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Aviation History
1937
1937 - 2381.PDF
AUGUST 26, 1937. FLIGHT. 217 Commercial Aviation THE A.R.B. in ACTION Airworthiness Certificates and Ground Engineers' Licences Already Being Renewed by the Air Registration Board BY now it would seem probable that all but aircraft owners and those who are intimately concerned with the con struction and maintenance of these machines have for gotten the existence of the Air Registration Board. The fact is, of course, that the Board has been forging ahead according to plan and that there have been neither difficulties nor tremendous advances on which to report. From its quarters at Brettenham House, Strand, the Board is now dealing with Certificate of Airworthiness renewals and with the issue of ground engineers' licences. Very shortly it will be taking over much of the work carried out by the Air worthiness Department at Farnborough and will be issuing certificates of airworthiness for all civil machines up to the ten-seater size. Curiously enough, one of the difficulties seems to be that of obtaining the services of the right men to act as inspectors and so forth, though the permanent stafi is steadily increasing week by week. In due course the Secretary of State for Air will be confirming the appointment of the chief of design requirements staff; then the Board will be carrying out all the duties for which it was formed. The permanent staff at Brettenham House is led by Mr. P. R. Thomas (secretary), who was previously with Lloyds, Mr. James Norman (principal surveyor), and Mr. Haselden Lewis (surveyor in charge of G.E.'s Licences). For many years people inside and outside the industry have been demanding "freedom" for civil development. We now have it, and the Board should be able to deal with its work without the almost inevitable delays resulting from a really Airwork and Heston DURING the past few weeks a number of rumours have been current to the effect that the probable Government owner ship of Heston will affect the position of Airwork, Ltd. Actually, neither their business nor address will be affected by the negotiations which are now being concluded. Business, in fact, will be as usual. Almost Arctic AN innovation to be tried out during the coming winter season will be new airline between Abo and Petsamo on the Arctic Ocean. The trip will take five to six hours. Operated by twin-engined seven-seater machines of the Finnish aviation company Aero, this new semi-Arctic airline will con nect at Abo with the Stockholm-Abo-Helsingfors service. The Trans-India Route THE flying-boat roure across the Western part of India has now, it appears, been settled as the result of negotiations recently carried out bv the Government of India with Udaipur and Gwalior Durbars. The latter have allowed the use of lakes Raj Samand and Madhosagar as part of the existing chain of landing places required by the new service. The Government of India will provide and operate a medium and short-wave D/F wireless station at Madhosagar and also a meteorological station to work as part of the existing chain of the aeronautical ground organisation of the trans-India route The Gwalior Durbar intend shortly to lay out a large modern aerodrome at Gwalior which will provide the means of connecting the boat service by air with other parts of India. Imperial Airways will, of course, provide mobile equipment over the route, Norwegian Discontinuation THE Norwegian D.N.L. have issued a statement to the effect that operation of the Oslo-Stockholm line would be abandoned as from July 31. The cause of this step is that the D.N.L. had fixed a price of 80 Kroner for the trip, equal ling the Copenhagen-Oslo ticket, but Swedish authorities forced them to raise the price to 95 Kr. As this rate is grossly in excess of prices for railway tickets, the passenger frequency turned out to be too low to make the Oslo-Stockholm service remunerative. The recent discontinuation of the line has a bearing on British interests, as the service was originally opened at least partly with a view to carrying transfer pas sengers from Allied Airways' North Sea service. large departmental system. C. of A. renewal applications have still to be made through the Air Ministry, but once the staff of the A.R.B. is put on the job, the work of inspection and recommendation is covered in a matter of a tew days Save in the case of machines used for " hire or reward " — including club aeroplanes—there is no need tor anyone to obtain a Certificate of Airworthiness for his machine, but the Board hopes (for the sake of the movement, if for no other reason) that constructors and others will not take their free dom too seriously ! It will certainly be a bad thing if people start to take structural chances and if, consequently, a few lives are lost through failure. Already there are signs of cold feet in quite high places, and it seems probable that lew manufacturers will attempt to manage without such a useful recommendation as the British C. of A.—particularly now that the delayed-action fuse is being taken out of the machine:y. For the benefit of those who have not been in close touch with such matters, the names of the members of the complete Board are as follows: — Sir Maurice Denny, Bt., C.B.E. (Chairman); Messrs. E. L. Gandar Dower, L. T. H. Greig, H. E. Perrin and G. E. Woods Humphery, representing aircraft operators and owners; Messrs. G. H. Handasyde, F. Handley Page, H. N. St. V. Norman and C. C. Walker, representing the constructors; Capt. A. G. Lair.p-lugh, and Messrs. E. K. H. Hill, L. Murray Stewart and A. J. Whittall, representing insurance interests; and Mr. Guy F. John son, Sir Laurence Philipps, Bt., Capt. R. H. Stocken and Major R. H. Thornton as " independents." A fairly representative list, it must he admitted. The Dangerous Souih Coast CERTAIN air exercises will be carried out on the south coast on August 26, and between August 31 and Sep tember 9, and pilots are advised to avoid the areas concerned. These lie outside the Plymouth-Selsey Bill coast on the first day, and between Seisey Bill and Beachy Head on the remain ing ten days. Transport pilots certainly have a lot to think about nowadays. Berlin—Copenhagen by Night FOR the first time since its inception, the time-table of the Copenhagen-Berlin service will be changed this winter. Southbound, the machine will leave Kastrup at 9 a.m. as usual, but the return from Berlin will be made at 5 p.m. instead of 4 p.m. earlier—which means a night passage. However, with adequate night-landing equipment at Kastrup and the fact that the pilots have several years' experience of night mail flying, D.D.L. and D.L.H. should experience no difficulties. The Air France Strike Threat NOW that M. Pierre Cot, "the French Air Minister, has re turned from his holiday he will have found trouble wait ing for him. The pilots of Air France have threatened to call a strike if the first North Atlantic trials, to be made next month by the Lateccere Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris, are not placed entirely in the hands of commercial pilots, mechanics, navigators and radio operators, who, as they point out, are specially qualified to carry out the test flights, having over two hundred crossings of the South Atlantic to their credit The trouble has been brewing since last April when it was announced by the Air Ministry that the first flights across the North Atlantic would be carried out by a crew composed of French Air Force personnel under the command of Capitaine de Corvette Bonnot. The reason for this decision was that the Paris was at that time (and still is technically for that matter) the property of the Air Ministry and has not yet been officially handed over to the civil company. The announce ment was greeted on April 6 by members of the French Asso ciation of air pilots and navigators with indignant protests, and the agitation has continued ever since. The Air Ministry have been attempting a compromise by offering that all future flights after the first should be made by civil crews, but this has not satisfied the Association. The strikers will include the pilots and crews of Air Afrique, Air Blue and Aeromaritime.
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