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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0725.PDF
JULY 19, 1934. FLIGHT. The Outlooks Handicapping E VERY year the most-discussed subject at King's Cuptime is the one of handicapping. Formulae have beentried, but whatever is suggested it always comes back to letting Capt. Dancy and Mr. Rowarth estimate the speeds from their vast store of knowledge and experience. Critics, however, always point out that someone runs away with the race and makes the handicapping look silly. If those critics were themselves in the machine which achieved this success, they would not complain ; but before singing so loudly they might take the trouble to look a little more deeply into the results. They will then realise that, taking all things into consideration—the distance, the varied weather conditions, and many other unknowns —it is little short of marvellous that the finishes are as close as they are. The subject is not one to argue about heatedly. It ought to be discussed quietly—as no doubt it is—and after that has been done it will still be very difficult to find any other scheme which will work half as well. The only reasonable suggestion we have heard— one made by Capt. de Havilland—is that the allocation of handicap speeds might be left to a committee of five disinterested authorities who know a lot about aircraft but are not connected with the machines in the race. Heats Are Unfair O NE point which this year's race brought out was theinherent unfairness of the heat system in air racing.The heats which started in the morning were favoured by the Committee, because the start was delayed on account of bad weather; but those who started in the after- noon had no such favour, and were sent off with rapidly deteriorating weather conditions. The result was that, while everyone got back in the first two heats, only a small percentage did so in the last two. If this system is adhered to, then, to make it fair for everyone the allotted times of the heats should be kept to whatever the weather does. An Alternative TT THY have heats at all? What good do they do? I/I/ If it is the necessity for weeding out the entry, then why not run off the whole entry on, say, a 500-mile course, round Great Britain on the Friday, and take the first sixteen or so to get home to compete over a short course in view of a North-country aerodrome—for a change—on the Saturday. This would give everyone the same chance as regards weather, and give greater scope to those who can win races by virtue of their knowledge of how to use the wind, especially the upper winds, over long distances. In any case, whatever is done, Friday should not be looked upon as a spectacle for the public. -•••V1: Engine Reliability T T THEN we read about motor car races we cannot 1/1/ help feeling that motor car engines have a very long way to go before they are anything like as reliable as are our aero engines. The King's Cup race brought this out very forcibly. Over a course of nearly eight hundred miles a' large number of engines were run at full throttle, yet there was no case of failure. There were three makes of engine which had never raced before, but, as the official type test is much more severe, we are not surprised that they came through successfully. Isle of Wight RacingM OST people were very disappointed that none of the fast aeroplanes, especially the single-seaters built primarily for racing, were in the Semi-Final and Final at Hatfield last Saturday. They will, however, haw an opportunity of seeing several of these same machines next Saturday, as some of them have been entered for the "Round the Isle of Wight" Race. This starts from, and finishes at, Portsmouth Airport. There are actually two races. The first is round the Island and then to a short course near the airport, over which three laps will have to be flown. For this race the first "A" licensed pilot home gets the Peters Trophy, and the first " B" licensed pilot home the Duckham Trophy. This lace starts at 2.30 p.m. Later on during the afternoon, at about 5.30 p.m., there is another race consisting of a number of laps of the same short course as was used before, for the Ports- mouth Trophy, the first, second and third receiving, in addition, monetary prizes. Amphibians Wanted T TOW it is that there are not more amphibians avail- £~2 able? Nearly every visitor who comes to this office from abroad always says that amphibian aircraft are what they want where he comes from. There are so many parts of the world where there is plenty of inland water with occasional land aerodromes. Those are the sort of places where aeria! travel would be easy if the aircraft could land on either, but almost impossible if it were confined to one medium. China, for example, has areas where there are literally thousands of lakes near towns and villages where petrol can be obtained and which peopie want to visit; from that country alone there would be a large demand for the right kind of amphibian. The Baghdad Bottle Neck C OMPETITORS in the speed section of the England-Melbourne Race are going to be in difficulty—to putit but mildly—unless the fuel and oil companies show very great organising powers at the five stops between England and Melbourne. Every minute spent on the ground between the start and finish lessens their chances of winning the race, so it is easy to visualise the state of every pilot's mind when he lands at each of those five compulsory stops. Fuel and oil companies will be morally bound to provide separate dumps and full service for each entry using their supplies, and the employees servicing those machines are going to come in for a tough time unless it is obvious that they are doing their job faster than it is being done on other machines. Baghdad is going to be pretty hectic. There is no reason to suppose that many of the entries will not be arriving within a very short time of each other, and the control on the aerodrome, let alone servicing the machines, is not going to be child's play. No doubt the companies concerned have not overlooked this point, but they will have to work fast if they are going to have full supplies, fuel and oil dumps, high-speed delivery pumps, weather information, food, geographical information, and the hundred and one other things which they will have to attend to for the pilots they are looking after, ready in time at every stop. The outfit for getting anything up to 600 gallons of fuel into a machine in the shortest space of time is a large item, but it is unlikely that any fuel company who does not provide this for each of his entries will get many competitors to supply.
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