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Aviation History
1933
1933 - 1318.PDF
FLIGHT, DECEMBER 28, 1933 A FRENCH ENTRY : M. Alberge's Caudron Altnaza. ' Phalene " ('* Gipsy Major (FLIGHT Photo.) ') after its arrival at roused the people's interest in flying, and to-day (Sunday) the aerodrome presented quite a fashionable scene, despite the counter attraction of the racing at Heliopolis. Opinions seem very divided about the Oases course. Some people think that it will cause considerable trouble to the competitors and that forced landings will be dan gerous. This is, however, discounted by the fact that several machines of the Egyptian Army Air Force will be following the competitors, as " whippers-in." These are two Avro " Tens," flown by Bimbashis Stocks and Cottle, four Avro " 626's " in charge of Bimbashi Webster, the other pilots being Messrs. Chalifa, Nagi and Whitlock, and one " Moth " flown by Hakki. [One of the Avro SLOTS : Guglielmotti's Breda in the take-off and landing tests. (FLIGHT Photo.) " Tens " crashed at Assiut on December 10, all on board being reported slightly injured.—ED.] The Egyptian Army Air Force has already done a great deal towards the competition, besides the actual mapping of the course. Last Friday they took some aircraft round with Taka Pasha as a passenger, visiting Assiut and Dakhla. It is to be hoped, therefore, that these machines will find any one who is unfortunate enough to make a forced landing. Incidentally, the fact that a forced landing in the desert is to be avoided, is emphasised by the fact that multi engined machines receive a great advantage in the Safety Factor Test. In that test the time taken to descend from 2,000 ft. is the basis of the marks received. Single- engined aeroplanes have to stop their airscrews completely, but multi-engined aeroplanes only have to stop the air screw of one engine. There is therefore no reason why machines like the " Dragon " (two " Gipsy Majors ") or the Spartan " Cruiser " (three " Gipsy III ") should not gain full marks for this test. At the same time, everyone appears to agree that machines can be difficult to find, and often, owing to the sand dunes, impossible to reach by aeroplane. In this part of the world the desert is by no means flat, and even the prepared landing grounds are said to be " not too funny." In many places it is impossible to find an area flat enough for anything except an Autogiro, as even where it is free of hills and sand dunes it is often corru gated badly. Another thing which may worry the com peting pilots is the loose, wind-driven sand at the Oases. This is fine, and besides being soft for landing upon is also difficult to see, " worse than glassy water " is the description by one pilot who flew there recently. All of which rather goes to show that the trip round the Oases may not be a picnic for some of the less fortunate pilots, but it will certainly show the type of aeroplane which is most suited for travel in this country, and we hope that all our aircraft constructors will study the results carefully. We shall not be able include the full and complete results, even in our report next week, as these will not be pub lished until they have been collected and worked out, a process which may take several days after the conclusion of the meeting. Seven more aeroplanes arrived to-day, Monday, up to 5 p.m. The Spartan "Cruiser" (3 "Gipsy III") from Yugoslavia and belonging to the Aeroput Company, was the last to arrive just before dark. It is possible that someone will come during the night, but from the informa tion available this does not seem likely. The whole of to-day has been taken up with the pre liminary tests and inspections. The Take-off and Landing Tests, though perhaps the most spectacular part of the programme, certainly cause the most trouble, both to the officials, who have to sit out on a hot aerodrome all day. eating dust, and to the competitors. Many of the pilots had to fly off these tests during the previous day, and did so when there was very little wind. To-day there has been quite a strong breeze, and, naturally, the per formance of machines of a similar type was much better. There does not seem to be any allowance for the wind in the regulations, but perhaps this is a point which will be taken into consideration in the final placing. Slightly over 10 per cent, of the total marks are for the Safety Factor Test. This seems a fairly large amount in view of the fact that the test was devised to serve as a measure of the safety of the machine in the event of a forced landing. It is true that if the machine is a multi engined one, which can maintain itself in the air with one of its engines out of action, then that machine will gain full marks for the test and is certainly shown to be one which will be safer than one which is dependent upon a single engine. As, however, it is the time to reach the ground which is the factor taken into consideration for marks, it matters not, in the case of a single-engined aero plane, whether the glide is slow, though like the prover bial " brick," or fast and fiat. The time taken to reach (Continued on page 1312,1 AN ANGLO BELGIAN ALLIANCE : The de Havilland " Fox Moth " flown by the Belgian pilot, Hansez, in take-off test. (FLIGHT Photo.) 1310
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