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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 2148.PDF
AUGUST 6, 1936. FLIGHT. 153 Holm) just scraped into the final, with the S.F.S. Cessna, flown by Mr. Hancock, out of it by ten seconds—quite apart from (hose ten seconds by which its start had been delayed nwin" to a Puss Moth pilot's lack of visual acuity. The aerobatic panel was out, yet he landed right across the com- petitors' take-off run. Everybody was particularly interested in the second heat. jjot only was the Mew Gull in this (and giving an incredible start to Mr. Hall's Hillson Praga, the limit machine), but the Tipsy S, in the hands of Mr. Brian Allen, was flying in its first race. Unfortunately, the airscrew was not every thing it should be, and this little machine was pulled out after one lap in order to give the rapidly overtaking field a little more air-space. The Praga held the lead for one lap, was then overtaken by Mr. Cliff's satisfactorily handicapped ]i.A. Swallow, and finally reached the final by a margin of twenty-seven seconds over Mrs. Macdonald's Hawk Major. Mr. Cliff held his lead until the end, though another half-mile would have put Mr. Du Port's Moth Major ahead. Capt. Percival covered three laps while the rest were covering one and a half, and obtained fourth place. While Mr. Field-Richards Cubbed about the sky and F/O Clouston showed what could be done with the C.P. Club's Aeronca, Mr. K. K. Brown went out to look at the weather. In due course the rain partially ceased and the race was offi cially considered to be safe, though there were clouds almost sitting on the Capel hangar. With the Sparrow Hawk, the Cessna and the Hawk Major out of it, only the Hendy Hobo remained as a "fast" machine to compete with the Mew Gull, and even this, lapping at about 125 m.p.h., had com pleted a circuit before the Mew took off with a long run down what wind there was. Meanwhile the Swallow was closing in on the Praga and all the Moths were bunching together, their places still un changed. At the end of the second lap the Cub was still in the lead, the Swallow had overtaken the Praga and this, with two "ornery" Moths, a Major and a Tiger, came round in The winner of the trophy, Mr. R. Grubb, beside the urge- provider of his Aeronca, (Flight photograph.) an almost solid phalanx to depart on the last lap. At the finish the Aeronca came in thirteen seconds ahead of the Tiger, which had climbed from seventh place to second, with the Cub eight seconds after and with the Swallow five seconds after the Cub. Not much wrong with that. Capt. Percival scraped into seventh place by seven seconds. The prizes were presented by Miss Jeanne de Casalis and the evening was devoted to worthy pastime of "trying each other's machine "—in conditions of next to no visibility. The boundary lights were flashing long before the Tipsy was wheeled in. THE DEATH of LOUIS BLERIOT IT is not every great designer of aero planes who has made his name by a daring feat of piloting, and who will be remembered in history as pilot rather than as designer. To future ages, as tn the present time, Louis Bleriot will always be the man who first flew the English Channel. In Britain, the name of his rival, Hubert Latham, was well known, but few over here had ever heard of Bleriot until the morning when he landed his little monoplane on the grass behind Dover Castle, on a spot now marked by a concrete silhouette of his machine. Immediately he became the hero of the hour, and sensational papers tried out that Great Britain was no longer an island "guarded by the in violable sea." For once the sensational papers were nearly right. M. Bleriot was born in 1873 and in early life was connected with a firm which made headlamps for cars, and from this business he made a consider able profit. In 1900 he began to experi ment with aeroplanes, and in the next nine years he spent some ^20,000 on his experiments. In 1909 he established himself at Neuilly aerodrome, and it was there that he produced a monoplane in the next year. All through the pioneer period of flying Bleriot was a foremost champion of the monoplane. For a long time he did almost more crashing than he did flying, but he never damaged himself to any im portant extent. He could get off the ground, but he could not control his machine in the air. At first he tried to copy Lauenthal, the glider, and to balance his aeroplane bv moving Ms body about so as to shift the centre of gravity " Then he adopted the principle of warping the wings, and made better Progress. T" October, 1908, Bleriot made his first notable flight. .tditnig from Toury, he flew fourteen kilometres to Artenav, inp and then flew back. Next year he made a flight carrv- S two passengers, which was an unprecedented feat. The s prize of 100,000 francs was then divided between him M. Bleriot at the time of his visit to England in 1929 for the celebra tions marking the 20th anniversary of his channel crossing. (Flight photograph ) and Gabriel Voisin. In the same year Bleriot exhibited his No. n model mono plane at the Paris Salon. It had a three- cvlinder air-cooled 25 h.p. Anzani engine, which drove a two-bladed wooden tractor airscrew. The monoplane had a span of 28 feet, and when empty weighed only 484 lb. In 1909 both Bleriot and Latham decided to compete for the Daily Mail prize of £1,000 offered for the first flight across the Channel. Latham tried first, forced landed in the water, and was rescued. Bleriot who was then aged 36, married, and the father of five children, was suffering from a burnt foot, as at the great Rheims meeting his machine had caught fire. He took No. 11 to Baraques, near Calais, and on Julv 25, a few days after Latham's failure, he got up at 2.40 a.m. and decided to make his attempt. The destroyer Escopette had been detailed to follow him, and Madame Bleriot started off in it. Her husband climbed into his machine, and, having no compass, he asked the people round to point out the direction of Dover. He took off at 4.40 a.m. and soon passed the destroyer. His altitude varied between 150 and 300 feet. Soon he was out of sight of land and felt lost, but after a few more minutes found himself opposite St. Margaret's Bay. His engine showed signs of overheating, but a shower of rain cooled it. He turned towards Dover, but had difficulty in climbing over the cliffs. He succeeded after more than one attempt, and landed at 5.20 a.m., breaking his propeller and his undercarriage as he did so. His fortune was then made Soon afterwards he gave up active flying and devoted himself to design and production. It was many years before he flew the Channel again, and his second flight was made as a pas senger. His company has seen many ups and downs, but it has turned out many fine machines. For some time past he has suffered much from his heart, and his death last .Saturday at the age of 63 was not unexpected.
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