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Aviation History
1938
1938 - 2203.PDF
AUGUST 4, 1938. FLIGHT. 95 to taxi to and fro across the shipping lane. At times this mav Prove a rea* inconvenience to flying boats and shipping alike. It has been stated that the Air Ministry will undertake the dredging of the area, the Southampton Harbour Board assisting in carrying out the launch service in connection with the base, and collecting landing dues from the flying boats. Thus, on the whole, Southampton seems to have struck a pretty good bargain. What makes the whole transaction a little difficult to understand is the fact that a week befor-e the Southampton decision was announced Councillor Johnson, of Portsmouth, placed before the Air Minister a proposal for getting the, Langstone Harbour scheme, without the barrage, going without cost to either the Air Ministry or to Portsmouth, the necessary capital being found privately. There is much to be said for Langstone Harbour com pared with Southampton Water. For one thing, the water is more sheltered, and the amount of shipping is negligible compared with that in Southampton Water. Further more, the Langstone scheme includes an aerodrome adjoin ing the flying-boat base. At Netley there is no room for an aerodrome, and flying-boat passengers and mails will have to be transported by rail from London as now, or by road from Eastleigh Aerodrome if they arrive by air. Finally, and most incredible of all, it is said that Imperial Airways were not consulted about the scheme. Yet, among other things, their new headquarters at Victoria will be rendered almost useless. A detailed explanation seems to be called for. Pay of R.A.F. Officers T HE increases of pay for officers of the R.A.F. which have just been announced should not be considered by themselves but in conjunction with the increases also granted -to the two older Services. Officers of the fighting Services in this country have always been under paid, but of the three the grievances of the R.A.F. have been less than those of the two older Services. Now the cases of all three Services have been considered together, and the increases are designed to put all three on a com parable footing. The new rates of R.A.F. pay will mainly benefit the officers with permanent commissions. Short-service officers will benefit to this extent, that promotion from Flying Officer to Flight Lieutenant will now take place automatic ally after two years' service in the lower rank provided that the officer is satisfactory. This means that at the end of his four years practically every short-service officer will go on to the Reserve as a Flight Lieutenant. For the rest, the reforms deal with (a) scale of pay, (b) abolition of command pay, (c) grant of entertainment allowances to commanding officers of stations, (d) abolition of half pay, (e) retiring ages, and (f) retired pay and gratuities. The principle followed is to abolish grievances and those long waits for a rise which are apt to take the heart out of an officer. It must be remembered that in the R.A.F. promotion is mainly by selection, and it may happen that an officer who is quite a good man may be repeatedly passed over by men who are outstandingly good. This is apt to make a man feel sore, but as he now will get better rises in pay while still holding the same rank his sense of grievance will be lessened. Certainly the -K.A.F. now offers an attractive career to permanent-com mission officers. Cheap Lift T HAT, owing to the greater relative air velocity, those parts of an aeroplane situated within the slipstream of the airscrews are subject to greater drag than pans outside the slipstream has been known since aircraft design was in its infancy. Curiously enough, no one has happened to realise that if a wing in the slipstream suffers greater drag it must also be capable of giving greater lift, °r rather it had not occurred to anyone that things could so arranged that the increase in lift could be made quite large and turned to good account, until the thought oc curred to two Englishmen domiciled in America at the time. Mr. Harold Bolas will be remembered by many of our older readers as chief designer to George Parnall, of Bristol, and Capt. Goodman Crouch was at one time in the Air worthiness Department at Farnborough. He also used to be handy with performance calculations and such, and actually began the system of handicapping which, after his departure to America, has since been carried out with such distinction by Messrs. Dancy and Rowarth. In America this idea of making use of the slipstream occurred to one or both of them, and they decided to examine the matter thoroughly. Wind-tunnel tests and flying trials with a curious biplane with two very large airscrews con firmed the suspicion that a very material increase in lift could be obtained by blowing the slipstream across the wing, particularly if it was pointed upwards slightly. Mr. Bolas is still in America, where he continues the good work, but Capt. Goodman Crouch has returned to his native land, and is now preaching the gospel of the slip stream to British aircraft designers. In this issue we record some of the results obtained by these two Englishmen. The maximum lift coefficients which can be reached by a judicious arrangement of engines and airscrews are such as to make a study of the subject well worth while, and very nearly the full benefit of the slipstream can be ob tained without need for freakish-looking design. The chief attraction of the slipstream scheme is that it does not sup plant but actually increases the effectiveness of such high- lift devices as slots and flaps. Prohibition ALTHOUGH it is serious enough during the compara- /""% tively short period in which it is in force, the in- •*• •*• stitution of the gargantuan prohibited area (de scribed in Notice to Airmen, No. 164), which includes a large section of east and south-east England as well as the North Sea, is not, perhaps, as bad as our contributor on page 109 would have us believe. It is still possible for regular air services to fly, albeit by a tortuous route, to their Continental destinations; for private aeroplanes to cross to the Continent by a short sea route ; and for essen tial internal air services to fly in pre-ordained channels. The most serious sufferers will be those clubs and schools with their centres in the area. Their machines will be . virtually grounded between 9 a.m. on August 5 and the same time on either August 7 or August 8, according to the way in which the Royal Air Force Exercises concerned are proceeding. We can see no reason why the schools should not be permitted to carry on, at least with circuit flying in good weather, and hope that, at least, the clubs and in structors will receive due compensation for loss of flying time. Even the Reserve schools can obtain no reprieve. Another C.A.G. Problem T O return for a moment to the Civil Air Guard, amidst all the excitement very few people appear to have considered the question of insurance—not of machines but of humanity. The majority of amateur pilots, largely because of the expense and bother of arranging the neces sary cover, leave their future, dead or alive, in the hands of Providence. It is probable, though, that many of those interested in the C.A.G. will, if only for domestic reasons, wish to have their present insurance and assurance policies extended to cover them against flying risks, since only a comparatively few will have the necessary financial background to take the risks involved. It might be suggested that the Govern ment should take the matter in hand, but with the number of people concerned it may still be possible now for the big insurance companies to reduce their flying-risk premiums. In the meantime, the insurance problem may cut down the number of prospective C.A.G. pilots by more than half, thus reducing the effectiveness of the scheme as a whole. DIARY OF FORTHCOMING EVENTS—PAGE 102b
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