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Aviation History
1935
1935 - 0070.PDF
30 FLIGHT. JANUARY IO, 1935. Marconi stations should not be used where necessary. In addition, there were the older stations at Croydon, Lympne, Pulham, and Manchester to assist the operator, and the broadcasting station at Heston. The Air Ministry's own official weather broadcasting station is now at Cranwell. Turning to services having the major portion of their routes outside the country, it is almost superfluous to dwell on the part which the London-Continental services of Imperial Airways have played in the progress of British civil aviation. Every one knows their reputation for safety, comfort, and regularity. Suffice it to say that the company, during 1934, has continued to develop its facilities in its usual eminently sound and sane manner, and that the number of passengers carried on the London- Paris service alone totalled 40,666. Probably, like most pieces of machinery that work quietly and efficiently, these services have operated more or less unhonoured and unsung, at least by comparison with the same company's Empire routes, the sudden and inspiring developments in which have done more than anything else, with the possible exception of the Melbourne Race, to impress the value of air transport on ordinary men and women. Of these Empire developments the year has produced two most important advances and one staggering promise. A species of fiat rate, simplifying the work of the sender and thereby increasing the prospective weight of mail, has been introduced, and the long-awaited extension to Australia, albeit for mail only during the first few months of operation, has been opened. A Bright Future Those are the advances. The promise was made in the last month of the year. Within two or three years all mails will be carried to Empire destinations by air at the normal rates, and the services will be both faster and more frequent. Meanwhile, Imperial travellers still "leave the ship" at Le Bourget and travel by train to Brindisi, but there seems every hope that this little political difficulty will be overcome before the end of 1935. The possibilities of an Atlantic service are by no means as remote as they were. It has been announced during the year that a big trans-oceanic boat is to be built, and experiments to be made with a '' composite aeroplane'' in which one large machine takes another and faster machine designed for long-range, high-speed flight at high altitude into the air. But that is anticipating. To return to the past year, ground organisation on the Empire route has steadily im proved. Slow but sure development has brought wire less into its own, and direction-finding apparatus is now a matter of course at all important airports. "Homing" equipment has also been fitted to many machines on the Empire routes. During April the Imperial services were slightly speeded- up, with the effect that India was reached in five days, Singapore in eight days, and Cape Town in nine days, the first accelerated service leaving Cape Town on April 10. Later in the same month it was announced that Qantas Empire Airways had obtained the Singapore-Brisbane mail contract, that Mr. C. A. Butler had obtained the Charle- ville-Cootamundra section, and that the MacRobertson- Miller Aviation Co. would carry the mails round the Australian west coast to Perth. The first definite suggestions of striking changes were made by Sir Eric Geddes at the tenth ordinary meeting of Imperial Airways, Ltd. He spoke of duplicated services, new machines—including one for a possible Atlantic ser vice—and higher speed. His speech paved the waj' for the startling announcements made in the House at the end of the year. Mail Flat Rates Then, in November, Sir Kingsley Wood announced that the varying postages over Empire routes would be ad justed to two flat rates of 6d. and 3d. In brief, letters to South and East Africa, India, and Malaya could be sent for the larger fee, and to Egypt and Persia for the smaller. On the 17th of the month the first flat-rate air mails were despatched, and a little later it was announced that this flat rate applied to the whole of India, where previously an extra fee was extracted from the unfortunate sender. On December 8 a new chapter in air-mail history was opened with fitting ceremony. Lord Londonderry, the Secretary of State for Air, assisted by Sir Kingsley Wood and other notabilities, despatched the first all-air mail to Australia. The fee (is. 3d.) appeared high, but a start had been made. Qantas Empire Airways was to take over the mail at Singapore, but, owing to an unfortunate acci dent, the hard-working "Atalantas " on the Far Eastern section were commissioned to take the mail through to Darwin on the first trip. The following week's mail was of record weight, and services had to be duplicated all the way to Singapore. Within Two Years Then, on December 20, Sir Philip Sassoon, Under- Secretary of State for Air, made his far-reaching announce ment on Empire air-mail services in the House of Commons. As he said, the scheme must be regarded as a basis for discussion only, but the ideal is expected to be a fact within two years. There is to be a very consider able improvement in time schedules on Empire services —two and a half days to India and East Africa, four days to the Cape and to Singapore, and seven days to Australia ; provision is to be made for four or even five services a week to India, three to Singapore, and two to South Africa and Australia ; letter fees are to be sent everywhere at a flat rate of approximately ifd. per half-ounce. So the year 1934 ended—on a note of almost extravagant hope. NUTS TO CRACK—No. 2 Another " teaser ' set by Fit. Ll. Nicholas Comper, A.F.R.Ac.S. The explanation will be published in an early issue, and in the meantime readers may care io send in their own solutions. I REMEMBER two lads arriving in their R.E.8 on our aerodrome during the War, white-faced and astonished. This was the story told to me by one of them : "We had just finished our 'shoot' and, after wind ing in our aerial, we were gliding down. We de scended to about 3,000 feet, then suddenly, crash! Jl we had not been strapped in we would have jumped out of our skins and the aeroplane. "The poor old R.E.8 bucked and started shaking itself to bits—or so it felt. I must have looked at the rev counter, for I remember noting mentally that, although the needle jumped with the rest of the aero plane, there was no loss in power. " But what shook me more than anything else was that we found ourselves sitting in a naked fuselage, or so it seemed, for all the fabric from engine cowl to tail had disappeared from one side! Still, the wings stayed on and we had control, which was more than had seemed likely a moment before. " Throttle open or throttle shut, the vibration persisted." There had been no explosion near the aeroplane. What had happened?
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