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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 1010.PDF
1012 Commercial Aviation FLIGHT. SEPTEMBER 27, 1934. duce better machines. A monopoly ownership of air trans- port may result in standardised machines as it has resulted in standardised buses. There will be little incentive to produce something new when all orders can be foretold as to quantity and the direction from which they will arrive. The air operator and the aircraft manufacturer would do well to study the history of road transport since 1929, and also to pay particular attention to the effects on the heavy vehicle industry of the Acts of 1930 and 1933, which bulk far more largely than the sound and sensible provi- sions included in those statutes "in the interests of public safety." These last were merely the jam surrounding the pill. CROYDON Fifteen Years of Business Flying : The First D.H.86 for Qantas : Infant Reactions to Air Travel : A K.L.M. Veteran : Pith Helmets MR. HARRY TOWN, a Manchester cloth merchant, cameinto Croydon from Oslo by Scandinavian Air Expresslast Saturday. He is one of the most regular airtravellers and has been using air lines for business ever since the old davs of Hounslow and Cricklewood. Mr. Townclaims to have flown some 20,000 miles on business and has visited every European city served by air lines. It would beinteresting to know how many days, weeks and months he has saved by air travel. He says it is the only means of gettingabout for a man who wants to keep ahead of competitors. The first Qantas machine of the "Diana" class arrived atCroydon during last week. Major Brackley, Flying Super- intendent of Imperial Airways, Ltd., flew it and is, I am told,most enthusiastic. It will be flown to Australia by Mr. L. J. Brain, with Mr. Price.as First Officer. The equipment includesa collapsible boat, and some amusement was caused by the sight of senior officials going through the motions of rowing—across the aerodrome, the surface of which certainly resembles monstrous billows. One of the largest single consignments of air freight, i^ tonsof G.E.C. wireless parts, was accepted by Imperial Airways, Ltd., last Friday, and was despatched to Paris during the day.Capt. Stack, that mystery man, left Croydon for Rome almost stealthily early on Friday morning, flying a Miles"Hawk Major" solo. He accomplished the journev in 8 hours. A more leisurely trip was that of twenty members ofthe Vintage Club who flew by Imperial to Cologne upon busi- ness connected with their genial craft. Five British architectsand surveyors left by the K.L.M. 7 a.m. service for Holland on the first " leg " of an air tour of Europe, to study housingconditions and modern domestic architecture. The increase in air travel by groups of people representingone specific trade or profession is very noteworthy. Another example was the special charter of Imperial Airways "City ofCoventry," piloted by Capt. E. J. Wilcockson, from Croydon to Liverpool. The party consisted of experts in engineeringand electricity, representing home and overseas interests, and the object of the flight was to visit the British Copper Refineryworks near Liverpool, the only one of its kind in England. So satisfied were they with the flight that the company hasannounced that regular use will be made of air transport for similar future visits. During the week The Grand Duchessof Luxembourg arrived by Sabena special charter machine via Brussels, with her son, Prince John. The Prince is to go toschool in this country. Olley Air Service, Ltd., recently saved five leading jockeysan all-night train journey by flying them from Ayr to Windsor. An unaccompanied air traveller, aged 6|, arrived almost un-noticed last week, for just previously one aged 6 had also arrived alone. He asked "why all the fuss and press photo-graphy " as he had flown six or seven times and had made his first unaccompanied flight, when 4 years old, by ImperialAirways, Ltd. The sight of increasing numbers of very small babies coming through the airport prompted me to ask theStewardess how these mites travelled. She said they invariably arrived smiling and chuckling and were practically never upsetin rough weather. This seems pjoof almost that man was intended to travel by air; I wonder, by the way, how well,or how badly, infants two or three months old travel by sea. On Saturday, September 22. Mr. L. Sillevis completed 12Jyears service with K.L.M. He has approximately 10,000 hours to his credit and about two million flying kilometres.He joined K.L.M. in March, 1922, and flew the original D. H. Nine open cockpit aeroplanes with which K.L.M. started theLondon-Amsterdam service. The journey now scheduled to take 2 hr. 15 min.—and frequently done in less—was thenseldom flown under 3 hr. 45 min. Passengers were dressed up in lifebelts and pilots depended more on instinct than onthe few erratic instruments then in use. Imperial's lost property office at Airways Terminus containsthe usual assortment of walking sticks, umbrellas, tennis racquets, raincoats and oddments, but there is also a mountainof pith helmets. People returning from the East by sea cast their helmets into the waters as an act symbolic of liberty,but you must not throw things out of aeroplanes. One sports- man placed his pith helmet on the floor in Customs at Croydonand danced on it, but, for the most part, air travellers from the East just leave them lying about. A. VIATOR. C1 Another Boeing jor-D.L.H, A 247-D Boeing, which,.with two geared "Wasps," has arather higher performance .than the original version, is being delivered to Deutsche Luft Hansa. Two Boeings are now inregular service between Berlin and Amsterdam. Incidentally, Sabena has just ordered two Douglas D.C.2's.America certainly seems to be coming to Europe. • , •. - Trans'Canada Air Mail Route It is reported that plans have been submitted to theDominion Government for a trans-Canada air mail route, to be ready for operation late in 1935. The schedule would pro-vide for a westbound aeroplane, leaving Montreal at 8 p.m. and reaching Winnipeg in seven hours. The Pacific coastwould be reached at Vancouver by noon on the following day, the total flying time being sixteen hours. This service, ifapproved by the Government of Canada, will be the fruition of work which has been in progress during the past two yearsin connection with the Government's unemployment relief projects. Nearly 10,000 men have been steadily em-ployed at a cost of approximately $2,400,000. The land- ing fields have yet to be equipped with boundary lights,beacons and searchlights. The plant provides for machines with a cruising speed of about 170 miles per hour, and a maximumspeed of 200 miles per hour, and mail from Toronto would link up with the airway route by a connection at North Bay orSudbury. J Egyptian Air Lines Passengers carried on the air routes operated by Misr Air-work during the two weeks ending September 2 and Sep- tember 9 were 157 and 189 respectively. On September 9 a"Dragon," piloted by Capt. Spooner, with a "Fox Moth" as escort, brought H.R.H. the Duke of Gloucester from Port Saidto Ahnaza. The following afternoon His Royal Highness, again piloted by Capt. Spooner and with the "Fox Moth"'escort, flew to Suez, where he rejoined H.M.S. Sussex bound for Australia. Tie Catapult Air Service The German Luft Hansa has now made its twenty-fifth scheduled flight in the regular postal service across the Atlantic Ocean. Since putting into service the motor boat Schwaben- land, the Trans-Oceanic service has at its disposal, for the Atlantic hop of 1,900 miles, two aircraft catapult boats, the Schwabenland on the African coast and the Westf-alen on the American coast. The outstanding feature of the service is its remarkable regularity. The scheduled times have never been exceeded, and on each trip about 20,000 letters are carried.
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