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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 1906.PDF
-44 FLIGHT. JULY 8, 1937. Some Facts that Spelled Success in a— K NA^I' The Navigational Preparations and Problems Behind "Caledonia's" Notable Atlantic Test Flight By H. A. TAYLOR ON the evening of July 5, last Monday, Caledonia, one of Imperial Airways' Short boats laid out for transatlantic experiments, left Foynes, I.F.S., for Botwood, Newfoundland, on its first experimental Atlantic crossing. The crew consisted of Capt. A. S. Wil- cockson, the commander, First Officer C. H. Bowes, Wire less Operator T. E. Hobbs, and Mr. T. A. Vallette, a radio expert seconded from the Marconi Company to Imperial Airways for the experiments. The machine duly arrived at Botwood fourteen hours later. Further details of this historic flight are given at the end of this article. The problems involved in accurate navigation over a distance of nearly 2,000 miles out of sight of land are quite considerable, but they can be solved with accuracy by a pilot with the resources of such a boat as Caledonia at his command They are tackled by three different, though complementary, methods—dead reckoning, direction- finding radio and celestial observations. Iu very simple terms dead reckoning provides a permanent check so long as the pilot has a general idea of the wind velocities and directions prevailing over the route ; while D/F and astro nomical observations give him definite bearings or posi tions at necessary intervals. We who make our miserable little journeys of a few- hundred miles plot our track in relation to magnetic north (allowing a vague sort of "12 degrees'' for magnetic variation after measuring the angle of cur track against a convenient meridian) and calculate a course to steer after learning that the wind at 2,000ft. is "250 deg., 22 m.p.h." The varia tion may change by a degree cr two over an east to west flight and the wind may, in fact, be blowing from 220 degrees at 18 m.p.h., but the difference at the point of arrival is a matter of a mile or so, and we have A remarkable photograph of Caledonia taken just as she was about to "unstick" at the start of a radio test flight from Southampton Water shortly before leaving for Foynes, and, ultimately Newfoundland
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