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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 2374.PDF
214 FLIGHT. AUGUST 26, 1937. COMMERCIAL AVIATION FOWLER-FLAPPED: The first photographs of the new Lockheed 14, or Super- Electra, transport. It will be noted that although this machine bears the "X" licence markings it carries the insignia of Northwest Airlines. Points of technical in terest include the Fowler flaps, the shape of the fuselage (in particular the nose) and the tail unit, the latter of a type which has given such encouraging results on the Electra and " 12." THE WEEK AT CROYDON A.B.A. Comes Through : Queues : Shanghai Express : Free Balloon : Fauna L AST week, on Wednesday at 16.45, tiie nrst regular A.B. Aerotransport machine arrived at Croydon, ' piloted by Mr. Linder and having aboard Capt. Carl Florman, managing director of the Swedish company, with Mr. Han6 Ostelius, representative of A.B.A. in London. The machine was SE-BAA, a Douglas D.C.3, differing only from those of K.L.M. in being powered by two twin-Wasp engines instead of Cyclones. As this service, the Scandinavian Air Express, has been in operation as a mutual K.L.M.-A.B.A. affair for about thirteen years, and as K.L.M. are looking after A.B.A. interests here in England, Capt. Florman was welcomed by the English K.L.M. representatives, Capt. Spry Lever- ton and Mr. C. Kauffmann. Last week, in mentioning this matter, the accidental omission of the words "every other day " gave the impression that A.B.A. were operat ing this line every day. This is not so, the big idea being that an alternate K.L.M. and A.B.A. Douglas D.C.3 shj.ll run through all the way from Stockholm to London. Shooting Practice If you indulge in shooting you naturally select a spot where there is plenty of game. That is what the War Office has just done on one of the accredited air routes which has been long established. A vast "danger area" right on the course ol commercial aircraft has been selected and absolutely no other place in the kingdom will do. When firing, which takes place at irregular intervals, is in progress it is dangerous to a pilot, his crew and the passengers (including women and children) to fly over the area, and in certain circumstances it may be very difficult for a pilot to avoid it. Unhappily we have no influential ornithological friends (and no other logical argument applies) to prevent the military from going gunning after air liners, in the same way in which powerful folk stopped them from interfering with the sacred swans of Chesil Bank. The vital neces sity of establishing a danger area at this particular place is not, of course, disputed, but the proceeding is very like mining a stretch of water in the Channel which is regularly used by shipping. On Saturday, at about 1 p.m., in the Main Hall there was a queue from the passport inspection table practically all across the Hall to the main doors. There were two Imperial machines, two of Air France and one of K.L.M. all fully booked—about a hundred passengers all clamour ing to get through the eye of a needle. Passport people at Croydon are extremely obliging and quick at their job but the powers that be at the Home Office in London are slow to appreciate the growth of air transport and to pro vide adequate staff. I can never remember exact dates but the eighteenth anniversary of the beginning of civil aviation is about due. One is expected to trot out the names of the pioneers and say what wonderful days those were, and all that, every year, but the past is chiefly valuable because of the mistakes we all made and now know better than to repeat. There were great rumours, though I think nothing came of it, of the organisation of a special air " Shanghai Express " owing to demands from people who wanted to get out there quickly. It was said that K.L.M. would run an extra D.C.3 as far a5 Karachi, where passengers could transfer to the regular machine and travel to Singa pore, where they would transfer from K.L.M. to K.N.I.L.M. who were prepared to run a special to Hong-Kong. There should be no difficulty about return loads. Talking about mining the shipping routes, a balloon was allowed to escape from Cardington last week and drifted merrily athwart various air routes, the sting being in the tail in this case, for there was about 900 feet of steel cable trailing behind. It is understood that hand some apologies for thus jeopardising commercial aircraft are being prepared and will shortly come to hand. That sort of thing is vastly amusing—until the cable one day comes into contact with a commercial aeroplane. A good idea would be for Cardington and the danger area fiends to combine. Cardington could loose its gas bags and the artillery could (if they hit them) shoot them down. An Imperial Airways' boat captain, up from Southamp ton, told me how lately on one sunny morning three por poises came gambolling round one of the boats, obviously asking it to come and play. The local porpoises look like receiving the same f:ort of nasty look given to our airport pigeons not long ago. Other airport fauna are in the news, too, for a pas senger recently reported that his machine put up a hare at Croydon, another at Amsterdam, a third at Hamburg and a fourth at Copenhagen. He marvelled that hares should exist at Croydon, surrounded as it is by houses. There always have been hares and partridges on the aero drome and, incidentally, there used to be nightingales in Plough Lane some years ago. A. VIATOR.
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