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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 0874.PDF
332 FLIGHT. APRIL I, 1937. COMMERCIAL /\V/AT/ON AIRLINES AIRPORTS COMPLETE EQUIPMENT : The dashboard of one of British Airways' Electras whirh ar* «WH , • „ • • T, ._• i THE WEEK AT CROYDON The Easter Exodus : De-icing : Mysterious Cavalcade : More About «All-weather Pilots" F IGURES, when sorted out, will probably show that this Easter has broken all previous records in the air Day after day all services have been full up, and a large number have been duplicated. Swissair's Zurich line, as usual, has been very popular, and for two or three mornings in succession the K.L.M. 8 a.m. service has consisted of the big F.36 and a Douglas, giving a capacity of 46 passengers. Among travellers this Easter have been Mr. and Mrs. Winston Churchill, the Prince of Pless, Mr. H. G. Wells (mourning the. fact that air transport has not turned out as he predicted many years ago), and last, but not least, except in inches, five-year-old Miss A. M. Dovle Davidson, travelling alone to Amsterdam to visit her parents. All the air charter firms have been (literally) rushed off their feet into the air with every available machine and pilot, and one of Olley Air Service's most popular pilots told me he hardly knew what country he was in until a native spoke to him towards the end of a day of crossing the Channel time after time on various charter jobs. The Le Touquet services operated by Imperial, Olleys and Air Dispatch have been amazingly busy, and Personal Air ways, too, have been much more in the air than on the ground. Mr. Jack Wilson, one-time test pilot to Rollasons, has just returned from Nairobi in a Stinson, and Flt.-Lt! Llewellyn was seen to arrive from Hatfield with his Percival Vega Gull. British Airways, Ltd., gave a demonstration of their two new Lockheed Electra aeroplanes [as recorded on page 333.—ED.], of which five have been ordered, at Croydon on March 24. British Airways thus have the fastest craft on the aerodrome at the moment, though K.L.M. has also ordered Lockheeds, Super Electras in this case, with four teen seats, Wright Cyclones, and a cruising speed of around 240 m.p.h. A good deal of nonsense is being talked in Parliament and elsewhere about de-icing plant, some people being of the opinion that it is a sovereign remedv against all aero nautical ills. The fact is that, whilst pilots who have ex perience of it report favourably, the whole matter is still by way of being experimental, nor is it a fact that all foreign aircraft are fitted with such equipment. Imperial Airways are experimenting, in common with the rest of the big air transport concerns, but, as far as I know, have not yet found an entirely satisfactory svstem, and thus it would be absurd to start fitting a large fleet with such equipment. The Grand National, the Boat Race and Easter, fol lowing hard upon one another's heels this year, gave air charter companies plenty of work, and I hear 'that over that period Irish Sea Airways have been carrying full loads and have made up for the period when snow put the line temporarily out of action. Occasionally at Croydon nowadays one sees an amazing procession. First comes an elderly man moving with the . deliberation of a slow-motion film. Sometimes he warns airport crows, beetles and slugs to get out of the way by waving a red flag at them. Next comes a lorry of sorts
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