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Aviation History
1936
1936 - 2526.PDF
SEPTEMBER 17, 1936. FLIGHT. 291 Commercial Aviation is equipped—at least, in one particular. When the officer on duty has to step out on to the balcony, with possibly gale whistling round him and probably a machine or two naking Zoo-like noises, he cannot, of course, always hear with exactitude messages howled at him from within by one literally tethered by the ears, i.e.. the wireless operator. One of these days, for want of proper equipment, there will be serious consequences. I imagine that the necessary equipment has been asked for by the airport authority, and that the application is receiving, has been receiving, and will continue to receive somebody's serious consideration. The present system is, of course, up to date, only it depends on the date—as the gentleman who had trailed a pretty pike at Malplaquet said when he turned up at the Battle of Waterloo encumbered with the same archaic weapon of offence. Actually, it is rather as though police men had to blow out the candle behind the red and yellow lights at a busy traffic centre, and then borrow a match to light the green glass. It would work, but, just possibly, it would cause dissatisfaction. A. VIATOR. Swissair's Winter Schedule THE new winter schedules planned by Swissair will come into force on October 5, and once again the England-Switzerland service will be continued. Machines will leave Crovdon at 9.20 a.m. and arrive at Zurich at 1.45 p.m. (Swiss time). The departure from Zurich has been fixed at 2 p.m. to connect with the midday train arrivals from all parts of Switzerland, and the landing at Croydon is scheduled at 4.40 p.m. (English time) in order, as in the outward journey, to give good connections. An excellent connection between Zurich and Milan links up with the Swissair arrivals and departures, bringing Italy within a day's journey. From October 5 to December 12 the service is operated on week-ends only. For the peak of the winter sports season until the beginning of the summer season a Sunday service will be introduced. In the interests of safety, landings will not be made at Basle (where no blind-approach equipment is installed) during the winter. New Zealand Traffic WHEN the returns of three New Zealand operating com panies—Air Travel (N.Z.), Ltd.; Union Airways of New Zealand, Ltd., and Cook Strait Airways, Ltd.—are analysed, some interesting figures are revealed. During the April-June quarter of 1936 these are as follows: — Hours flown Passengers Freight Mails Air Travel. 209 231 1,665 lb. 8,649 lb. Union Airways. 1.307 1,638 i,r66 lb. 7,751 lb. Cook Strait. 3,"4 5,639 lb. 3,528 lb. The high returns shown by Cook Strait Airways are no doubt due to the peculiarities of the route flown over. Other than by air the only connection between Wellington and Blenheim or Nelson is by small steamer which leaves Wellington at 3 p.m. for Picton (port for Blenheim), thence by rail, arriv ing at Blenheim not much before 7 p.m. The Nelson boat leaves Wellington at 6.30 p.m., and arrives in the morning. Air travel has put up a remarkable record on its west coast services. During the period mentioned, and during the same period in 1935, the company claims a service regularity of 100 per cent., all scheduled flights having been completed. Actually, the first big service in New Zealand—that run between .Palmerston North and Dunedin by Union Airways with D.H.86 machines—has now completed- six months' of opera tion. A total of 161,665 miles have been covered, and the machines have been in the air for 1,307 hours, carrying 2,847 passengers, 2,0271b. of freight, and 8,8o61b. of mail. Of 336 scheduled trips, only two have been missed, and the percentage of regularity on the basis of performance of the aeroplanes in completing their flights on time is 99>4, While on the subject of New Zealand, it is worth mentioning that there are now twenty-three privately owned machines in the country. For Those South Africa-bound THE variation of wind with height at Wadi Haifa is dis cussed in the Meteorological Office's latest Professional Notes (No. 72). The upper winds at this station are charac terised by great constancy of direction. Up to a height of about 4,000ft. the wind is nearly always between N. and N.E. In the months of December to February the wind above this height usually backs and is at about 3000 at 10,000ft. In July to September the backing is much greater, the wind becoming 2300 to 2600 at 10,000ft. In the transitional period (March to June) the wind does not as a rule back beyond north and, in June particularly, the "constancy" at high levels is very small. The same applies to the winds during the second tran sitional period between October and November. The maximum wind speed in the early morning is generally encountered at 2,000ft., whilst the highest velocity at all heights occurs in April Certain cases are discussed in which the wind at Wadi Haifa is S.E.-S. These are associated either with an extensive low-pressure area in the western desert, or with a northerly extension of the low-pressure area in the Sudan. In the former case the change from S.E. to N. or N.E. is nearly always accompanied by sandstorms. AIR FRANCE'S LATEST : The twenty - two s e a t e r Dewoitine 338 which will shortly be paying a visit to Croydon. This machine has been developed from the 333, three of which are being used on the Toulouse - Dakar section of the South Atlantic service. The ejrtra drag of a wider fuselage has been com pensated by the use of a retractable undercarriage and the top speed is only just short of 200 m.p.h. A fleet of these machines will be used on the London-Marseilles »rvice pending the com pletion of the big Farmans, alter which they will go East.
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