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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 0256.PDF
FLIGHT. JANUARY 27, 1938. Topics of the Day International IF there is one good reason for the encouragement of whatmay be called independent flying, whether organised ornot, it is that it promotes international good feeling. That sounds suspiciously like the politely meaningless statement of a professional diplomat or one of the column- filling cliches of a dull leading article on international rela- tions that has oozed from the pen of some self-appointed expert. Nevertheless, there does not seem to be any doubt, generally speaking, of its truth. Anyone who has made the rounds of a few representative international flying meet- ings will understand quite well what I mean. Even apart from the plainly sportive affairs one has only to travel abroad among air transport people to find that flying and flying alone is the thing that really matters and a common interest automatically makes the difference between friend- liness and animosity. On one evening last week I spent a very large number of hours in the company of one of those whom we are pleased to call foreigners. During the period I listened to nothing but sound and benevolent common-sense. He was a man who travelled around amongst flying people a great deal in the course of his work, and he had practically nothing but kind things to say about the people of every nation in Europe. On the following evening, I spent about the same number of minutes listening to malicious nonsense about some of these same foreigners from, I regret to say, the mouth of one of my own nationals—and a fairly important one at that. (For which reason his audience acted as yes-men though two of them at least should have been sufficiently independent to find no need to act as a pair of bellows.) These, of course, are two very extreme cases, but in one the effect of a real and continuous enthusiasm for the whole business of flying was apparent and the probability is that when he travelled outside his own country he would discuss very little else and would certainly not attempt to criticise the opinions and habits of his different hosts. Hospitality E in this country still owe a considerable debt to flying clubs and organisations abroad, since for every inter- national flying meeting held over here there are half a dozen held on the Continent and elsewhere. At every one of these, visitors of all nationalities are treated so magnifi- cently that they are almost embarrassed and I certainly feel uncomfortable when I think of the few affairs of the same kind which are organised over here. (Lympne, York and the R.Ae.C. week-end are the only British fixtures that come to mind ; and Lympne, I believe, have had such an overwhelming success with theirs that they feel unable to undertake another with the facilities at their command.) One can hardly blame the individual clubs and private owners, since, obviously by themselves and without assist- ance either from the governing body or from the Air MAKING READY : Private-owner and other types inside thebig service hangar at Heston. This hangar will, in due course, be taken over by British Airways and another serviceshop erected elsewhere. P RI VAT E F LY I N C Ministry, they cannot possibly afford to run such meetings. Nevertheless, it is rather odd that what is possibly the richest country in the world should be outshone by others, some of which are persistently accused in a general way of being inhabited by specially selected villains. Possibly—indeed probably—the organisations abroad are quite effectively subsidised by their Governments, who feel very rightly that flying meetings and the like have a quite useful effect on international relations. Such a subsidy should be a good investment and our own Royal Aero Club might see what it can do on the same lines by a little judicious influence in the right quarters. For some reason or other we have an unholy reputation abroad for being quite unable to co-operate about anything, and our own national air transport company is not ex- empted—at least so fat as technical developments are con- cerned. We may, as a nation, have the nicest possible feelings about other people, but these are not really very much good unless they are shown as often as possible. For this reason I believe very firmly in the value of the inter- national flying meeting idea ; even if the effects seem to be small and sometimes quite local, they travel widely because the very people concerned are those who them- selves move about more often and more rapidly than any other section of the community. A friend of mine who likes to visualise himself as a sort of pacifist dictator always maintains that a Channel tunnel with motor road and railway (Government-subsidised free excursions to everywhere abroad) would set this sus- picious world to rights. Well, we have the next best thing. Descent DY this time the general flying public must be getting a •*~* little tired of the tricycle undercarriage and its atten- dant advantages and disadvantages. However, last week, while flying a machine so equipped, I thought of one little trouble which might be experienced by a pilot who was endeavouring to do the shortest of short approaches and, at the same time, realised the possible advantages of a rate-of-descent indicator in the case of any machine which may safely be brought in at or near the stall in such circumstances. The trouble concerns the possibility either of making a very late attempt to gather a little more speed or of actually flying so very slowly that the nose drops moment- arily—thus, in either case, causing the nose wheel to take the entire brunt of the impact. Actually, the nose would have to be pushed down very steeply, but the possibility should be considered, now that such powerful flaps are fitted, by any designer who is going ahead with the tricycle arrangement. The utility of a rate-of-descent indicator is obvious. There is a limit to the blow which even the very best undercarriage will take without damage, and this limit may usually be gauged in feet per second. A rate-of-descent meter will give the necessary information with a reasonable degree of accuracy during a stalled or semi-stalled approach on a fool-proof aeroplane and may thus save expensive damage. As our aeroplanes become more like the balloons which they originally superseded, such assistance will be worth serious consideration and the instrument-makers may as well set about the business of producing reliable devices at a reasonable price. I am all for balloons. INDICATOR.
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