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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0325.PDF
FLIGHT, APRIL 5, 1934 fortune. He grew up to be a singularly handsome man, his prematurely grey hair adding to his striking appearance. He married a woman of his own surname ; and, though he has two sons and a daughter, his paternal instincts have been afforded wider outlet in the care he exercises of the welfare of his employees in the confectionery works and the subsidiary industries, from printing to box-making, which his enterprise has brought to birth and given a flourishing existence. Sir Macpherson Robertson is not attracted to politics, and has never sought to enter public life ; but his name and works are known all over Australia and beyond it. He is the Carnegie of the confectionery trade of the Southern Hemisphere, and he still persists in donning his white over- alls and maintaining touch with every detail of a business for which he refused an English firm's offer of ^3,250,000. , Kandahar CONCERNING THE ROUTE All over the world, if we are to judge from news- paper reports, the England to Australia Air Race is creating interest. So far, however, very few pilots have made official entries, and it is certainly not a race in which anyone could enter without more thought and more planning than has been neces- sary in any other race. There has, perhaps, been a tendency to look upon it as a race over the now well-worn route be- tween England and the Aust- ralian Conti- nent. In point of fact it it, nothing of the sort. The degree to which it diverges from this route will be decided by the range of the aeroplanes taking part and the extent to which individual pilots are prepared to risk themselves and their machines. The shortest distance between any two places measured over the curve of the globe is called a Great Circle. If this Great Circle is extended it makes a complete circumference of the globe ; dividing the globe at this line would result in two equal halves, as the cut would pass through the centre of the earth. A piece of string laid over the surface of a globe and allowed to take its natural position between any two points, is, to all intents and purposes, the Great Circle joining those points. On the map on the right, the thick lines show the approximate Great Circle routes between the compulsory stopping places in the race. The dotted line is the ordinary route to Australia. Flying a Great Circle course is not, however, always the easiest manner of getting from one to another of two places, as, unless the two places both lie on the Equator or are of the same longitude (omitting for the moment questions of mag- netic variation), it is necessary to change course constantly because a Great Circle does not cut each meridian of longitude at exactly the same angle. This, especially when racing, raises many problems. Obviously no one wants to fly over a longer course than is absolutely necessary, but a com- promise is usually made to avoid that constant change of course, because every change necessitates, in theory at any rate, a different allowance for the wind, besides which it makes things far easier for the pilot if some form of constant bearing course is flown. Probably most pilots will compromise still further by deviating slightly from the Great Circle course so as to pass over prominent landmarks where possible in order that they may thus make it easier to keep on their right course and know their position at all times. The route which is at present used by operating companies like Imperial Airways and K.L.M. between England and Singapore has naturally been chosen so as to avoid crossing mountains where possible, to decrease the risk in the case of forced landings and to include places where aerodromes have been established and where passengers may be landed or picked up en route ; it is not, therefore, the shortest distance between the two continents. Even those pioneers who have each successively lowered the record for the time taken on the journey, have done so by cutting the corners of the accepted route and seldom by flying along the shortest and most direct course between their stopping places. In the forthcoming race, however, it seems possible that there may be aeroplanes entered which will have a greater flying range than that hitherto used, and this fact will enable them, provided they are willing to take the added risks involved, to choose more direct routes. The five places at which everyone has perforce to land, apart from the start in England (which may be from Hatfield aerodrome), and the finish at Melbourne are : Baghdad, Allahabad, Singapore, Darwin, and Charleville. The pilot who follows the Great Circle course between these points will have to make "hops " of 2,551 miles to Baghdad ; 2,299 to Allahabad ; 2,219 to Singapore ; 2,084 to Darwin ; 1,389 to Charleville ; and 791 to Melbourne, making 11,333 miles (18 239 km) in all. There may be machines entered with a range of some 2,600 miles, but we rather expect to see the majority with less than this ; some at least will therefore, have to land for fuel at other places than those specified. Digressing for a moment, it is worth thinking about the route from the point of s. view of the parts of s^^v it which will have v.\s\. to be flown over in darkness. Assuming a cruis- ing 325
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