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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 1807.PDF
iO FLIGHT. JULY 2, 1936. CORRESPONDENCE The Editor does not hold himself responsible for the views expressed by correspondents. The n%mis ani addresses of the writers, not necessarily for publication, must in all cases accompany letters intended for publication in these columns. AN INTERNATIONAL KING'S CUP? T HE big drop in entries and the decline of public interest in the King's Cup Race in the past few years suggests something fairly drastic being done to revive this event. The obvious remedy is to allow foreign pilots and aeroplanes to participate. This would add greatly to the interest and usefulness of the race and would add to the far too few occa sions when foreign owner-pilots and machines visit this country. It would help to cultivate that international outlook which is so necessary and which airmen, of all people, can best foster. The already serious difficulties of the handicappers would be increased, but these would not be insurmountable. Equivalent events in almost every other country are open to all, no matter what their nationality. Aviation is becoming more and more international, and an event of the importance of the King's Cup Race restricted to cne nationality is an anachronism. . I should be interested to hear the opinions of King's Cup entrants on this subject. ' D. GILBERT. London, S.W.19. THE EASY WAY I N his original letter Mr. Stephan gave us to understand that it was boring to be in the air for more than three or four hours. In the issue of June 18 he expresses, confidently, the opinion that " the raison d'etre of the aeroplane in its present form is speed." Evidently the speed of which he is a votary is boring. But speed is not the raison d'etre of the aeroplane. The real raison d'etre is the ability to surmount, to cross, obstacles, to go the straight route. From Belfast to East Norfolk took me, in a 65 m.p.h machine, 5J hours. Put that journey into rail and steamer time and recognise that speed is of minor importance. And consider the discomfort of the rail and steamer journey, the shifts from one vehicle to another, the officials demanding tickets when one wants to sleep, the wait ing for a meal because the restaurant car is full. And I might mention the cost. A lunch on the " Golden Arrow," with the cheapest of beverages, is 30-odd francs, about 10s., unless the bottom is falling out of that currency. Directness and freedom from disturbances are the advan tages of aeroplane travel. If one's purse can provide one with those at 150 m.p.h. one's range is extended, and that is all there is to it. The public will fly when Air Ministry control is abolished and a Henry Ford caters for its pleasures in air locomotion. A. J. RICHARDSON. • North Walsham, Norfolk. THE SMALLER THE LOUDER I S. there any engine designer who can suggest the best type from the point of view of silence to give a cruising 25-30 h.p. ? It seems a pity that small engines seem to be so much noisier than large ones, and yet they nearly always are. Last night I listened to an ultra-lightweight at work, and although it was a quarter-mile away an ordinary well-silenced machine took off 50 yards away and disappeared out of sight, and I never even heard it. Yet the ultra-lightweight would make a really attractive sport but for this obvious drawback. Most people say it is chiefly prop noise, but I find it hard to believe that a 4 ft. prop doing 2,600 revs can make so much more row than a 6 ft. at, say, 1,800 revs, for the 4-footer has a rather lower tip speed. Would a large, woolly flat twin with a decent-sized prop running at low speeds be quieter than a higher-speed four-cylin der or two-cylinder job? On the whole, aircraft engines are built on the former lines, yet the small stuff available runs into the latter category and are supplied without good silencers and generally without any at all. It always surprises me to find the trouble to which firms will go to build factories and turn out machines, and yet when it comes to making the product attractive to customers they are quite content to turn out a few when a little extra effort would bring in orders for so many. P. PRIEST. Huddersfield. Handing Over the Hawks SOME details of the delivery flight last week of four Miles Hawk Trainers—the first of a batch of twelve—to the Rumanian Government have been received by the Editor from F/'O. Kenneth Hole, who was one of the pilots. Leaving Lympne at 4.30 on the Tuesday afternoon (he writes), the flight arrived at Nurnberg v^a Brussels and Frankfurt 3 hr. 55 min. later. Rising at the crack of dawn, we suffered a slight delay through the commercial aeroplanes having to be filled up before the Shell people could attend to our small needs. The flight then continued to Vienna, where a stop of one hour was made for lunch and refuelling. Thence to Belgrade for more fuel and a hasty drink for the crew (tem perature nearly 100 in the shade), and a final hop over the Iron Gates and across the plains of Rumania to Bukarest, where a landing was made by the aid of the floodlighting. Commander Stent wired to Bukarest that the machines would arrive at 8.30 p.m. They came over the aerodrome at 8.27 p.m., having flown from Nurnberg in 7 hr. 35 min. flying time. The average ground speed for the complete trip worked out at 131 m.p.h. The machines gave no trouble whatever and were extremely comfortable to fly. Virtue Rewarded TOMMY ROSE, as Fit. Lt. T. Rose is now known through out the world, was the recipient of an extremely hand some silver cigarette box last Wednesday. Mr. C. O. Powis, as managing director of Phillips and Powis Aircraft, Ltd., made the presentation on behalf of the directors of the firm. Speak ing to a gathering of the senior staff and their friends, Mr. Powis recalled the magnificent work Tommy Rose had done in winning the King's Cup Race last year and in breaking the Cape Record early this year; both of these feats, he said, had done a great deal to assist the sales of Miles aircraft and he regretted that Tommy had left the firm. After further apt remarks concerning the brand of gin which Tommy will hence forth be selling, Mr. Powis asked Mrs. Powis formally to make the presentation. Nothing official has been announced, but ( 10 5 a 3 2 2 1 1 1 1 1 1 s. in 5 S 11 2 2 1 ] 1 1 1 1 d. 11 11 11 11 0 0 11 11 11 0 11 (I we do not think that, gin notwithstanding, there is any likeli hood of Tommy Rose forsaking the air for many a year. As the published entries show, he will be in the King's Cup Race again this year—and in one of Mr. Miles' products, a Gipsy-Six Hawk. Good luck to him! The Lowe-Wylde Fund C ONTRIBUTIONS to the Lowe-Wylde fund totalled £835 10s. on June 16, the latest list of donations being as follows: — Sir Henry White Sncith M. Wright Sydney Morris Air Marshal Sir John Salmond M. Miles C. V. Allen C. C. Vinson ... ... P. L. Densham ... H. Broadbent L. Hilton K. J. Munday ... M. C. Park £32 8 0 Further contributions to the fund (which is to provide for the children of the late Mr. C. H. Lowe-Wylde, the ultra-light- . aircraft pioneer) are still urgently required, and should be sent to Mr. E. C. Gordon-England at the London Air Park, Feltham, Middlesex. Radcliffe's Night M R. W. LINDSAY EVERARD'S annual fly-by-night gathering at his private aerodrome at Radcliffe on Satur day, drew an even larger gathering than usual from the mem bership of Leicestershire Aero Club, of which he is president, and county people who have become enthusiastic followers of aviation. A distinguished visitor was Le Comte Gaetan Czarkowski-Golejewski, president of the Aero Club at Lwow, Poland, who was a guest of Mr. Everard during the week-end. The Melton M.P.'s latest machine, a D.H. Dragonfly, which was delivered on Saturday, took many of the guests for a trip over Leicester. This machine is fitted with radio. Mr. James Jeffs was O.C. " almost everything "
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