FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1936
1936 - 2322.PDF
AUGUST-27, 1936. FLIGHT. 217 Air Publicity r HE Air Ministry has always been yards ahead of the Admiralty and the War Office in the important matter of publicity, thanks largely to its wise em ployment of a Press Officer who is both an experienced journalist and an ex-Officer and pilot of the Royal Air Force. Now, we are told, the whole system of air defence of London is to be filmed for exhibition during the coming winter. As the guns and searchlights belong to the Terri torial Army, doubtless the War Office is co-operating with the Air Ministry on this occasion. What seems peculiar about the prospectus of this film is the announcement that a duplicate of the central con trol room is to be built in the studio and will be filmed. In the first couple of years in which Air Exercises were held, Press correspondents were allowed to enter more than one of the control rooms, but in recent years such visits have been barred. Now a replica of the central control room is to be filmed for all to see. If it was harmless for the correspondents to see such a room in two years, why did it become so dangerous to allow them to enter it in subsequent years? And if the safety of the nation de pended on keeping this room secret for the last five years or so, why has it suddenly become innocuous to have its interior workings broadcast in every cinema in the country ? Or will it be merely a '' stunt'' ? Unlucky T^ECENT events appear to provide proof of the old l\ saying that misfortunes never come singly. After a period of immunity, British air transport companies seem to have had more than their fair share of ill iuck, the latest firm to be singled out being Imperial Airways, whose flying boat Scipio was damaged and sunk after alighting in a very rought sea in Mirabella Bay, Crete, last Saturday. Details of the mishap are not yet available, but the flying boat was on its way from Alexandria to Brindisi and alighted in. Mirabella Bay in the normal course for the purpose of refuelling. Apparently there was a storm at the time, and the sea was very rough. It would seem that the machine was damaged on striking the water, and two of the passengers were killed, a third being seriously injured. Four other passengers received minor injuries only, and members of the crew suffered injuries, the exact nature of which has not been announced. " An official inquiry has been ordered by the Greek Government, and until its results are known it is not likely that a detailed account of events will be available. In the meantime one may take comfort from the fact that th , in*tance there was no technical failure. Reports that the machine had sent out distress signals before the accident have been officially denied, and one can only assume that the sea was extremely rough and that, in •lighting, the machine was struck by a wave at a critical moment, the shock being sufficient to cause some of the h^ pants t0 be seriously injured and the aircraft to be so P imaged that it sank shortly afterwards. Im T I1" A' S\ Wilcockson is one of the oldest of penal s pilots in years of service, and has flown close Aim n'£°° h°Urs- Before the formation of Imperial pil t ays 7 was one of the early Handley Page Transport was n tli °ne may take lt for granted that the mishap c due to any fault in piloting. The Scipio flying boat was one of a number known originally as the Kent Class, and they have established an excellent record for safety and reliability, with something like one million miles flown without injury to a passenger. It appears to have been a case of the sea being too rough for the size of the flying boat. Diesel Triumphs / T is noteworthy that two events have occurred during the last few days which lend point to the reference on this page in last week's issue of Flight to the mistake of letting the Diesel aero engine be neglected. The German airship Hindenburg has flown from Frankfort to Lakehurst and back to Frankfort within a period of five days, crossing the Atlantic twice ; and a Junkers monoplane has flown non-stop from the Junkers aerodrome at Dessau to Bathurst, West Africa, at a speed of 186 m.p.h. It is not without its significance that both types of air craft are fitted with Junkers Diesel engines. While no one would claim that these flights could not have been made with petrol-engined aircraft, the fact that they have been made with Diesel engines shows that Germany has been well advised to continue development work on this type of power plant. Germany has proved the only country to have much luck with airships, and the success of the Hindenburg has been amply deserved by the persistence with which Ger many has backed her belief in airships. She has gone some way towards perfecting the Diesel aero engine, and it would be extremely unwise of Great Britain to let Germany or any other country establish a monopoly in Diesel engines like that which she has already achieved in airships. The warning is there, plain for everyone to see, and it is up to this country to heed it. Out of the Picture / T was, we believe, M. Laurent Eynac (who used to take turns with M. Flandin at being French Air Minister) who once said that the world record is a nation's propa ganda. If he was right, Great Britain is not exactly hold ing up her end at the moment. A chart, published on p. 228, has been prepared by Flight from the last issue of the Bulletin of the Federation Aeronautique Internationale, and shows how the four most important world's records have grown. These four are : speed, distance in a straight line, distance over a closed circuit, and altitude. The last time Great Britain figured in the list of world's records was in 1933, when Gayford and Nicholetts flew non-stop from Cranwell in Lincolnshire to Walvis Bay in South Africa in the Fairey monoplane with Napier Lion engine. The previous year Cyril Uwins set up a world's altitude record by reaching 13,404 metres (43,976 ft.) in a Vickers Vespa biplane, fitted with Bristol Pegasus engine. Landplane speed records and records of distance in a closed circuit have never been attempted by British pilots, and the world's speed record for seaplanes (which are not included in the chart) was taken from us by Italy. Great Britain to-day does not hold a single worth-while world's record. Experimental aircraft are being built by the Bristol company for the Air Ministry, and it is very much to be hoped that the scientific studies for which they have been designed will leave time and opportunity for attempts at a couple of world's records.
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
