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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 1959.PDF
JULY 7, 1938- FLIGHT. 17 Commercial Aviation THE NORTH ATLANTIC : WHAT FRANCE IS DOING F RANCE, having overcome her difficulties with the Portu guese Government over landing rights for her trans atlantic flying boats at the Azores, will now be taking her place beside Britain, U.S. and Germany this summer in experimental flights to New York by the southern route. Although longer, this route is more propitious from the point of view of weather, and lias, of course, the help of an interme diate stop at the Azores. It is ironical that France, until four years ago, held the monopoly of the Azores as a stopping place for transatlantic flights, but owing to a technical hitch, the rights were with drawn, and permission was given to the three competing coun tries and withheld from her. As a result Germany made four crossings each way in twin-engined Dornier Do.iSs in 1936 and seven each way last year in four-engined Blohm and Voss 139s—heavy oil Junkers Jumo 205 engines being fitted in both cases. Imperial Airways last year did round trips with the Short Empire boats Cambria and Caledonia, and the U.S.A. with the Sikorsky S.42. Clipper III on this route. Air France-Transatlantique was prevented from participat ing owing to the incomplete state of their negotiations for the renewal of their landing rights, and concentrated on develop ing long-range types that would do the more northerly route non-stop, thus making them independent of the Lisbon authori ties. So that the reconditioned six-engined 521 Latecoere 37- ton boat Lieutenant de Vaisseau Paris, which would have been used for the Lisbon-Azores-New York trip, was used last year only for a demonstration flight across the South Atlantic in which she broke the distance record for flying boats—later re gained by Italy. In anticipation, however, of having their four-year-old rights reinstated, Air France-Transatlantique has got the Paris ready for the North Atlantic this year, and with brand new Hispano-Suiza 12N br engines of 650 h.p. each, she has been flown at the Etang de Berre, Marseilles by test-pilot Leclaire. She will now make at least six experimental ocean flights this year via Lisbon, starting, it is expected and as explained in a recent issue, on August 10. Meanwhile, Air France-Transatlantique has under construc tion a sister-ship to the Paris, the Latecoere 522, which is better equipped and has more speed and range. She will be used later this year, probably on the northern route (Foynes— St. Pierre and Miquelon—New York), the right to use Foynes having been successfully negotiated early this year with the Government of Eire, Imperial Airways and Pan American Airways. The northern route will also be flown over experimentally this summer by the two four-engined landplanes, the Farman 2-230 and 2-231, which are being fitted up with pressure cabins under the direction of Air France's chief pilot Codos, who intends to make sub-stratospheric test flights at from 18,000 to 25,000 feet In preparation, but not expected this year, are the CAMS- Potez 161 (six Hispano-Suiza 12.Y or, alternatively, L.18 Gnome Rhone engines) and the S.E.200 (six Gnome Rhone L.i8s), otherwise known as the Liore et Olivier 49—both 60- ton main and passenger-carrying flying boats. Although the French would appear to have some leeway to make up as a result of having failed to carry out any experi mental flights last year, the directors of Air France-Trans atlantique are satisfied that they have not, by any means, been left behind. A mass of most valuable and varied data has been collected on the voyages of the s.s. Carimare, fitted out as a floating meteorological station and posted to the job of carry ing out an exploration of the upper air in mid-Atlantic. It is claimed that the information obtained will be of the greatest assistance, and that this, together with the unique experience of ocean flying which Air France has gained in flying the South Atlantic more than 300 times, will find them as well equipped as any competitor to cope with problems of the North Atlantic. De Havilland Hydromatics THE Edgware factory of the De Havilland Aircraft Co., Ltd. (probably now the largest manufacturers of v.p. airscrews in the world), is tooling for quantity production of the Hamilton Hydromatic full-feathering, constant-speed airscrew, lately released for export by the U.S. Government. The new airscrew allows 35 deg. of pitch range for constant-speed opera tion and a further 45 deg. for feathering. It is claimed that it can be feathered more quickly than any other airscrew, whether the engine has stopped of its own accord or is still running. Real Navigation " Harbord's Glossary oj Navigation," revised by C. W. T. Layton, A.I.N.A.; 12s. 6d. Brown, Son &• Ferguson, Ltd., Darnley Street, Glasgow. A LTHOUGH earnest examinees for Second and First Class Air Navigators' Licences are sometimes inclined to think that the business of navigation and particularly of celestial navigation, is a very new one, this Glossary of Navigation, which is described as a " vademecum for practical navigators," was written by the Rev. J. B Harbord more than seventy years ago. Since that time it has been revised and enlarged and this edition is the fourth in the series. The present reviser must have suffered considerable difficulty in deciding exactly what should and should not be expunged or modified. The basis of navigation remains unchanged, but the actual methods used have been superseded time and time again The really obrolete sections of the book have been removed in the 1938 edition, but older methods of working have, in some cases, been retained to provide an historical background lor the explanations of newer ones. For instance, in 1862. when the book was first published, there were no such things as gyroscopic instruments and direction-finding radio1, both of which play a large part in navigation to-day, whether on the sea or in the air The book is primarily intended, of course, for marine naviga tors, but the principles involved are in most cases identical with those used by the air navigator, and the Glossary pro vides a really thorough grounding in the subject—if the woTd "grounding" can be used where very advanced navigation, whether celestial or otherwise, is being considered. SB.AC Scholarship Awards FIVE scholarships in the aircralt industry have been awarded for 1938 under the scheme sponsored by the S.B.A.C., and administered by the R.Ae.S. The selection committee reviewed eight youths chosen from several hundred applicants, and chose the following five:— E. R. L. Crook (London, W.14), J. R. Gardiner (Portsmouth), J. G. F. Lang (Wellington), D. Levitt (Durham) and G. E. H, Vickers (Billingham, Co. Durham) SITTING PRETTY: The pilot presum ably having followed the modern theory that a forced landing on doubtful ground is safest with under carriage retracted, this Fairey Battle suffered very little apparent damage when put down be side the Warring- ton-Tarporley road. The reader who sent the photograph says that the field was barely six times the length of the machine.
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