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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0033.PDF
JANUARY 5, I939 FLIGHT. 15- COMMERCIAL AVIATION FOURTH FLIGHT. The opinions of D.H.'s chief test pilot, Mr. G. de Havilland, Jr., on the Flamingo's flying qualities may be guessed from the fact that this flying view was taken on the machine's fourth test flight. Other pictures appear on pages 3 and 16. THE WEEK AT CROYDON " A Viator " Starts the New Year with Characteristic Remarks about Modernisation, Infant Welfare and Salvage—Nautical and Otherwise I READ in one of the newspapers which is rather famed for transposing bits out of its comic columns into its more serious pages, that Sir John Reith would prob ably be leaving Imperial Airways now that he had per formed his task of modernising that company. The more you think about that remark the more miraculous it appears to be. If it is true that Sir John is leaving, it seems a great pity. Gossip says that Sir John has endeared himself to the whole of his staff by the fair and reasonable way in which he has tackled a number of more or less long outstanding griev ances. One of the first principles of business is to create that atmosphere in a firm which is equivalent to "a happy ship' in the Navy. In the short time in which he has been at the helm of Imperial Airways, Sir John appears to have achieved that eminently desirable result. He would probably be the last to claim that he, person ally, has modernised Imperial Airways, and, anyway, there are those, especially on the operating staff, who are so old- fashioned as to prefer Heracles and Scylla when it comes to plugging through and getting there with a load of pas sengers or mail. I cannot think why they are so conserva tive. Companies running to the East, such as Imperials, K.L.M., and Air France, have mutually agreed to raise the age at which children may travel at half fare from 7 years old to 12. Actually, this is in response to the in creasing use of the air for children of both sexes travelling to and from schools in England. They can travel by air unaccompanied, whereas this is naturally more difficult by surface transport, and air companies give individual atten tion and, incidentally, a jolly good time as well. As a matter of fact, the fairest way to charge for children, especially on the Far Eastern routes, where weight counts so much, would be by weight. I have known the weight situation to be saved, in the old days, when there was not much margin, by the fact that a posse of lightweight Japanese tourists turned up as passengers instead of the usual drove of well-nourished Aryans and others. Alexandria will, I feel sure, be described shortly by some brilliant person—the kind who is always recoining epoch- making phrases—as the " Clapham Junction of the Air ways." In one week, from December 2 to 8, Alex, had thirty-one departures and twenty-eight arrivals of Imperial machines and sub-charter machines, to say nothing of foreign arrivals and departures, such as those of K.L.M. The Calypso business, last week-end, obviously speaks volumes for the seaworthiness of the boat, and one wonders whether considerable credit is not due to the commander for successfully performing a very tricky series of naviga tional operations. It is interesting, too, to speculate as to how the laws of salvage operate in a case like this. According to an eminent legal authority, salvage has been defined as " a service which volunteer adventurers" (but not A.R.P. blokes) "spon taneously render to the owners in the recovery of their pro perty from loss or damage at sea, under the responsibilitr of making restitution of the property and with a lien on their reward." Liens and Fefts Now that is moderately comprehensible as legal jargon goes, so, if you want to get a fine confused feeling in the head—similar to that known as Yuletide brow, which is generally attributable to a fatal mixture of flaming brandy over the plum pudding and a sufficiency of vintage port—try the Air Navigation Act on the subject. It beats jig-saw puzzles and crosswords as a fireside entertainment. "The expression wreck," it says, "in Sec: s 510 to 516 both inclusive, and in Sec: s 518 to 537 both inclusive, cf the Merchant Shipping Act 1894 as amended by subse quent legislation (but save and except in so far as those Sec: s relate to the claims of any Admiral, Vice Admiral, Lord of the Manor, heritable proprietor duly infeft, or any other person to unclaimed wreck for his own use shall include any aircraft or any part thereof . . . found lying derelict " . . . . etc. etc. ad nauseam. Roughly speaking, if any Admiral fetches up, you have to hand over the flying boat to him, I gather, but if a Lord
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