FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1937
1937 - 0475.PDF
AIRCRAFT ENGINEER AND AIRSHIPS FIRST AERONAUTICAITWEEKLYIN THE^WORLD .• FOUNDED WOO Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Photographer JOHN YOXALL Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices : DORSET HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telegrams : Truditur, Sednt, London. HERTFORD ST., COVENTRY. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone : Coventry 5210. GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 2971. SUBSCRIPTION RATES: Home and Canada: Other Countries: Year. 41 Year, f 1 Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (50 lines). 260, DEANSGATE, MANCHESTER, 3. Telegrams: Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone. Blackfriars 4412. 20B, RENPIELD ST., GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams: Iliffe, Glasgow. Telephone : Central 4857. 13 0. It) 0. 6 months, 16s. 6d. 6 months, 18s. Od. 3 months, 8s. 6d. 3 months, 9s. Od, No 1470. Vol. XXXI. FEBRUARY 25, 1937. Thursdays, Price 6d. rising-boat Prestige T HE recent flights by two British flying boats have done much to show the world that the lead which Great Britain held some years ago in this par ticular type of aircraft is being re-established. One need not look back very many years for a time when it was something of an adventure for an aircraft to complete a "Circuit of Britain." Yet last Sunday the Cambria covered that route non-stop during day light at a very comfortable amble of 135 m.p.h. with her engines at half-throttle, being mainly concerned with trying out her radio, and having plenty of time to circle towns en route to give people an opportunity to see her. For a good many years the R.A.F. sighed for a flying boat which would do the voyage between England and Gibraltar non-stop. The flight has been made, but with no comfortable margin. Then, on Thursday of last week, the Caledonia startled the world by covering ihe 2,500 miles between Calshot and Alexandria non- p0? pf an average speed of about 170 m.p.h. The K-A.F, can now have, whenever the Air Council decides 0 a*k for them, as many boats as they like, easily capable of reaching not merely Gibraltar but Malta without intermediate landings, while still carrying quite a substantial military load, and even Egypt can be reached without asking anyone's permission to alight °r refuelling. The progress which these two flights ^ e, and tneir significance, is there for everyone to : e' and at Bermuda the Cavalier has made a flight 1 round the islands, so that " luck " is not likely to have n I .-^l considerable part in this recent contribution ^ British flying-boat prestige. ]jn ,co,u*'se> Caledonia and Cambria are not "air- Y + like Canopus, Ceniaurus, and the rest of them. Would not be fair to call them "flying petrol tanks," for each could have carried a reasonable pay- load in addition to her petrol. There is no doubt that these two boats can fly the Atlantic against any normal headwind, and on the east ward journey they should do fast time. But it must be borne in mind that they are not intended for com mercial use across that ocean. They are merely test machines for the accumulation of data about Atlantic operation. From the information which they provide, other boats will be designed for the actual commercial work. They will probably be still larger and still faster than the "C" class boats, more economical to run, and so giving a better chance of dividends from reason- ; able fare and mail charges. Something to lhink About O F the man - instructive and informative papers read before the Royal Aeronautical Society dur ing recent months, none has been more crammed with useful information, nor so provocative of hard thinking, as that delivered by Mr. Fedden last Thursday. It was a model of what such a lecture should be, and deserved a better discussion. A corre spondent elsewhere in this issue takes the British aircraft industry severely to task for not contributing more use fully to the verbal exchange of views. While doubtless many will send in their remarks in writing, to be printed in the Society's Journal, and while we do not subscribe to everything our correspondent writes, there is no deny ing the fact that the remarks made during the discussion did not do justice to the lecture. To some small extent this may have been due to the absence from the printed paper of any of the twenty-odd illustrations thrown on the screen. Graphs and tables cannot be "digested" in a few seconds, and had these illustrations been in cluded in the printed paper, members of the audience
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
