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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0607.PDF
FLIGHT. JUNE 21. 1984 of Mr. W. Cooke, who was a war-time pupil of Capt. V. H.Baker (Airwork Chief Instructor) at Cramlington. All of them took joyrides in a Wrightson & Pearse " Dragon,"and spent a very pleasant afternoon inspecting the airport. Strawberries and an old lady of eighty-six were amongthe payloads carried by Ileston aircraft during the week. Eighty-three 1b. of the former arrived from Jersey in goodcondition on June 8 and were delivered to a Covent Garden merchant. The old lady, having already flown from theOrkneys, made the return trip to the Isle of Wight by P.S. & I.O.W.A., Ltd., in one day, and vows she willnever again travel otherwise than in the air. Her wheeled chair was carried on the aircraft, and this enabled terminus fatigue " (the worst part of railway and seatravel) to be reduced to a minimum. Officials in the new Traffic Hall handled, during theweek ending June 13, 174 arrivals and departures of air- craft for the Continent and commercial inland traffic. Private inland traffic is, of course, not required to " clockin " at the office, although the control officer registers all arrivals and departures from his tower. Portsmouth, South-sea & Isle of Wight Aviation, Ltd., has carried between Heston and the Isle of Wight, in the first fortnight ofJune, over five times as many passengers as in the corre- sponding period of May. At week-ends they are now work-ing to 90 per cent, capacity. Last week 1,020 passengers were carried between Portsmouth and Shanklin, and 130 onthe Heston-Shanklin service. Four Miles " Hawks " from Reading made a returntrip to Le Zoute on June 10, piloted by Messrs. Dimock, Spratt, Cliff and Uberoi. The regular traffic control which was instituted atHeston some little while ago has already justified itself, as a few days ago there were 592 aircraft movements(take-offs and landings) in the 10£ hours during which the control was operated. CHESTER REFERENCE has been made by the Town Clerk to thesite for an airport previously reported upon by the Air Ministry as being the most suitable site for an air park.He had been informed by the owner of part of the land •that offers for its purchase for building development hadbeen made, but he did not wish to take action until he knew whether the Corporation desired to reconsider thematter. A resolution was passed stating that an aeio- drome was desirable for the future well-being of the city. CORK AS AN AIRPORT AT a recent meeting of the Joint Committee represent-ing local bodies which has been set up to examine proposals for the establishment of an airport at Cork Harbour, lettersfrom air traffic companies were read. One, from K.L.M., said that Cork, geographically, would be one of the most suitable connecting places between future Atlantic servicesand European Continental airlines. The company intimated that they had already prepared to operate a service toCork in the event of landing facilities being provided. Imperial Airways stated that so far as internal air ser-vices within the British Isles and Ireland were concerned, Cork to London unquestionably was one of the most attrac-tive routes. Deutsch Luft Hansa said that if Cork Har- bour had a good connection for the regular use of airservices it would have a special attraction, if up-to-date facilities were provided. It was estimated by Mr. O'Connor,the County Surveyor, that £20,000 would be needed for the reclamation of the Belvelley site, while, in addition,£30,000 would be required, later on, for the erection and equipment of an aerodrome. He suggested that, of thefirst £20,000. Cork Corporation should provide £5,000, Cork County Council also £5,000, and the Government£10,000. IMPERIAL AIR MAIL SERVICES Deputation to the Postmaster-General A DEPUTATION, on the subject of Imperial AirMails, from the London Chamber of Commerce,the Association of British Chambers of Com-merce and the Federation of British Industries, was received by Sir Kingsley Wood, Postmaster-General,on June 7 last. Lord Leverhulme, President of the London Chamber, introducing the deputation—which, he said,represented the whole of British industry and commerce— congratulated the Postmaster-General on his statement inthe House that the Post Office would yield a surplus of about £12,396,000 in this financial year. As business men,they felt strongly that the time had come when the air mail should no longer be looked upon as somethingabnormal. On a previous occasion, when approaching the Post Office with regard to improvements in the air mailservices, the London Chamber had been referred to the Air Ministry, but the deputation felt that they were rightin coming to the Postmaster-General as the provision of efficient mail services was, in their view, the function ofthe Post Office. Sir Geoffrey Clarke, Chairman of the Council of theLondon Chamber, who put the case of the deputation, referred to the fact that when the London Chamber'sdeputation had been received by the Secretary of State for Air in September, 1933, they had drawn attention to thevery small percentage of the first-class mail carried by air, and to the fact that the air mail did not adequately meetthe requirements of the business community, which ex- pected the fastest possible transit for its mail that moderndevelopments could offer. The British Post Office, he said, had always been to the front in the matter of improvingthe mail services. He felt some diffidence in mentioning exact figures but,under the present arrangements, about five days were occupied in the conveyance of mail by air between Londonand Karachi and between London and Nairobi, a distance of approximately 5,000 miles in each case. In its represen-tations to the Secretary of State for Air the London Chamber had submitted that the mail should travel atleast 2,500 miles per day. This would mean that both Karachi and Nairobi could be reached in two days. Whilstthere had been some improvements both on the Indian and African air routes, it was urged that there should be adefinite increase in the speed of the services. They held the view that the first-class Empire mailshould be sent by air at as low a flat rate of postage as possible—the present high charges being more in thecategory of telegraph rates than postal rates. Referring to the view expressed by the London Chamber in August,1932, that air services should be utilised by the Post Office for the carriage of all first-class mail matter in the ordinarycourse of business at the ordinary rate of postage, he said they recognised that this was an ideal, and that some timemust elapse before agreement could be reached en the question of the abolition of the air mail surcharge amongstthe various signatories to the Universal Postal Convention. In the meantime, however, he urged that the Postmaster-General should use his influence with the Postal Authorities in the Dominions and Colonies with a view to the first-class mail being dispatched by air within the Empire at as low a flat rate as possible. Indeed, the principle hadapparently been recognised by the Post Office in that no extra charge was being made for the conveyance of mailon the recently inaugurated air service between Inverness and the Orkneys. While the principle of a special air mail fee had beenrecognised at the recent Postal Congress at Cairo, for the time being it would hardly be in conformity with inter-national regulations for all first-class mail to be sent by air at existing rates of postage. However, in the Conven-tion, under Article 4 (5) of the General Provisions for the Conveyance of Mails by Air, " Administrations had theoption of not collecting any special fee for conveyance by air, provided that notice was given to the country ofdestination and by agreement beforehand with countries of transit." It seemed clear that, under this article, aflat rate for Empire air mails would be permissible. The deputation suggested that the rates might be fixedat the foreign postage rates—2|d. for the first ounce and l^d. for each subsequent ounce—but it was difficult to say 607
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