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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 1903.PDF
A1RCRAF ENGINEER AND AIRSHIPS FIRST AERONAUTICATWEEKLY IN THE31VORLD .• FOUNDED WOQ Editor C. M. POULSEN Managing Editor G. GEOFFREY SMITH Chief Pholographa JOHN YOXALL i Editorial, Advertising and Publishing Offices j DORSET Telegrams : Troditur, Sedut, London. HERTFORD ST., COVENTRY. Telegrams : Autocar, Coventry. Telephone : Coventry 5210. GUILDHALL BUILDINGS, NAVIGATION ST., BIRMINGHAM, 2. Telegrams: Autopress, Birmingham. Telephone: Midland 2971. HOUSE, STAMFORD STREET, LONDON, S.E.I Telephone : Waterloo 3333 (50 lines). 26B, RENFIELD ST., GLASGOW, C.2. Telegrams: Ilifte, Glasgow. Telephone: Central 4857. 260. DEAN8GATE, MANCHESTER, 8. Telegrams: Iliffe, Manchester. Telephone: Blackfriars 4412. SUBSCRIPTION BATES-. Home and Canada: Other Countries: Year, £1 13 0. Vear, £1 16 0. 6 months, 16s. 6d. 6 months, lbs. lid. 3 months, 8s. 6d. 3 months, 9s. Od. No. 1489. Vol. XXXII JULY 8, 1937. Thursdays, Price 6d. \Jver the O ceans THE trying ordeal which Mrs. Amelia Putnam has experienced reminds us that flying across an ocean is not yet as simple a feat as flying the English Channel. Nevertheless, there is a great difference between the Atlantic and the Pacific. In the larger ocean one must search for a tiny island, and to find it requires extraordinarily accurate navigation. If some small error creeps in to the calculations,- the island becomes as difficult to find as the proverbial needle in a haystack. Missing the island almost inevitably means exhaustion of petrol and a descent on the water and a lot of trouble and expense for the people who hasten to the rescue. On the Atlantic, between Ireland and Newfoundland, no such problems arise, for the flight must be non-stop from one country to the other. Farther south navigators have not yet made mistakes large enough to involve missing the Azores or Bermuda. It may be remembered that Col. Lindbergh worked out his course for his first flight across the Atlantic by saying that, even if he made an error, he 'was sure to hit Europe between Ireland and Portugal. To Schedule Not quite so much latitude could be allowed the Caledonia and the China Clipper. Though their flights were the first of a series, they had to be flown with the accuracy of a mail service. They were, in fact, the first Atlantic flights to be undertaken, not as mere adventures or as a form of publicity, but with a serious commercial object in view. The way in which both have been carried out according to schedule speaks well for the technical success of the new enterprise. More data will naturally be accumulated as the series of flights pro ceeds, but already there seems no reason to doubt the ability of the modern aeroplane to cross the Atlantic with safety and considerable regularity. Whether a pas senger service can be made to pay remains to be seen. Higher and Higher F LT. Lt. M. J. ADAM and the Bristol Aeroplane Company deserve and have received the heartiest congratulations from all sides on the great flight of June 30 which regained for Great Britain the world's altitude record for aeroplanes. Certainly the aeroplane has not yet climbed as high as the balloon has clone, but the problems are quite different; the objects of the two efforts are likewise diverse, and there is no point in making comparisons between them. The object of a balloon ascent into the stratosphere can only be to collect information about cosmic rays and similar problems ; the main object of the international rivalry in aeroplane altitude flights is to produce the most suitable engine for the task. That implies a complete set of problems apart from any scientific observations which may be made when the aeroplane is in the stratosphere. The hero of the aeroplane altitude flights is ' the Pegasus engine. Certainly let us honour the names of Uwins, Swain, and Adam, but it is the Pegasus to which the chief honours must be awarded. It was the Pegasus which made possible the flights over Mount Everest by Lord Clydesdale and Flight Lieutenant (now Squadron Leader) Mclntyre. It was the Pegasus which, in an almost standard Vickers Vespa, first brought the altitude record to Britain. It was a Pegasus in a Caproni, flown by Commander Donati, which took the record over to Itafy, and it is a special Pegasus in the Bristol 138 aero plane which has twice brought that record back to Britain. Records have both an unseen value and a concrete value. The prestige which the possession of a world's record brings to a country is reflected in a number of ways, one of which is increased value of aeronautical exports. It may even add weight to the word of that country at an international conference. Certainly it makes taxpayers more' willing to support the country's Air Force when they are assured that the designers are capable of providing machines of real class. The con crete advantages which come as the result of experiment
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