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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0545.PDF
FLIGHT, MAY 81, 1984 large crowd which^lined the roads. His display is a setand regular one, which was fully described in our report of the opening meeting at Dagenham, which appeared in FLIGHT of April 19. At the Dagenham Display Miss Joan Meakin was not able to have the towing arrangements of her glider pre- pared to the approval of the Air Ministry. Apparently this trouble has now been overcome, and Joan Meakin was towed up by a " Mongoose Avro." Her display of careful gliding, carried out over the aerodrome while she lost height after casting off from the towing machine, attracted the crowd greatly. Perhaps the most spectacular part of Miss Meakin's display was her beautifully-controlled side slip preceding her landing. Other high lights of the display which attracted attention were the crazy flying of Mr. Jock McKay, and the aerobatic and inverted flying of Mr. G. Tyson. His " bombing " with flour bags during the humorous part of the entertainment is astoundingly accurate. During the luncheon the Doncaster Aerial Navigation Competition was flown off. This was a test open to all flying clubs in the British Isles. A team of three aircraft was entered by each club, and had to be flown by " A " or " B " licenced pilots who were not professional pilots.The chief idea was that the machines had to fly round a course to points (generally race courses) where, on theground, they would see ground marks giving them direc- tions for the next leg. Marks were awarded to themachines according to their final placing, and the winning team was that which had the least aggregate of placenumbers. The handicapping was done by those " arch- experts " Messrs. Dancy and Kowarth. The Cups pre-sented for this competition were unique. They were two in number, one plain silver and one silver gilt, and bothof massive and magnificent proportions. They were originally put up for competition for the best nights atthe flying meeting held at Doncaster race course in 1909, None of the flights was considered by the Race Committeeto be of sufficient merit to warrant the presentation of these Cups. They were, therefore, stowed away in thecity's vaults, and have only now for the first time been taken out again to be competed for in this inter-clubcompetition. These two Cups were won outright on Saturday, and the only stipulation is that in the case ofthe club becoming defunct the Cup is to be returned to the Doncaster Corporation for further competition. AIR MAIL PENNANT PRESENTED Ceremony at Croydon before departure of Indian Mail j jENGIST, one of Imperial Air- #—# ways' fleet of H.P.42's, left •* •* Croydon, on Saturday last, carrying the first Royal Air Mail pennant. Just previous to the departure of the machine, Sir Kingsley Wood, the Postmaster-General, had presented this pennant to Imperial Airways. The pennant, besides being carried henceforward in all machines used for the transport of mails, will also be flown over buildings where air mails are embarked or disembarked. A description and drawing of the pennant were published in FLIGHT last week. The ceremony of presentation was performed on the " apron " at Croydon with Hengist as a background. Sir Eric Geddes, chairman of Imperial Airways, who presided, thanked the Postmaster-General for the honour conferred upon the company by being granted recognition for the carriage of mails similar to that given to the Mercantile Marine. It was necessary, he said, to travel over the long Empire routes in order to learn what the air mail meant, especially to the women. Lives of inhabitants of towns which were almost unknown had been com- pletely changed by the air mail. Sir Kingsley Wood, the Postmaster- General, said that the ceremony marked a very definite step in the development of civil aviation as a carrier of mails. For many years it had been the practice for ships con- veying mails under contract with the Postmaster-General to fly at the mast head a special pennant bearing the Royal Crown and the words " Royal Mail." The flying of the mail pennant had always been considered as placing the ship which carried it in the very highest category of merchant shipping. Development, during the last few years, had been such that air services had definitely established themselves as indispensable to the carriage of express mail, and the public was showing a constantly letters. The rather long and slow infancy of the air mail increasing recognition of their value. During the last three U-A ^»™i"™--' ;*.*« « ;..„— ,.:„„,„..„ ..^..^.v. —i :J- — years the Imperial air services had doubled their carryings, and the Indian air mail, carried weekly from Croydon, now approximated J ton or between 40,000 and 50,000 THE ROYAL AIR MAIL : Sir Kingsley Wood, the Postmaster-General, presents the first Royal Air Mail Pennant to Sir Eric Geddes, who hands it over to Capt. H. J. Horsey of the good ship Hengist. (FLIGHT Photo.) had developed into a very vigorous youth, and it was on the highway to a maturity of which few, at this moment, could form any idea. To celebrate this stage of develop- ment Sir Kingsley Wood said he had great pleasure in 545
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