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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 0445.PDF
192 FLIGHT. FEBRUARY 20, 1936. TVIP, 'Wglas on the tarmac in front of the terminal building at Zurich—an example of clean and "obstruction-free" design which might be copied elsewhere. (Flight photograph.) SWITZERLAND NON-STOP Scientific Navigation on Swissair's London-Zurich Run : An Automatic Pilot in Action : Blind Approaches in the Alps : Modern Methods for Modern Conditions By H. A. TAYLOR iT no time since radio first came into use for air /\ transport have navigational methods been so X \ vital with interest and so fraught with change as they are to-day. To say that operational sys tems are in the melting pot is to state the obvious, but it is possible now to see, so to speak, what is actually in the pot and to realise what air line operations may be in ten years' time. The Sperry in charge,at 9,000 ft. over Rheims, while the nilot, Mr. Nieffenegger, looks on before returning to his charts. (Flight photograph.) When the Swissair company stated, towards the end of last year, that its line between London and Zurich would be reopened as a. winter service, few people realised the importance of the announcement. Without the help oi the most modern equipment such a winter service could not be run with very much more than casual reliability. The route length is more than five hundred miles, almost the whole of which is covered non-stop. The meteoro logical differences at the terminal airports may be very considerable, and forecasts, in any case, cannot often be made with complete accuracy. Finally, the terrain at the southern end of the service is such that meticulously accurate navigation is essential. Perfect Air Travel On such a route the use of the modern ideal in transport types—a high-speed machine designed to operate at fairly high altitudes—becomes more than a practical proposition; it becomes an essential. Flying at anything from 8,000 to 18,000 ft. in the almost unexampled quiet of the air- conditioned cabin of a Douglas D.C.2, the passenger by Swissair obtains an impression of air travel as it should be. When, as "is sometimes the case, the ground is no seen from the moment of leaving the airport, one who w privileged to be able to spend most of his time in the control cabin can be even more impressed by the thoroug manner in which the machine's position is checked and r - checked and by the methodical way in which the very complete navigational equipment is used. Each of the five Douglas machines used by Swissair ij> fitted with normal Telefunken two-way medium -wav^ radio equipment—for which, of course, both fixed a trailing aerials are used—a Telefunken direction nna^ which can be used with a visual and acoustic homing d< where- necessary, complementary blind approach (>cl 1 ment (the Lorenz system is installed and in regular at Zurich airport), and a Sperry automatic pilot. , To one who is moderately familiar with °^,rd^£aCts methods on internal and European routes, two stand out. One is that the Swissair pilots make exten
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