FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1935
1935 - 1179.PDF
MAY 23, 1935. FLIGHT. 549 The Outlooks A Running Commentary on Air Topics Russia's Tragedy A JO political opinions or national prejudice can temper / Y the sympathy one feels for Soviet Russia in the loss of the Maxim Gorky and of forty-eight lives. The A NT.15 monoplane was, to many, the epitome of a country's striving to outstrip others in technical achieve ment. Not only was it the largest land machine in the world, but it was made possible by public subscription and used for extensive propaganda. That the accident should have been caused by the reck less conduct of one man while various aircraft workers were being taken on a pleasure cruise in the machine is particularly tragic. It is possible to recollect a number of occasions when, as passenger in a big machine, one has been ' 'formated " on by odd and sometimes gay pilots of smaller fry This accident should give such people some thing to think about. One wonders, too, whether cere monial formations which include big passenger machines ought ever to be made. A small error of judgment may have such devastating results. Indications / T appears that the problems of providing the pilot with the wind direction at aerodromes will never be com pletely solved by the use of a single type of indicator Each one has its advantages and disadvantages, and a com bination of any two would appear to be the best solution, although the smoke smudge is very nearly perfect from all points of view Even this, however, is sometimes liable to be misleading when used on aerodromes where mild hills and dales upset the surface air-fiow. A pilot usually prefers either -i smudge or a tee for obtaining the general direction during the circuit with a series of clean, coloured windsocks to give him a final check. A windsock, in any case, gives an indication both of the speed and of the particular vagaries of the wind at ' hold-off '' height. One might advise all aerodrome owners to do something about it for the benefit of pilots who are coming in for the first time and in thick weather. Two elusive pieces of, perhaps, dirty rag are hardly adequate for a large aero drome, and if windsocks alone are used they should be indicated by chalk arrows on the ground A pilot who is busy studying obstructions and flying gaps likes to be able to take in the wind direction after one sweeping glance, and certainly does not want to make a second circuit in search of such reliable evidence. London's Central Airport A FEW weeks ago a member of the staff of Flight was JTl flving over west London at an altitude of 3,000ft. and in conditions of almost perfect visibility. The fhames estuary was obscured in the smoke which even under those conditions could not be blown away, but Heston, Heathrow, Hanworth, Brooklands and Croydon w ere all in plain view. Never could the need for a more central airport have been so obviously indicated. Crowded streets below ex plained every minute of the forty-odd required to travel rifff the West End to the Present airports. Yet it was inicult to see how without a massive structure over IVe Thames, it would be possible to combat the difficulty. «yde Park and Wormwood Scrubs appeared to present "*e only possible sites for a normal type of airport, though Wimbledon Common would probably be considerably more convenient Who is to be heartless enough to suggest that such a space as Hyde Park should be put to commercial uses? The overhead airport or the perfection of underground communications appear to be the only humane solutions to the problem which, though not perhaps acute at present, is likely to become of desperate importance during the next few years. Strange Thinking T~) ECENTLY every decent-minded citizen was shocked £~\ to learn that the local authorities of Stoke-on-Trent had declined to receive a visit from a squadron of the Royal Air Force on the occasion of the Jubilee, and now it is reported that the Finchley Education Committee has decided not to assist schoolchildren of the borough to see the dress rehearsal of the R.A.F. display, which will be held on the day before the Display, namely, 011 June 28. Schoolchildren are always admitted free to this rehearsal, every child being now intensely air-minded, it gives them all a great deal of pleasure. It is reported that the view taken by the Finchley Education Committee is that the show tends to inculcate in children a false idea of the value of life. On this analogy, the sight of a policeman who may have arrested, or may some day arrest, a criminal and thereby bring about his execution, should also have a very bad effect on children. When will these foolish pacifists realise that the British fighting Services exist for defence, not for defiance, and that to defend one's country is one of the most elementary duties of mankind? The officers and men of the fighting Services deserve to be held in honour by their countrymen, and not least by the children. Layer Flying r HE latest rules and regulations concerning cloud flying outside the London-Continental Airway Area bring us a shade nearer to the almost inevitable time when different classes of machine and different services will have regulated heights in conditions of bad visibility. Though a modification only of the regulations previously in force, these virtually confine service and civil pilots, other than those practising in the recognised areas, between certain height limits. It is, however, difficult to understand why cross-country pilots without radio are kept below 2,000ft., while those with radio are also told to avoid flying between 2,000ft. and 6,500ft., above which the Service pilots may be found. One might imagine that this layer should be given to machines in regular operation and with radio so long as they were kept out of or flew at lower altitudes in the cloud-flying areas where this layer is used for practise purposes. Before, of course, any complete layer system can be developed there must be radio stations at least for the terminal points on every air route in the country. At pres ent the area in and around the Croydon controlled zone, for instance, can provide singular difficulties in Q.B.I, condi tions. Pilots may give their height and then proceed to alter it for reasons, perhaps, of passenger comfort so the control officer really has only the vaguest idea of their exact position and height. A layer system, whereby in coming and outgoing machines on different routes were given different height?., would relieve the control of a great deal of responsibility and would generally tidy up the system
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
