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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0103.PDF
JANUARY 12, 1939 FLIGHT. 47 COMMER! SO far, in this year of Grace 1939, , the weather has not been alto gether propitious for flying, but things have jcgged along fairly regu larly for Croydon. Last week Amsterdam had a day of snow which put Schiphol Airport out of commission for a time. Not only was the surface soft and treacherous, but the concrete runways were frozen and slip pery so that machines showed a ten dency to skid. This particular difficulty is new to me, but I suppose there must be some remedy, for runways are sup posed to be the answer to all surface troubles, and can be used for landing and take off when the ground itself is unuseable. Presumbly, the employment of a Japanese Sandman is indicated. THE WEEK AT CROYDON "A Viator" in his Weekly Commentary on Transport and Other Affairs, Mentions Square Meals (with Tea), Refugees, Records and the Great Charity Complex Air travellers, it seems, obtain a really square deal these days. Somebody wrote indignantly to one of the news papers last week about a rail trip to Scotland during the recent bitter weather. There was no heating, no light in some of the carriages, no lunch except for a favoured few who queued up in an unlit corridor, and no tea, the attrac tive alternative being bottles of minerals, for which no extra charge was made if you warmed them up by breathing heavily on them. The kitchen had no light or heat except that from an antique lanthorn*borrowed from the guard, and the passengers had quite a lot to say about the railway Yuletide message about a square deal, to say nothing of a square meal. Take by contrast a trip in any modern aeroplane. Recently I travelled by A.B.A., Swedish Air Lines, on the Scandinavian Air Express, and certain points were especially impressive to a passenger. The first was the care with which the captain selected exactly the right height to fly so that there was not a bump to be felt, and the second was the considerate way in which he handled the machine when circling to land, so that there was none of that feeling of the landscape going all fluid and rushing up to meet one like a greenish brown tidal wave. Then there was the landing itself, performed so that you hardly knew it had happened. All good commercial pilots land that way—but not all commercial pilots ; and, however strong the modern aeroplane or the aeroplane passenger may be, it is unwise to make both of them creak and groan when contact is achieved with the earth. An attentive, but unobtrusive steward, with an air of being delighted to see you, rather like the family butler when dealing with a regular and esteemed old friend of the family, served tea, with a most delightful special Swedish cake, and the cabin was just warm enough without being stuffy. But there, of course, we pay a little more. Tea, by the way, is a beverage which you only get to perfection aboard English machines, because there is a grossly heretical school of thought on the Continent about the matter. Success will never attend the efforts of those who lower a small sack on the end of a miniature cable into the depths of a cup of warm water—the sack containing L AVIATION some herb or other which eventually turns the water to a rusty colour. Nor, as the philosopher Wun-Lung-Too-Fu remarked in about B.c.3, does the milk of the most aristocratic goat, however cunningly its hooves and horns have been gilded, compare favourably with that of the least well-born of cows. Falcon recently made an exceptionally quick trip to Marseilles with a ton or so of Empire mails, and a pretty rapid return journey as well. Capt. E. R. B. White was in command of the machine, which left Croydon at 7.1.5 a.m., arrived at Marseilles at 10.8 a.m., refuelled, and left again at 11.26 a.m., landing at Croydon at 3.11 p.m. Another flight by the same machine appears to have smashed all existing records with Capt. J. T. Percy at the controls. Croydon-Brussels was done in 48 minutes' fly ing time—an average of 250 m.p.h. There has been quite a lot of movement among refugees lately, a party of no fewer than eighty being booked in ward by K.L.M. during last week. Evidently the higher culture is spreading in some parts of Europe. First Class for All Early in the week, too, a party of five adult and six infants flew by Swissair from Croydon to Zurich. They constituted a Basque concert party setting out to raise funds. I was glad they travelled by air, partly because one small girl aged eight executed a rumba on the tarmac before leaving, and partly because it shows that refugees can all afford to travel first-class and have the best of every thing, thanks to the Lord Mayor, various leaders of the Smart Set, old Uncle Stan Baldwin and all. Try to raise money for our own unfortunates, and see how heartily you will be execrated and how hollow your collecting box will remain. In a remote village church on Christmas Day (a little inaptly I thought) the collection was for Jewish refugees. It was an all-silver collection, and no such thing is recorded in village annals though the records go back to 1500. Had it been "for the poor of this parish," I assume there would have been the usual assortment of faulty trouser buttons, a few bent and battered coppers, and the whole thing garnished with that bob of the squire's which won't fit into a cigarette machine. Division of Responsibility «• THE extension of the internal airline system and, in par ticular, the increase in traffic on the Irish Sea services from Manchester and Liverpool, have necessitated the division of the Civil Signals department into two sections. In addition to the present Croydon centre there will now be a northern group with its centre at Barton airport, Manchester. The latter will be responsible for all communication work in and north of the Manchester and Belfast communication area.
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