FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1934
1934 - 0779.PDF
AUGUST 2, 1934. FLIGHT. lhe Outlooks Auxiliary A.F. Fightersr HE Air Ministry has decided, as announced on our page of R.A.F. news, to convert three squadrons of the Auxiliary Air Force from bo'mber squadrons into fighter squadrons, ai.d to re-equip them with the " Demon " instead of the "Harts " and " Wapitis" which they fly at present. The squadrons selected for this change are the three raised in the London area, namely. No. 600 (City of London), No. 601 (County of London), and No. 604 (County of Middlesex). The former two squadrons now have '' Harts '' and the Middlesex Squadron has "Wapitis." During the recent Air Exercises the Middle- sex Squadron was employed as a fighter squadron. Without waiting for new squadrons to be formed, this change raises the number of our day-and-night fighter squadrons from ten to thirteen, and our total number of fighter squadrons from thirteen to sixteen—for the " Demon'' can be used as a night fighter, and No. 23 F.S. was so employed during the Air Exercises. The change also increases the number of two-seater fighter squadrons which we shall have in the near future from two (Nos. 23 and 41 F.S.) to five. It is evident that the Air Council are impressed with the potentialities of the two-seater fighter, and mean to give a thorough try-out. Still, we may take it that this conversion of three squadrons from bombers to fighters will not affect the ultimate ration of the two arms when the five-year pro- gramme of expansion has been completed. It has been stated that, generally speaking, there will be two bomber squadrons to each fighter squadron, and so in 1938 there should be fifty bomber squadrons and twenty-five fighter squadrons in the Home Defence Force. The real signi- ficance of the change is that for the first time the Auxiliary Air Force is to have some fighter squadrons, whereas hitherto they have only had day bomber squadrons. In the early days of the A.A.F. it was not unnaturally held that part-time airmen could never achieve the high pitch of training which is so necessary for the fighter. The whole fighter organisation must work in split seconds if raids are to be intercepted. Could auxiliaries ever attain such per- fection? In the early days it was not to be expected that the A.A.F. squadrons would attain the excellence which they actually have attained as bombers. They have sur- prised everybody, and so the Air Ministry is giving them a chance to rise to the still higher standard of perfection which their new duties will demand. A Fighting "Pterodactyl" - ^TUDENTS of air fighting will watch with interest the ^J future development of the first military "tailless" aeroplane to be produced. Designed by Capt. G. T. R. Hill and the technical staff of the Westland Aircraft Works, the " Pterodactyl V " is a two-seater fighter fitted with the new Rolls-Royce " Goshawk " engine of some 600 h.p. Hitherto the " Pterodactyls " have had the en- gine and airscrew at the back, the pilot being placed in the nose of the tiny fuselage. In the military version of the machine the engine is in the nose, the pilot in the middle, and the gunner in the stern. The extremely wide field of fire provided for the gunner should eliminate blind spots in a rearward direction, and the expression " sitting on his tail," so familiar in the war 1914-18, appears to have lost its significance in the " Pterodactyl V," apart from the fact that one cannot sit on a tail which isn't there. If the new machine comes up to expectations, the whole sub- ject of air tactics may be considerably influenced. A Quarter of a Century O N July 25, 1909, Louis Bleriot climbed into his littlemonoplane at Les Baraques, and standing up in the machine he asked, " Where is Dover? ". One of the bystanders gave him a general direction with his arm, and Bleriot started off and flew the Channel. He was in pain from a burnt foot. His engine was temperamental, and it began to overheat while he was over the sea. He out- distanced his destroyer escort. He could not calculate drift from the wind, and when he sighted land he was opposite St. Margaret's Bay. He found the eddies over the cliffs very difficult to deal with, and he ended his flight in true Bleriot fashion by gently crashing his machine. That was the spirit of the early pioneers. When one con- siders the care with which the modern pilot works out his course before setting off on a cross-country flight, one hardly knows whether to laugh or cry over the heady recklessness and the cold courage of that first Channel flight. The Channel has claimed victims since then, and it is only a few months ago that an Air France machine com- pletely disappeared after sending out the " Mayday " call. But even railways have their occasional accidents, and nowadays flying the Channel is such an ordinary event that no one thinks of risk when setting out to makt. the • crossing. We have made no little progress in the quarter of a century since that first flight of Louis Bleriot. Air Line Duplication TJ7HEN, this month, Railway Air Services start their YY line to Belfast and Glasgow, there will be partial overlapping on a route which, for the present at any rate, hardly provides traffic for one operator. Mr. Hillman, taking over from Mr. Sword, now operates be- tween Stapleford Abbots, Liverpool, the Isle of Man, and Belfast, and the Railway's service will run between Croy- don, Birmingham—linking there with the other R.A.S. lines •—Manchester, the Isle of Man, Belfast, and Glasgow. Both will probably use the same type of machine in due course, and both will operate once each way daily. Whatever the rights, wrongs, and needs of the particular concerns, this is just one case where a working agreement should be reached, if at all possible. At the moment inter- service economy is as vital as a complete plan of internal air line operation, if we are not to have the unedifying sight of separate air lines fighting to the death over the body of one fare-paying passenger—who will eventually ride away on a bicycle. ., ,. .. '" .:-\,:~l'An Attempted Imposition -^ A BERDEEN Corporation recently applied for a f-\ provisional Order which would give them power to purchase compulsorily, at not less than fourteen days' notice, the aerodrome which has been established by Mr. E. L. Gandar Dower at Dyce. The idea of a Corporation being empowered to purchase arbitrarily going concerns of this nature very naturally aroused considerable comment. Fortunately, the attempt of the Corporation to establish a precedent proved abortive; and the case of the Corporation was discredited without much difficulty, upon Mr. Gandar Dower giving an undertaking that he would allow any aero- planes to use the aerodrome except those purporting to serve areas already adequately served by Mr. Gandar Dower's company, Aberdeen Airways, Ltd.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
