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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0308.PDF
FLIGHT, MARCH 29, 1934 tfaaaa/germ the 3cm UfuuU Autogiro " on a handkerchief " DURING his recent tour of France and Spain, Mr. de la Cierva gave the C.30 P a thorough try-out. During a month's travelling he flew for 65 hours and gave 29 demon- strations, which included no less than 250 take-offs. More than 140 passengers were carried, and as there were every- where hundreds of people watching to see how well the machine could take off and land, there was no " nursing " at all. In spite of this both the machine and the Armstrong- Siddeley 7-cyl. " Genet Major " engine gave no trouble of any kind. In fact, Mr. de la Cierva informs us that he gave them far less attention than he would have devoted to a car in comparable circumstances. By far the most interesting test of the machine took place when Mr. de la Cierva alighted on, and afterwards took off from, the small platform of the Dedalo, a small seaplane transport, which has no flying deck in the ordinary sense of the word. The available platform measured only 177 ft. in length, by a width tapering from 52 ft. to 40 ft., extending from the stern to approximately amidship, where there is a bridge superstructure and a funnel. The Dedalo was at anchor in Valencia harbour, and the wind was not more than 10 m.p.h. From 2,000 ft. the platform, as one may imagine, looked diminutive, but when he came down low to have a look at it Mr. de la Cierva decided there was plenty of room and landed successfully, using less than one-half of the length, and landing right on the centre line, without using his wheel brakes to pull up. The take off was equally successful, and Mr. de la Cierva is convinced that quite a small platform will suffice if the machine is being flown by a good pilot. This seems definitely to bring the Autogiro into the running for ship-to-shore mail carry- ing, such as that which it is proposed to experiment with between Ireland and Canada.Autogiro news SINCE the beginning of this year, the Cierva Autogiro Co., Ltd., has sold 26 C.30P. dirext control type " Auto- giros." Ten of these are being supplied to the Air Ministry for issue to Army Co-operation Squadrons. Senor J. de la Cierva has now returned from his Spanish tour on which, as previously recorded in FLIGHT, he demonstrated the C.30P. machine in several towns. The Swedish Government, we understand, has ordered six C.30P. machines, two for the Army, two for the Navy and two for the Police. A Swedish company, the director of which is Mr. Rolff von Bahr, who was recently in England, has been appointed by A. V. Roe & Co., Ltd., as agents for " Autogiros " in Sweden. Mr. von Bahr has flown a C.19 Mark IV out to Sweden and has placed an order for a C.30P. The number of private owners who have acquired " Autogiros " is rapidly increasing. The Hon. Ernest Guinness has ordered a C.30P. Another purchaser is Mr. J. H. Moller, of Aberdeen. Mr. John Sword, a director of Midland & Scottish Air Ferries, Ltd., who is the agent in Scotland for " Autogiros," has also bought a C.30P. A. V. Roe & Co., Ltd., who have drawn up a programme for the production of thirty direct control machines, have now increased this number to forty. Air survey of the Amazon DON RAMON PEREZ DE AYALA, the Spanish Ambassador in London, recently inspected at the de Havilland factory a " Fox Moth " (" Gipsy Major ") seaplane which is to form part of the equipment of an expedition to the mysteri- ous upper waters of the River Amazon. Under the leader- ship of Capt. Iglesias, who made five years ago, in com- pany with Capt. Jimenez, a non-stop flight of 4,000 miles from Seville to Bahia, Brazil, the expedition will pursue the adventure to the point where three nations join— Brazil, Columbia and Peru—and beyond to the borders of Ecuador. The Spanish Ministry of Education is providing funds for the journey, which is being undertaken to examine the fauna and flora of the largest unknown area in the world, to make topographical surveys and to inves- tigate the lives and customs of the head-hunting tribes who dwell there. A specially designed flat-bottomed 1,000- ton ship, suited for navigation of the great river for thousands of miles past Manaos, the farthest point to which orthodox craft penetrate, is being built in Spain. On its deck wili be a shed to house the seaplane. The expedi- tion will leave Spain early next year. Two Spanish avia- tors—Capt. Azcarraga and Pilot Reus—are in London to take delivery of the seaplane, which is fully equipped for aerial photography and survey. K.L..M. and the MacRobertson Races ALTHOUGH the K.L.M. company has not yet officially entered any aircraft for the England-Australia Race, it seems fairly certain that if certain financial difficulties can be removed, two K.L.M. machines will be entered. Accord- ing to present plans, these aircraft will be a Fokker F.XXXVI (four Wright " Cyclones ") or a Fokker F.XXII (four Pratt & Whitney " Wasps ") and a Douglas D.C.2 (two Wright " Cyclones "). The two Fokkers will be entered in the Handicap Race and the Douglas in the Speed Race. It is not the sole aim of K.L.M. to win prizes, but to demonstrate the high performance of modern standard passenger aircraft. For use on the Amsterdam- Batavia route, the F.XXXVI will carry 16 passengers, while the smaller Fokker will accommodate ten. This accommodation will be used to enable those interested in the races to fly over the course in a competing aircraft. On the completion of the race, ten days will be spent in Australia, and on the return-trip a halt of a few days will be made in the Dutch East Indies. It is calculated that the return passenger fare for the trip will be 5,000 Dutch WESTLAND WfiSSEX FOR EGYPT : A Westland Wessex, with accommodation for six passengers and pilot and navigator, has just been supplied by the Westland Aircraft Works to the Egyptian Army Air Force for transporting high officials in Egypt. The machine was submitted for acceptance tests at Heston and the guaranteed figures comfortably attained. On March 15 the machine set out for Egypt, the trip being made via Paris, Marseilles, Nice, Cagliari, Sardinia, Tunis, Tripoli, Cairo. Taking it in easy stages the machine arrived at Cairo on March 21. The pilot was Mr. D. P. Cameron, who has made this trip several times before. 308
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