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Aviation History
1934
1934 - 1384.PDF
1388 FLIGHT. DECEMBER 27, 1934. COMMERCIAL 7\V/AT/ON AIRLINES AIRPORTS CROYDON A "Car" by Air : Special K.L.M. Trips : Aviation Old-timers : Sixty-one Tons of Freight Last Week DURING last week journalistic circles thrilled to the newsof a car being transported to Paris by air. The storywas true, and if you only read the Press accounts of thematter you probably have visions of a large Rolls-Royce being driven up an inclined plane into an Air France machine, or of a motor coach being slung aboard Scylla with a crane. What actually happened was that a single-cylinder Rytecraft " Scoota Car" was ordered by a Paris lountain pen firm by 'phone. There was just time to rush it down to Croydon in time for the Imperial 12.30 departure, and it was in Paris by 2,30 p.m. I will not spoil the story by saying that a powerful traffic hand lifted the motor car into the aeroplane, as I did not see the loading. The mysterious Mr. Fokker, as he has recently become, left Croydon by K.L.M. during the week. News-hounds insist that Mr. Fokker is building a huge factory in this country, but he, like Brer Rabbit, "lays low and says nothing." Olley Air Service recently carried a difficult stretcher case from Vichy to London in very bad weather. The patient had serious spinal trouble. The flight was successfully accom- plished, and doctors afterwards reported that the patient slept more comfortably and for longer periods after the journey than before it. This company also made a rush taxi journey one day during the week, when Michael Beary, the jockey, had to be in Paris in a hurry early in the morning. On Wednesday the ill-fated Douglas, piloted by Beekman and Steenbergen, set off with special Christmas mail from Amster- dam to Batavia. Beekman held the Batavia-Amsterdam record of seven days with the old "Titan "-motored Fokker Fyb until Smirnoff reduced the time last Christmas, with an F12, to four days and some odd minutes. Hondong, another K.L.M. pilot well known on the London route, is at the moment of writing well on his way to Dutch Guiana with Christmas mails. [The machine arrived at Paramaribo on Monday.—ED.] Smirnoff has completed nearly 13 years with K.L.M. He was one of the earliest civil pilots in Europe, and I remember him flying for the original Belgian Company, S.N.E.T.A., which started with D.H.o machines. He was in the Imperial Russian Air Force during the War. Mr. F. G. Hewlett, of the Anglo-American Oil Co., is another old stager, with service at Cricklewood and Hounslow to his credit. He was one of the first in the field at Croydon. His many friends will be delighted to hear that he has been appointed aviation circuit manager, a position his business ability and genial disposition admirably qualify him to fill. About sixty-one tons of freight passed through the airport of London last week, and it is instructive to note that only sixteen of these were imported, the remainder being outward goods. A. VIATOR. A Qerman Far-Eastern Flight The Junkers Ju 52 (three 650 h.p. B.M.W. "Hornets"), which was flown out to Shanghai by D.L.H. in 8 days 6 hr 20 min., was due to start its return flight to Berlin this week. The route was via Hanoi, Rangoon, Calcutta, Jodhpur, Karachi, Jask, Baghdad and Cairo. Pan American Airways Forge Ahead A Sikorsky S.42 is being equipped as a "training ship " for long-range ocean flights. Tankage to give the boat a comfort- able range of 3,000 miles is being arranged, with a special high- speed pumping system and flow-meter equipment. Two-way wireless and a new D/F device will be fitted. Initial long-distance flights will be made over known routes, and the first will be from Bridgeport (Conn.) to Miami. Later on it is likely that the boat will be taken over to the Pacific Coast. Pan American Airways have already a firm position in the Orient, with nearly half the holding in China National Aviation Corporation, and plans are well under way for an experimental trans-Pacific flight from the Pacific Coast to the Philippines and China. Incidentally, the S.42 Brazilian Clipper has been placed temporarily on the Caribbean service between Miami and San Juan; the S.42 reduces the trip to a one-day affair. NEARING COMPLE- TION: The giant Latecoere boat Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris, de- signed for the South Atlantic crossing, in course of erection at Biscarosse. A maximum speed of 155 m.p.h. and a useful range of about 2,800 miles are expected. The engines are Hispanos and the maximum per- missible all-up weight will be 81,570 lb. with an actual payload of 26,000 lb.
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