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Aviation History
1933
1933 - 1002.PDF
FLIGHT, NOVEMBER 16, 1933 Qityoit Qtet*/. CROYDON A RMISTICE day was quietly celebrated at the Air port of London as usual. Maroons such as are used to indicate the position of the aerodrome to machines coming in to land over or through fog marked the beginning and end of the two minutes' silence. An Imperial Airways machine, inward bound to Croy don, was over the British War Graves in France at eleven o'clock on November 11. It was " Hengist," with Capt. O. P. Jones in command. Just before the hour, when at 6,000 ft., the engines were throttled back and the wireless was tuned in to the London National wave length. A passenger told me of the strange, almost uncanny sensa tion in the cabin when Big Ben rang out clear above the muffled note of the throttled-down engines. The passen gers stood erect, hatless and motionless for the two minutes as the big machine slowly lost 2,000 ft. of height in its glide above the last resting place of so many British dead. Then came that bugle call which has meant so much in past times to so many of us—the Last Post. Then the passengers sat down and quietly continued their journey. I wonder if anywhere there was a stranger and a more impressive two minutes' silence than in the cabin of the " Hengist." International relationships at this cosmopolitan Airport of London are of the most amicable always. British, French, German, Belgian, and Dutch pilots regard each other simply as brother pilots, and you will see many a mixed group of various nationalities discussing common interests of the air. I should like to show some of the hothead politicians of one or two nations round the Air port of London. Here is another Armistice day incident which I found impressive. I saw a German pilot of the D.L.H. in uniform go up to a girl and buy a " Flanders poppy." He was a man of an age to have fought in the war against us. He turned away and stood for a second with the flower in his hand, gazing at it. Then he placed it in his buttonhole and walked away. I saw the expression on that old war pilot's face as he regarded the poppy. It meant to him exactly what it means to us. And now for the week's new-s items. Two important travellers—I doubt if they knew each other—who travelled by K.L.M. from Croydon on November 8 in the same machine were Sir Basil Blackett en route for Singapore by the Royal Dutch line, and Sir Henry Deterding, of the other Royal Dutch, the company which supplies the fuel for the K.L.M. aeroplanes Sir Basil Blaclcett is on a Government mission to investigate certain currency problems in Malaya. The morning after news had reached London of the assassination of the Afghan monarch, the Afghan Minister in London left by the earliest Imperial Airways aeroplane for Paris to confer with his colleague there. I often wonder what high officials would do if air travel suddenly ceased, for in these days they rely on it absolutely when an emer gency occurs. Mr. Whitney-Straight, well-known American racing motorist and Cambridge undergraduate, arrived by Im perial on November 10. He was met by Mr. A. G. Marshall, who had flown a " Puss Moth " in to meet him, and a few minutes after the air liner had landed the pair took off for Cambridge, which is the right way to do your travelling when you come to think of it. The Maharajah of Dharampur and suite, including an aristocratic-looking small boy of five or six years of age, left Croydon for Paris by Imperial Airways on Novem ber 9. The same day a French privately-owned Caudron named Phalene (one Hispano " Suiza " radial engine) left for Paris with three passengers, having made the opposite journey the previous day. On November 8, Capt. Broad delivered the first D.H. Dragon " to Imperial Airways for the Iraq pipe-line patrol. After tests this machine left for Paris and Mar seilles on the way to Iraq on November 10 w-ith Mr. Youell as pilot. The second of the " Dragons " arrived on November 10, and was handed over by Capt. Broad, who returned whence he came in the D.H. experimental bus marked E.8, instead of with registration letters. A visitor to the Airport who displayed keen interest of a professional shrewdness in all he saw was Mr. Sword, director of that well-known unsubsidised air company. Midland and Scottish Air Ferries, Ltd. During the week Imperial Airways, Ltd., were testing out a 27-ft. canvas, wood-framed passengers' gangway designed to protect travellers from the high winds in separable from running aero engines, and from Croydon winter weather as well. Unlike the usual ship's gang way, this one is roofed and has roof lights. It is on wheels and has been irreverently nick-named " The Covered Waggon." It seems to me to be a piece of well-thought- out and practical workmanship, and it was designed and built by the company. Something of the sort is badly needed. During the last week of fog and bad visibility some hard things have been said in various languages at Croydon about the 100-ft. radio beacon mast which is not very far to the side of the direct line of landing and take-off laid down as compulsory for fog (or calm weather) use. The thing has not yet really started to earn its keep as a radio beacon, and there seems to be no good reason why it should ever have been placed where it is, and where, in fog, it undoubtedly forms a dangerous obstruction. I believe no pilot and no manager of any air traffic com pany using the airport was consulted in advance about the best position in which to place it. It is the unani mous opinion here that it should be moved at once. A. VIATOR. FROM HESTON I N general fog conditions visibility .at Heston is often several hundred yards where visibility elsewhere is 0. Heston looks as low as Holland, but is about on a level with the top of St. Paul's. Mrs. Cleaver, fly ing a " Puss Moth " (" Gipsy III ") back from Paris last Friday, found London veiled in mist, and returned to Biggin Hill, where she landed. On Sunday, Monday and Tuesday, Biggin Hill remained perfectly invisible. On Wednesday Mrs. Cleaver returned with the " Puss Moth " to Heston, where flying had been going on all the week ! § s m Airport Conference His ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES has con sented to open an Airports Conference, which is to take place at the Mansion House, London, from the afternoon of Friday, December 8. The conference has been convened by the London Chamber of Commerce in conjunction with the Royal Aeronautical Society, and will discuss the ques tion of the laying out of more municipal aerodromes Mr. Pat Randolph left Heston on Wednesday in his new " Gull " with his Commanding Officer, Capt. Goschen, to join their regiment, the Grenadier Guards, stationed a Cairo. The British Air Navigation Co. rushed the pictures a. Gordon Richards achieving his record to London for the papers' on Wednesday, November 8. In the first seven" days of November more flying was carried out than in the whole of November last year. Lady Allendale is a new pupil on the register. S § S and landing grounds, etc. The Lord Mayor will preside. Turnberry Landing Ground TURNBERRY Landing Ground, particulars of W^.1C1, have been included in the A.A. Register of Landing Grounds, has now been partially ploughed up and the area which remains is not considered large enough for use aeroplanes. The schedule should therefore be withdrawn from the Register. 1146
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