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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 1078.PDF
10 FLIGHT. OCTOBER 18, 1934. SHORTENING THE APPROACH : One of the split flaps on the " Comet." These are raised and lowered by a lever on the left of the first pilot. • '. (Continued from page 1077.) Three of the " big fellows " arrived en Tuesday from Martlesham Heath, where they had been weighed—the scales at Mildenhall being unable to cope with them. These were Col. Roscoe Turner's Boeing Transport, the K.L.M. Douglas D.C.2, and the "syndicated" Pander Postjager. Things were looking altogether brighter. With the Boeing came Clyde Pangborn, Nichols, the wireless operator, and a mechanic, Don Young, but the last-named will not be one of the race crew. The machine has an American licence for 950 gallons of fuel, but it seems that they will not be able to carry all that as Martlesham thinks that it cannot go over the " screen " with the load. The tanks are arranged along each side of the fuselage interior with a gangway between, and very complete wire- less and direction-finding equipment is installed. Both the Union Jack and the Stars and Stripes are painted on the machine, so there "we 'are. A designer of a rival machine, incidentally, was very impressed, and considered that it has an excellent chance if only because it has been so thoroughly tried out in service on the American air lines. In the Douglas there will be a crew of four, including Parmentier and Moll, three male passengers, and Fraulein Thea Rasche. Woods' Lockheed "Vega" has a Hamilton variable- pitch propeller and long-range tanks, of course, in the cabin. It has been re-named Puck. One more machine, Parer's Fairey " Fox," arrived on Tuesday carrying an extra tank faired in below the fuselage. Its endurance is, apparently, between six and seven hours, so its range will be in the vicinity of i.coo miles. A Dove " Cloudring " is fitted by way of a blind- flying instrument, so this interesting device will receive a very thorough testing. On Monday one of the "Comets" was, as stated, dis- covered to be very slightly overweight. Apparently all three were weighed at Hatfield under A.I.D. supervision, and all were within a few pounds of the permissible maxi- mum. At Mildenhall two were within 12 lb., but No. 19 was nearly 100 lb. overweight. Perhaps the scales at Mildenhall do not read quite the same, but, in any case, the weights were calculated with fuel of 0.76 specific gravity, whereas that supplied was 0.78. The correct fuel has now been supplied—a pretty fair piece of team work by the petrol company concerned. Mr. C. C. Walker is very satisfied with the machines, but is only sorry that they were not delivered soon enough to give the pilots a chance to gain experience. The Mollisons, incidentally, had some landing and approach \ NAVIGATIONAL : Inside the " ob- servatory" of " Comet," No. 34. The wheel on the right of the first pilot is for raising and lowering the undercarriage. practice on Tuesday, and have named their "Comet," very aptly, Black Magic. They have rather a flair for machine names. While on the subject, the New Zealand " Dragon Six" is named Tainui after the first Maori war canoe to reach New Zealand. Hewitt gives the "Dragon's Six's" range as about 1,000 miles, and he is carrying Plessey wireless equipment. THE "COURIER" IN THE RACE: Sqd. Ldr. Stodart's Airspeed "Courier" coming up to the hangar on Sunday afternoon. This machine arrived immediately after the " Viceroy." (Flight Photo.)
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