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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 0637.PDF
27& FLIGHT. MARCH 12, 1936. BACK and FORTH Rose (Falcon) and Llewellyn (Aeronca) Fly Respectively From and To South Africa THE Cape-England record has been broken by Fit. Lt. " Tommy " Rose, who can now claim to have made the fastest time for the trip both out and home. His new record is 6 days 6 hr. 57 min. (he got to the Cape in 3 days i7~hr. 37 min.),Which beats F/O. David Llewellyn's time—the previous best—by 5 hr. 6 min. Just to keep the pot boiling, Llewellyn has now flown to Johannesburg in an Aeronca with a J.A.P. engine of only 40 h.p. Rose, of course, was using the Miles Falcon " — LC " (Gipsy Six 200 h.p.). Leaving Capetown at 6.8 a.m. (G.M.T.) on Tuesday, March 3, Rose's first homeward stage was to Salisbury, where he landed 12 h. 52 min. later. On the next " hop " he suffered a setback. He took off from Salisbury at 4.45 a.m. (G.M.T.) and headed for Kisumu (Kenya). Low visibility caused him to return, however, and his second start was not made until 10.45 a.m. The Falcon landed at Salisbury at 7.10 a.m. (G.M.T.), which meant that it had covered 3,354 miles in under 2^ days. Only 2 hr. 20 min. were spent at Kisumu Lefore setting out on the next long stage to Cairo. Earlv on Saturday morning he left for Benghazi, the take off point for the Mediterranean crossing. Here he met a second formidable obstacle. The Italian authorities had given notice that certain areas in Italian Tripoli were closed to civil air craft, and this caused him to be temporarily detained. On learning of his predicament, friends at home communicated with Mr. Harold Pernn, Secretary of the Royal Aero Club, requesting his diplomatic aid. Commander Perrin cabled direct to Marshal Balbo soon after midnight on Saturday, and it was not long before " Tommy" was heading for Cannes with ample time still in hand. He refuelled en route at Tunis (2.26 p.m., G.M.T.) and landed at Cannes at 4.30 p.m. Here he rested for a night, finding sufficient time to try his luck at the tables, and on the morning of the sixth day out started for Croydon, where the Falcon touched down at n.5 a.m. The equipment of the Falcon and its Gipsy Six engine included the following: Fit. Lt. Rose looked fresh and well on reaching Croydon last Monday. FO, Llewellyn with the 40 h.p. Aeronca which carried him on a demonstration trip to Johannesburg. Shell fuel, Castrol oil, K.L.G. plugs, Claudel-Hobson carburetter, B.T.H. magnetos, Fairey metal airscrew, Auto-Klean strainers, Peto and Radford battery, Weyburn camshaft, VVellworthy piston rings, D. J. Hawkins tanks, British Aluminium cowling and fairings, Palmer wheels and tyres, Bendix brakes, Reynolds undercarriage tubes, Salter springs, Bamberger spruce, Saro. plywood, Titanine dope, Smith's instruments, Short and Mason Sestrel compass, Sperry blind-flying instruments, Lancegaye safety glass, Rhodoid cabin top moulded by Plastilume Products, Rumbold upholstery, Harley land ing light, and nuts and screws by Brown Bros, and Rubery Owen. The Itinerant Demonstrator On February 7 Mr. David Llewellyn left Lympne in an Aeronca high-wing cabin monoplane with a J.A.P. engine of 40 h.p. He reached Johannesburg on Sunday, March 1, having given numerous demonstrations of his machine en route. The Aeronca reached Lyons on the evening of February 7. Next day it arrived at Marseilles, on the gth at Pisa, and on the 10th reached Rome, whence Llewellyn pushed on to Naples. Next day he touched at Palermo and headed for Gabes, but returned owing to adverse weather. He spent the 12th at Palermo, reached Gabes on the 13th, Tripoli on the 14th, and on each subsequent day landed at Solium, Cairo, Wa'di Haifa, Khartoum, Juba and Kisumu. From February 21 to 25 there was no news of him, but on the 26th he reached Mbeya, on the 27th he was at Mpika, on the 28th at Bulavvayo, and landed at Johannesburg on March 1. The story that he had engine trouble is, it is stated, untrue. It seems that he ran into a tropical storm when he was cross ing a mountain range in Northern Rhodesia. Finding it impossible to encircle, he landed in a clearing at 6,000ft. There he fitted high-compression pistons to his engine, trim ming the ring gaps with a nail file. . • The equipment of the Aeronca and its J.A.P. engine in cluded the following: Castrol oil. Shell fuel, Duckham's upper cylinder lubrication, Lodge plugs (single ignition), Bosch magneto, Rumbol'l upholstery, Goodyear tyres, Lewis Berger & Sons paint and Rollason tanks.
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