FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1935
1935 - 1507.PDF
JUNE 20, 1935. . FLIGHT. 677 Commercial Aviation Radio Planning A new division of the Air Ministry Signals Branch was estab lished last Monday at Croydon airport. This department will be responsible for the erection of new radio stations in Great Britain and Northern Ireland and their technical administra tion ; the examination of operator candidates; the inspection of radio equipment; liaison with operators; and liaison with radio schools. Weather Broadcasts The broadcasting of weather reports, now carried out by Heston, will shortly be replaced by a more comprehensive and frequent service from the new Air Ministry station at Borough Hill, in Northamptonshire. This station will work on the present wavelength—1,186 m.—and the inauguration date will be announced in due course. Meanwhile, test transmissions are being made in the intervals of Heston's programme. There will be the usual reports thirty minutes after every hour, and many other intermediate reports, details of which can be seen in Notice to Airmen, No. 63. To he Touquet In last week's issue details were given of the Le Touquet service to be run by Air Dispatch, Ltd.,—or Commercial Air Hire, Ltd., which is the operating company. The Avro 642 which is to be used on the week-end service, is at present, ot course, carrying the morning newspapers to Paris and is show ing an easy cruising speed of 135 m.p.h. So this machine, which will carry a stew'ard and a buflet, will be the fastest machine "operating regularly over the route. Sixteen passengers will be carried. Mr. Humphrey Coysh, who, with B.A.N. Co. has had five years' experience of the traffic on this route, has been ap pointed traffic manager for the company. On the South-east Coast When dealing with Hillman's plans in Flight of May 30, details were given of a ferry service between Margate and Ostend. In view of the fact that neither Margate nor Broad- stairs have co-operated in the new airport serving this area, the credit for the fact that it is possible for Hillman's Air ways to run this service must go to Ramsgate—even though the service may be considered, for time-table purposes, to be running between Margate and Ostend. The town, by the way, has acquired the harbour rights with the idea of develop ing a seaplane base. Work on Brighton's airport at Shoreham is now almost finished, and one hears that Olley Air Service, Ltd., are taking over the operation there since B.A.N.CO. are no longer in business. Lord Amherst, previously with B.A.N.CO., will manage the airport for the company, and a daily service between Croydon and Deauville, which is to be started next month, will call at Brighton. Alternative Airports The plans for the two alternative airports, Gatwick and Gravesend, are now settled, and work on the " martelio tower" administration building has already been started. Airports, Ltd., have arranged, in return for a yearly sum from the Air Ministry, to keep the two airports in readiness for the landing of machines by night and day. Private owners will not be actively discouraged but will, on the other hand, not be encouraged. Confirmed map students might point out that Redhill and its school is in dangerously close proximity to Gatwick, but, of course, when the latter is being used for emergency, conditions will be sufficiently bad to put a stop to instructional and private flying. The "night and day" clause means that both airports will, before next autumn, be fully equipped for night landings, and it is just possible that both the late K.L.M. service and the D.L.H. night mail will make a base of Gravesend, where, of course, flares are already in use and had been paid for, until the new arrangements were made, by K.L.M. At this airport there is, of course, useful accommodation already in the large hangar constructed by A. J. and J. Law, where workshop facilities are available, and the control tower gives an unrestricted view over the aerodrome. In due course, both airports will probably be equipped w'th short-wave approach beacons. At present some of both K.L.M. and D.L.H. machines are fitted with instruments to pick up the short-wave signals at Schiphol and Tenipelhof, and one presumes that the other air line machines will need to be similarly equipped. Swissair's Douglas machines, inci dentally, have Telefunken equipment for use at the Zurich airport, where the Lorenz system is also in use. The New Croydon Chief Air Comdre. E. D. M. Robertson has been appointed Chief Aerodrome Officer at Croydon in succession to Maj. L. F. Richard, who has just retired. Air. Comdre. Robertson has been Director of Personal Services at the Air Ministry. In South Africa After "The Outlook" paragraph concerning the use of flying-boats on Empire routes was written it has been reported that South African Airways wish to extend their part of the African Service northwards to Nairobi and suggest the use of Douglas machines for the trunk route. Blind Flying Instruction Since the original list of approved instrument-flying schools was published, the following schools and clubs have been added: the Bristol and Wessex Aeroplane Club; the Cierva Autogiro Co. ; the Kent Flying Club; the Leicester Aero Club; the Misr Airwork, Heliopolis; the Wiltshire School of Flying; and the Worcestershire Flying School. Another Boundary Beacon The idea of making an aerodrome boundary beacon in such a way that the approaching pilot can gauge his relative posi tion is a good one. Overhead, Ltd., of Victoria Street, Lon don, have recently produced tin example, known as the "Loveridge," in which the top is designed with an orange globe on an opal cylinder, the whole being supported on collapsible legs and illuminating a circular target at the base. A pilot can, therefore, by gauging the relative position of the opal cylinder and the disc of light—between which there is a dark area—judge his angle of approach and his distance from the boundary. A landing has, in fact, been made at night with the help only of a single boundary beacon of this type and of an Aldis lamp used as a landing light. The Loveridge boundary beacon as seen by day and by night. Control at Heston The work of the Heston control has increased very rapidly since its inception on April 15. On that date nineteen aero planes were directed by radio from the control room. On June 8 seventy-seven aeroplanes were handled. Landings and take-offs registered in the month of May (ex cluding school aircraft) totalled 3,849, of which 1,913 were commercial machines. The total shows a 33 per cent, increase on the previous month's figures. Six hundred and twenty- seven passengers cleared Customs in May, during which month the Customs officer handled seventy-two commercial aircraft and eighty-eight private aircraft jersey Airways carried 665 passengers between Heston and Jersey; Spartan Air Lines carried 316 passengers, and Portsmouth, Southsea and Isle of Wight Aviation, Ltd., 101 passengers between Heston and the Isle of Wight. Inner Circle Air Lines carried 187 passen gers on the Heston-Croydon shuttle service. On the northern routes, North-Eastern Airways carried 146 passengers on the Heston, Leeds, Newcastle and Edinburgh line, and United Airways carried 150 passengers on the Black pool line. All these figures are for the month of May only. On Hillman's Airways to Belfast, sixty-three passengers were handled at the Ards airport in the month of May, and fifty-five oassengers travelled on Blackpool and West Coast Air Services, Ltd. Besides these regular lines, forty miscel laneous private and commercial aeroplanes passed through Ards.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
