FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1934
1934 - 1183.PDF
NOVEMBER 8, 1934. FLIGHT. H85 There was no technical difficulty in providing aircraft with adequate sleeping accommodation which would make flying twenty hours a day no more fatiguing than ten hours a day in present-day aircraft. Atlantic Services and an Atlantic Aircraft Arrangements had been made with His Majesty's Govern- ment in this country and Bermuda for the company to operate a mail and passenger service between Bermuda and New York. It would be operated equally and jointly with Pan-American Airways. They had their own plans for an Atlantic service, which appeared to them to be as promising as any of the others, if not more so. They were about to order, under agree- ment with the Ministry, an aircraft which should provide a range and paying load to meet the requirements of the route more satisfactorily than anything yet projected for the purpose. They had for many months had plans under considera- tion which they believed would enable them to give a seven-day or 7j-day service to Australia. With the plans that they had made and the arrangements which had been commenced they could make, say, Sydney, in about j\ days. SIR PHILIP SASSOON'S AIR TOUR Advantages of the Long-range Flying Boat : Comfort of Modern Air Travel Aerodrome at Singapore : Air Ministry Alive to Future Needs Fine ON his return from his tour of inspection of R.A.F.units overseas, Sir Philip Sassoon, Under-Secretaryof State for Air, made a statement to the Press on October 31st, in the course of which he said : — "As is already well known part of my tour was under- taken by R.A.F. aircraft and part by Imperial Airways, and I have come back more than ever impressed by two things—the enthusiastic efficiency and outstanding fitness and morale of the R.A.F., and the comfort and advantages of civil air travel, which I foresee, must, in the not far distant future, tend more and more to supplant the older forms of transport. The whole tour was accomplished without a hitch. The performance of the new type ' Singa- pore III' flying boat, in which I undertook the first part of the journey to Aboukir, was an outstanding success. By the use of this machine it was for the first time found possible to proceed over all the main stages of the flight without stopping at intervening points for refuelling, as has been necessary in the past with other types. The journey from Athens to Aboukir took 4 hours 20 minutes only. Qood Organisation " My trip covered in all more than 19,000 miles over fourteen countries, and I was actually 180 hours in the air in seven different types of aircraft—civil and R.A.F. I also had experience of night landing on both sea and land, besides taking off in the dark. There were no forced landings at any stage of the journey, which says much for the safety of modern air travel; and, throughout, all flights were made strictly to schedule. In three days I travelled without hurry from the humid atmosphere of Singapore to the frosty nights of the Indian N.W. Frontier. " I was particularly interested in the development now taking place in the aerodromes and landing grounds on the India-Singapore section of the route, and although there is still great room for improvement, I am satisfied that development is proceeding on the right lines. The chief difficulty over this part of the route is the dampness of the aerodromes during the monsoon period, but this matter is receiving the attention of the aerodrome experts. Fortunately, the prevailing winds do not vary substantially in direction, and it is therefore possible to overcome the difficulty by putting down landing strips on the aero- dromes. This method has already been adopted at Bang- kok with marked success. The civil aerodrome at Singa- pore is a very fine one, and the buildings have been ex- tremely well designed and laid out. The people of Malay are enthusiastic over flying and realise their responsibili- ties and the fact that the peninsula must be a link of ever-increasing importance in the Empire air mail route. "It was perhaps not inopportune that I should have been flying over the Singapore route at a time when the great air race was taking place, and it was with consider- able pride that I learned that the speed race was won by a British machine and British engine. This is most gratify- ing at a time when there is a tendency to decry British aircraft whilst praising, with enthusiasm, the products of foreign competitors. I agree, of course, that praise must be given where it is due, and no one recognises more than 1 the excellent performance of the Douglas machine, flown by those very able Dutch pilots. But I do not think that even the Dutch pilots themselves would claim that the time has yet arrived when it is possible to contemplate a speed of 200 miles an hour on a regular schedule flown in all weathers and at all times of the year. I have, in fact, seen a reference in the Press to a statement that K.L.M. do not. anticipate that it would be possible to work to less than a seven day schedule to Melbourne. "The lessons of the race were, of course, apparent to me, and to all those at the Air Ministry whose duty it is to watch progress in every sphere of aviation ; but I do not wish it to be thought that any special action on the part of the Air Ministry is attendant on the result of such an event. The Department is always on the look out for and ready to make use of the advances in technique, pos- sibly of far-reaching importance, which may result from such a race. But to think that the Ministry awaits the outcome of a sporting event would be very wide of the mark. Continuous effort is always being made in the direction of ordered progress in civil aviation, and you may rest assured that the Air Ministry does not wait for its attention to be focused on the necessity for speeding up air mails by an event of this character. Speeding-up Empire Air Mails '' It must be realised that development in the air, as in all other matters, cannot proceed by sudden leaps, which experience in all spheres of activity has shown to be un- economical and liable to defeat the attainment of the desired objective. The Air Ministry, in conjunction with the Post Office and Imperial Airways, has been working for many months past on plans for the further develop- ment of British commercial air transport. We reached the conclusion that the present flying-times between Lon- don and the other Empire capitals must be progressively and drastically curtailed, and that measures must be taken for the further development of air mail traffic in particu- lar. Obviously a great deal of preparatory work has to be done, and the closest and fullest consultation with the Dominions and the Colonies is a necessary preliminary to the final formulation of a definite scheme. We are not yet in a position to make our plans public, and we have no intention of doing so prematurely, but I should hope that it would be possible to make some announcement on the subject within the next month or two."
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
