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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 1312.PDF
MAY 21, 1936. FLIGHT. 537 AIRLINES VIATION AIRPORTS— PART OF THE PROGRAMME : This drawing, by Mr. Rowland Hilder, gives an excellent idea of the appearance of one of the twelve landplanes which are under construction by Sir W. G. Armstrong Whitworth Aircraft for Imperial Airways. Four Siddeley Tiger 800 h.p. engines will be fitted and the machines will carry twenty-seven passengers for day-time operations. The under carriages will retract into the engine nacelles. THE WEEK AT CROYDON All the Fun of the Fair : Not So Dignified : Super Charter Sartorial Afterthought The Bar Sinister THE arrival of Amy Mollison, after her truly magnifi cent flight, turned our usually peaceful but business like airport into a mixture of Epsom Downs on Derby Day and Hampstead Heath on bank holiday. There was all the fun of the fair, including real live horses with policemen on them, Scotsmen in kilts with bagpipes, generals in Ambulance Corps uniform, and, of course, the usual crowd of chattering, gaping visitors aptly described by a passing ornithologist as "a murmuration of stares."* There was a strong rumour that the Air Ministry had sold the place "lock, stock, and buffet," as they say, to a well-known newspaper—especially the buffet into which nobody but pushful pressmen had much chance of pene trating. One of the most truly dignified sights I have seen for a long time was the official rostrum, where a dignitary of the Air Ministry welcomed Mrs. Mollison, and which was plastered all over with newspaper posters like the front of a shop. Why not carry the idea a step farther and have the control tower decorated with yellow and green placards advertising some face cream which stops the hair from going grey and falling out? I have often wondered why there is not a row of flagstaffs somewhere adjacent to the terminal building, where the various house flags of the operating companies could be flown, adding a touch of gaiety to an otherwise somewhat gloomy pros pect. It is done at most foreign airports, but I have always understood that ministerial dignity would suffer in some mysterious way if the companies were allowed to adver- * Archaic but correct expression for a flock of starlings : these sleek, inquisitive chattering birds which tend to collect in large crowds and make whoopee, with but slight provocation. " - tise in this way. Newspaper placards are a different thing, of course. On Saturday morning Air France brought from Paris a Yugoslavian delegation concerned, it is said, with the pur chase of aircraft in this country. The delegation was led by Maj.-Gen. Yankovitch, Assistant Commandant of the Yugoslavian Air Force. Two Imperial Airways passengers from Africa flew to London expressly to join the Queen Mary on her maiden voyage, and an interesting Imperial charter was that to Paris by Scylla, pilot Capt. Horsey. The machine was chartered by the well-known parachute manufacturer, Mr. Leslie Irvin, and the occasion was his daughter's twenty- first birthday. Miss Irvin waved a giant "key of the door" with the figure "21 " cunningly worked into the design. The party numbered some twenty-five, and there are far worse ways of spending money than by chartering a special luxury machine with every creature comfort aboard and flying to Paris in perfect weather with one of the senior captains of Imperial Airways at the controls. I did not seen any parachutes, though I suppose there is nothing to prevent passengers from bringing their own. Normally, excess baggage would be charged on them, and the company might insist on stowing them in a remote luggage hold out of harm's way. Olley Air Service had two new D.H.86 machines at Croy don recently, and these were delivered to Liverpool by Capt. Olley and Mr. Higgins respectively, .for the associate company's North of England routes. Later, one of them left for a tour of Europe with a party of Blackpool councillors.
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