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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 2285.PDF
206 FLIGHT. AUGUST 20, 1935 HERE and THERE B.G.A. Changes THE address of the British Gliding Association, Ltd., is now 119, Piccadilly, London, W.i, and Comdr. H. E. Perrin is Secretary in succession to Mr. F. D. Bradbrooke. The tele phone number is Grosvenor 1246-7-8. The Rhodesian Rally RATHER more than fifty machines arrived at Salisbury, Southern Rhodesia, for the rally which was held there last week-end. These included an R.A.F. flight from Heliopolis and an S.A.A.F. flight from Pretoria. Studies at Gravesend THOSE contemplating a course of aeronautical engineering will find much of interest in the prospectus of the two years' course of the School of Engineering operated by Air worthiness. Ltd.. at Gravesend Airport. In addition to the practical work, a series of lectures is given by the school's staff on such subjects as repair and overhaul, bench testing and the scientific properties and testing of materials. In addition, extra theoretical tuition is given after normal working hours by lecturers from the Medway Technical Institute of Rochester, on advanced machine drawing, aerodynamics and aero mechanics. Visits are arranged to the works of a leading manufacturers as a regular part of the curriculum. The mini- aium age of entry is sixteen. Messrs. H. C. 'Brown and G. Heeley have been in charge Df the school and workshops at Gravesend almost from the beginning. Latvia Likes British THREE Fairey Seal seaplanes fitted with Bristol Pegasus engines, which form part of the equipment of the Latvian Air Force, recently completed an interesting cruise around the Ealtic and North Seas, involving a total flight of 6,500 km. The squadron, incidentally, visited England to attend the R.A.F. and S.B.A.C. Displays at the end of June. A correspondent in Latvia, reporting to the makers of the engines upon the return of the machines to Latvia, writes:— '' It will interest vou to hear that the three Fairey Seal aero planes with nine Latvian officers who arrived at Southampton and visited Hendon and Hatfield, and made a journey of nearly 6,500 km. around the Baltic and North Seas, arrived quite safely back in Latvia. During the whole trip the Pega sus III engines have been working excellently, and this trip, which reallv in some cases has been difficult owing to bad weather and wind conditions, has once more proved the high quality of your engines." Air Police in Action Eagles Restrained. By Brian Tunstall. George Allen and Unwin, Ltd. 75. 6d.) T HERE are plenty of people in Europe who will tell you that a war between Germany and Poland is among the least likely of European conflicts. But Mr. Tunstall's war is in 1954 and is of an ultra-modern variety in that it is brought about by the machinations of international dope rings, so the opinion of common or garden political students can conveni ently be disregarded. Whatever his shortcomings the author is courageous. He wades into the thick of European strife to point out to us the most minute details of its progress and discourses methodically on its conduct. Nor does he shirk technicalities. Are not the aeroplanes used by the International Air Police (the interven tion of which force is really the basis of the story) equipped not only with conventional wings and adjustable rotors, but with eydogiro " air paddles " of a pattern " practically iden tical with the ones fitted to the sport planes for blindfold flying"? Of course, the rotors and air paddles are retract able, permitting Schneiderish speeds. In essentials, if not always in matters of detail, the author reveals outstanding visionary qualities and is obviously at home politically and well versed geographically. His accounts of the conduct of certain of the police officers, whose national feelings well up within them on being called to action, and the descriptions of large-scale sabotage and propaganda make convincing reading. A provocatively detailed work for the entertainment and stimulation of the moderns. The Alvis Engine Range TT is announced that production of Alvis aero engines at thp -»- finely equipped new factory at Coventry is now very near The first series is expected to be ready to undergo its tvDp tests in September, after which quantity production will begin The types to be made, and the type-names chosen, are as follow :— Alcides I.—1,300-1,400 h.p. double-bank 18-cyl medium supercharged. " "' Alcides II.—1,300-1,400 h.p. ditto, fully supercharged Pelides I —1,000 h.p. double-bank 14-cyl., medium superchar ged. Pelides II.—1,000 h.p. ditto, fully supercharged. All are of the air-cooled radial type. The rated altitude of the Alcides .".'ill be 5,000 ft., and of the Pelides 13,000 ft. The Lowe-Wylde Fund CONTRIBUTIONS to the Lowe-Wylde fund totalled /,884 2s. 6d. on July 31, the latest list of donations being as follows:— Messrs. Bruntons (Musselburgh) Ltd. Louis Bamberger & Sons Major C. M. Cariogton Capt. E. F. Briggs C. H. Brooks H. Burronghes ... F. B'.-ckell S. £. Clotworthy S. A. Currin H. R. Gillman F. V; Brown E. W. E. Simpson £ s. ... 4 4 ... 3 3 ... 2 2 ... 1 1 ... 1 1 .11 ... 1 1 ... 1 1 ... 1 1 ... 1 1 ... 0 10 ... 0 5 d. 0 (1 (i a 11 11 H 0 u n B 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. War Without the Trimmings Sagittarius Rising, by Cecil Lewis. (Peter Davies, Ltd., 30, Henrietta Street, London, W.C.2. 8s. 6d.) J UDGED on a basis of modern literary merit alone, SagiU tarius Rising is in the front rank of flying books and, parti cularly, war-flying books. As a personal history it is enlighten ing, and as a piece of quiet anti-war propaganda (using the expression in the real and not the new " pacifist-baiting" sense) it is superb. Mr. Lewis's descriptive writing gives a more accurate idea of a pilot's feelings, outlook and physical viewpoint than that of any author which we have so far read, and it is almost impossible to realise that his flying experiences in Europe and the Far East were all obtained before the ripe age of twenty-four. In such circumstances, the most effective way of explaining the book is to quote parts of it. The author's opinions of war and its futility can be sug gested in a few lines: " Indeed, the fearful thing about the war became its horrible futility, the mountainous waste of life and wealth to stake a mile or two of earth ... it had all the elements of grotesque comedy—a prodigious and complex effort, cunningly contrived, and carried out with deadly seriousness, in order to achieve just nothing at all." Of civilisation he says, " . .to treat it as a carcase off which each man tears as much as he can for himself, is to stand convicted as a brute, fit for nothing better than jungle exist ence, which is a death-struggle leading nowhither. . . " No one who reads his description of the blind, disgusting fury of a long-period bombardment and the prodigious and wasted bravery on both sides can treat war as a matter for jest. Of flying itself Mr. Lewis says, "... Men! Standing, walk ing, talking, fighting there beneath me. . . Why, God might take the air and come within a mile of earth and never know there were such things as men. Vain and heroic gesture, puny the great thought! ... the wonder At first coming out above the clouds the rush of engines starting . . • shadows of clouds on hills . . . friends, close in formation, swaying, hand on throttle, as they ride ten feet away a mile above the earth ... and all the mastery over movement pnde in skill." His description of an evening patrol and consequent dog-fight is one of the finest that have ever been written o air warfare.
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