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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1169.PDF
APRIL 28, 1938. FLIGHT. 40/ Commercial Aviation THE WEEK at CROYDON Fraternisation : Parking Limit : Those Air-raid Precautions : Queer CargoesI SEE that someone has been lecturing to the effect that the aeroplane is a blessing because it brings people of different nations into closer touch and makes distances so small. That is so, of course, and is, no doubt, one of the reasons why propaganda ministers have to stir up nationalistic feelings and keep their folk in a constant state of suspicion and mistrust of neighbouring peoples. Having done which, the aeroplane still brings peoples into closer touch—with gas, high explosive and incendiary exchanges of courtesy—and the benefit of distances being so small becomes a doubtful blessing. As a matter of fact, the only people this aeronautical fraternisation has much effect upon is the comparatively small body of airline pilots and crews, who spend prac- tically every night in a different capital city of Europe, and who discover that there are excellent and warm- hearted people everywhere. That might be a good germ of universal international amity, but doubtless such a disgraceful tendency to admire and like foreign peoples will be sterilised, in some coun- tries, anyway, by special refresher courses on '' Neighbour- hate and the art of keeping it red-hot.'' The good old story over again, in fact, of the fraternisa- tion of decent blokes one Christmas Day over a football match between the lines which, if it had been allowed to spread, might have ended the War. Talking of international amity, I hear that the 15-minute limit for machines on the tarmac has worked extremely well up to date, and has done a lot to relieve congestion. A mutually agreed parking scheme at Croydon, too, has been quite a suecess Signatories to the treaty are Im- perials, Air France and K.L.M., firms who either operate independently or look after other companies' interests as well as their own, so everybody is included. The point about this gentleman's agreement (and, may- he, the reason for its success) is that it was made by the actual traffic superintendents themselves without any in- terference from anyone. In other words, the men who do the job daily fixed up the detail of how to do it amongst themselves, which is exactly why the scheme works smoothly. Chatting to a foreign airline representative at Croydon recently, the question of A.R.P. cropped up. I did my best to stifle the subject, but it was useless. He expressed considerable bewilderment that at the big- gest civil airport in this country there was no organisation of this sort, whereas every little village was getting busy— especially, he understood, in hunting districts, where foxes all have little civilian respirators and the kennels are all thoroughly gas-proofed. _ My foreign friend pointed out that he had his responsibili- ties, stocks of spares, aircraft, company's records, and his personnel, and that when war came Croydon would, with- out previous warning, be Dante's Inferno with ultra- modernistic knobs on. For his part, he supposed his firm to belong to an allied or neutral country, so, regarding himself as a guest here, he said, in effect, what about it? Did I realise, he enquired, how much petrol there was around the place, a liquid usually suspected of being more or less inflammable? I said there was little cause for concern on this score, for I understood that the leak in the airport fire hose that nearly drowned the user the other day, whilst at the same time leaving the fire in the pink, was definitely having the earnest consideration of the department concerned. He then asked what other safety measures were being taken, and I produced (on behalf of the authorities) my trump card. There was, said I, a department of the Air Ministry in charge of these matters, but, very rightly, it was on the secret list. Could one get into touch with it? Well, not exactly. My experience was that you got transferred through seven or so charming departments with hushed voices to an unexpectedly shrill secretary, who said the gentleman was not expected back to-day, and had appointments to- morrow. She could, however (and did), take a message, and said if it was urgent I should no doubt hear some- thing (Query: Enemy H. E.?) in due course. She really could not say when course would become due, and I gather it's a lengthy business, as I have heard nothing yet, and the 'phone call was a month ago. My friend the foreigner seemed to think this was not good enough, and I secretly shared his opinion, having been taught at Air Raid Wardens' coursesand such that, of all things abominable, the worst is to remain totally unprepared and obtusely bland. Imperial Airways brought a consignment of 35 kg. of mangoes from India to Southampton. They were con- signed to H.H. the Aga Khan from the Khoga Council, and as his Highness was in the South of France the fruit was sent, I believe, to Windsor Castle. Lots of very early strawberries have come in by air during the past week as well as plovers' eggs. There was even a consignment of gulls' eggs—which sounds a bit fishy to me. \- ; ' -- A. VIATOR. 0 Co-ordination in Scotland |N May 2 a new airline operating company, Scottish Air- - ways, Ltd., will come into official being, this company taking over those routes which had previously been served by Northern and Scottish Airways and Highland Airways. An affiliated company. Western Isles Airways, Ltd., is also being formed to take over the Western Isles and Hebrides services previously run by Northern and Scottish. In fact, the services and arrangements will remain virtually unchanged, though quite naturally the R.A.S., I.O.M.A.S., ami S.A. time-tables will bo still further co-ordinated, and a new service will be opened between Glasgow, Perth, and Inverness, linking the southern and northern sections. Another new service to be opened will be one from Glasgow to Tiree. As might be expectf.l, Capt. E. E. Frcsson will continue to manage his section of the system, while Mr. G. Nicholson will look after the western services. The usefulness of the Northern and Scottish services may be gauged from the i.u t that, since the inception of the com- pany in December, niq. and up till March, 1938, approxi- mately 2j million passenger-miles have been flown and about 30,000 paying passengers have been carried. During tne Easter period this year two extra services were scheduled on each day over the Northern and Scottish routes, and even then more machines had to be put on; in fact, three machines had to be used to operate one particular service on which a hundred passengers were carried .Inrine Fridiv nnri Saturday. The companies concerned iii the Scottish merger are British Airways, Ltd., David MacBfayne, Ltd., and the London Mid- land and Scottish Railways, so that there should be a useful co-relation of steamship, railway, read, and air services. Moving House F OR some considerable time it has been known that BritishAirways would eventually move their operating base to Heston, where arrangements have been and are being made for their reception. At present their flying headquarters are at Croydon, while the maintenance and training school work is carried out at Gatwick. The actual date has now been fixed for this major transfer, nnd on and after Sunday, May 29, the whole of the British Airways organisation will be at Heston, where the machines and the maintenance equipment will be housed in the large hangar immediately to the west of the terminal buildings. This hangar was previously used by the Airwork service department, and accommodation for this department is, presumably, being arranged elsewhere on the aerodrome. Incidentally, the reception and booking hall at Terminal House, Grosvenor Gardens (British Airways' central terminus), has been redesigned so that passengers are lead automatically, on entering the main door, to the different counters and sec- tors for tickets, passport formalities, weighing and luggage assembly. Afterwards the passenger passes straight out to the passenger coach.
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