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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0455.PDF
FEBRUARY 16, 1939 FLIGHT. 167 Commercial Aviation Stockholm-Moscow SWEDISH AEROTRANSPORT and the Soviet Aerofiot have * reed t0 operate a Stockholm-Moscow service for six ths during this year instead of for the three months' period m°n which it has been operated during the last two seasons. The service will start on May 3 and will continue until Novem ber 4 with one run in each direction on all week-days. East African Extensions THIS year Rhodesia and Nyasaland Airways (familiarly 1 known as RANA) are operating two additional services. Both of them are weekly in each direction, the first linking Luska, Mumbwa. Mankoya and Mongu, and the second Tusaka with Nyimba and Fort Jameson. RANA are, of course part of the Imperial Airways group and, with Wilson Airways, feed the inland areas from the coastal route. Guernsey's New Aerodrome WORK on the terminal building at the new Guernsey aero drome is proceeding rapidly, and arrangements have been made both for the erection of a hangar, which will be rented to Guernsey Airways in due course, and for the exten sion of the apron. The official opening will be on Friday, May 5, and Sir Kingsley Wood, the Secretary of State for Air, has promised to perform the ceremony. Faster to Abyssinia UNTIL recently Ala Littoria have been using CANT Z506S on the first (Rome-Benghazi) section and three- motor Savoia Marchetti S73S on the last section of their Addis Ababa line, the land machines putting down at Cairo, Wadi Haifa, Khartoum, Kassala, Asmara and Dire Daua. The whole journey from Rome took a matter of about four days. Since January I Ala Littoria have been using Savoia Marchetti S75 machines over the whole run and have eliminated the stops at Kassala, Asmara and Dire Daua. The service now takes only two and a half, days. . New Services in Palestine A CONCERN known as the Commercial Aviation Company has recently started the operation of services from Tel Aviv, Palestine, to Transjordan, Iraq, Syria, and Lebanon. Since the company is at present using only one machine, a Fokker F.18, it is to be presumed that the services are more in the nature of charter trips. This F.18 previously belonged to K.L.M., and was recently flown out from England by Mr. W. Dushinsky, who was formerly a private pilot to Mr. Jan Bata, the Czecho-Slovakian manufacturer. Another similar machine has, it has been reported, been purchased. To the Races AFTER a five-day hearing by the Air Transport Licensing Authority, certain preliminary decisions were made in the matter of licensing those charter companies which make a point of flying to race meetings. Of the four applicants, British-American Air Services were the most favoured—which is not unnatural in view of the fact that they have specialised in this type of work since first start ing operations three years ago. They have been licensed to carry passengers between Heston and a very large number of racing centres. Channel Air Ferries may operate in March between Croydon and Liverpool; Olley Ait Services may, between March and November, run between Croydon and Don- caster and Newmarket; and Railway Air Services are author ised to run between Croydon, Birmingham, Liverpool, and Manchester. Provisional licences will be issued to the last two companies for special occasions. Walk Before You Fly AN amusing but very worthwhile method of familiarising pilots with the audible signals from an approach trans mitter has been tried out successfully in France and has been adopted by Air France for blind-flying training. the pupil is equipped with earphones attached to a portable fcnlvier Which is straPPed to his cnest- He is then blind- loiaed and made to walk forward, correcting any deviation to th f °rileft which is indicated by the signals transmitted by rne track beacon. While walking forward in a straight line •rifv^f"^8, of course' a steady signal; this changes to dashes tn deviations to the right, or dots with deviations to the left, und number of Imperial Airwavs pilots are to go to France to che'm ° courses of instruction by the new and distinctly LMT m£thod- The system taught by this method is the of th •' IS similar to the Lorenz in principle. The home pUots mn^Vatl°n is Trois' the training ground for Air France a loeirM ! • S°Uth of France- Trust the French to produce Kicai training method—regardless of appearances. To Bermuda THE ill-fated Cavalier's place on Imperial Airways' New York to Bermuda service will be taken by Champion, one of the new modified "C" class boats. This machine was actually launched before Christmas and it is now being used on the Empire Services ; it made its maiden flight in November, taking the mails through from Southampton to Sydney. For this new service Champion's tankage will be increased to give a normal range of approximately 1,500 miles, while the radio equipment will be improved by the installation of duplicate receivers. Additionally, a retractable transparent dome for sextant work will be fitted above the pilot's com partment. The seating accommodation, too, will be rearranged to fit in with American ideas, and there will be two smoking cabins. Interestingly enough, the machine will fly out to its new base in Bermuda, via Lisbon, Bathurst (West Africa), Natal (Brazil), Trinidad and Antigua, and for this purpose extra tanks will be fitted. During the trip the crew will make a study of conditions over the route. Later on, when British Airways extend their projected West African service to South America, it is probable that the company will be using flying boats—either the new modified "C" class Shorts or the "G " class boats which are now in course of construction. D.C. Fours and Fives SINCE the original statement made in Australia some months ago that K.L.M. had ordered eleven D.C.4s mainly for use on their Far Eastern service, there has been until now no official pronouncement from the company. In fact, doubts have been expressed in this country and elsewhere about in terest or otherwise shown by K.L.M. in this large transport aeroplane. These doubts were concerned not so much with the virtues or otherwise of the machine, but with the advisa bility of its use on the Far Eastern service, in view of its weight and size. It might be remembered that Imperial Air ways were intending and still do intend to use the Ensigns on the landplane service to India, and this machine is not much less heavy than the D.C.4, while the aerodromes beyond India are largely the affair of K.L.M. themselves. It is now reported that a provisional order will be placed for six D.C.4s, each to have four Pratt and Whitney twin-Hornets. -More than a fortnight ago, too, news arrived from Holland that the company had also ordered four D.C.5s, mainly for service on the company's internal air routes. This type is, of course, a high-wing twin-engined machine bearing a certain general resemblance to the D.H.95 described in this week's issue and having a somewhat similar performance and load capacity. It is not expected that the first of the D.C.4s will be de livered (and possibly flown over) before 1940, but all four of the D.C.5s are expected during the latter part of this year, the first to arrive in September. This is interesting. At the moment the prototype D.C.5 has not even flown. Specialising in Instruments QUITE recently a new subsidiary company was formed by Rollasons, of Croydon, which company will, so to speak, enable the firm to set aside a considerable area of their shops for work on instrument maintenance, overhaul, and, for that matter, rebuilding. The company is known as Rollasons Air craft Instruments and Equipment, and will be in charge of Lt. Cdr. J. R. Bryans, who is a director of the parent company. This development is one of considerable importance since only the major airline companies at present run departments specially for this purpose—and instruments, a word which includes all manner of devices both electrical and otherwise, are nowadays among the most important items in aircraft equipment. The new Rollason shops, which are at present being laid out, will look after all the usual free and restrained gyro instruments, thermo-couples, wireless and electrical equip ment generally. At the moment the shops at Croydon are intensely busy with unmentionable modification and rebuilding work for the R.A.F., and practically all the civil work, other than a certain amount of straightforward maintaining, is carried out at Hanworth. Another equally important and coincident occurrence at Rollasons has been the acquisition of the distributionship agreements—in the United Kingdom and Eire—for the American Wright engines, their accessories and spare parts, including such things as the Chandler-Groves carburetter. Additionally they have made similar agreements with the Lewis instrument people—specialists in thermo-couples and temperature gauges—for Magnaflux crack detector equipment, and for Martin Decker cable-tension indicators.
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