("3.5. 1927, 20.10.1929, 18.12.1931, 4.8. 1933, Klemperer Hart Martens Hentzen Hentzen Maneyrol Maneyrol Sehulz . . Massaux Schulz Schulz Dinort . . W. A. Cocke, jr. Schmidt Germany Germany Germany Germany Germany France .. France .. Germany France .. Germany Germany Germanv U.S.A. . . Germany 1 Hours 00 00 1 2 3 3 8 8 10 12 14 14 21 36 Min. 13 21 00 00 10 22 04 42 29 06 07 45 34 37 03 37 0" 00 00 51 I (in 43 I 22 in' I!,I !••> 00 P. A. H. s of that comparisons as to the preferences of different W^ aircraft of various countries could not profitably be p ^ sued by question and answer in the House; and tnat was not prepared to say that he was satisfied with present condition. 812
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