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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 1370.PDF
1374 FLIGHT. DECEMBER 27, 1934. BRINGING The Melbourne Race Discusses the F\ Austral Left) Scott and Blackin their D.H. "Comet." THE Melbourne Air Race has been flown and won.That remark is meant neither as a platitude noras a hoisting of one's own colours. It is merely the statement of an established fact. But the mere statement of fact is not sufficient to dispose of such an event. History and the Press have made more of it, and because this is so one cannot so easily escape from it. At a luncheon the other day I spoke rather plaintively to a very responsible gentleman sitting beside me. I asked him and informed him (for my statement was both a plaint and a query), " Is it fair, sir, do you think, that people should regard one as having assumed the mantle of a disciple simply because one happens in one's professional capacity of pilot to have been partly responsible for the winning of the Melbourne Centenary Air Race? " He laughed and agreed with me that it wasn't. But the fact still remains that gracious people even now imagine that because one was part of the crew of the winning machine, a special deity has sud- denly gifted one with the power to dictate policies to governments, influence private minds (actually a far harder thing), and generally influence Empire ail routes in a direction in which we all know they should go (though none of us is quite sure how a start could be made). At the moment of writing (and, tell it not in Gath, the moment is four in the morning of the day this has to be in the printer's hands) the great line of Imperial Airways has two machines speeding across the world. The first Australian air maii—that is, the first continuous and recognised air mail, Australia having done it before—will be in Australia by Christmas-time, perhaps to recom- pense the Australians for the gifts of baby lamb they 9.0 kindly send annually to these shores by the medium of the shipping lines. It takes well over a month to send a baby lamb from Australia to England by sea, and about a fortnight to send a letter to Australia by air mail. In spite of the longer time, the lamb will often arrive in much better condition than the air mail. But this is probably the result of much practice, for baby lambs have been travelling from Australia at this speed for many years. Forgive me, but that is really a dig at the shipping companies, and may also serve to hold up to public shame the fact that fifteen-knot ships are still permitted to earn' the Empire mails. Were these shipping companies to operate thirty-knot ships it would seem (unless my mathematics are at fault, and this may well be so at this time in the morning) their schedule would be nearer a fortnight, much the same as that of Imperial Airways, who are operating, we are told, at a mean speed of over one hundred miles per hour. There seems to be something radically wrong some- where ! Of course, ships have a happy knack of carrying on during the hours of darkness, while aeroplanes have to be snugly tied and picketed almost the minute the sun sets, although on exceptional occasions such as inaugural services they are occasionally flown in the dark a little before dawn.
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