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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0591.PDF
•MARCH 2, 1939 FLIGHT. 205 Commercial Aviation 1 in the south-west and south districts of the country. ^A^ mother indication of the way in which things are moving, u* 'js Co-ordinated Inland Airlines—a company formed by ^ th Eastern Airways with the idea of close collaboration hetween, if not a merging of, all the other internal airline in- 6 Meanwhile an interesting new company has been formed in Fdinbureh. This' is known as Night Air Transport, and its nhns are to fly night services, freight, mails, and, if the demand is sufficient, passengers between Scotland (Grange mouth) and London. The directors are Sqn. Ldr. D. F. Mclntyre and Mr. W. A. Scott Douglas, the first of whom is a director of Scottish Aviation, the firm which is responsible for the new Grangemouth aerodrome. Licensing the South and West THREE companies heard the decisions of the Air Transport Licensing Authority last week. These three—Great Western and Southern Air Lines, Western Airways, and Lundy and Atlantic Coast Air Lines—are, of course, concerned exclusively with operations in the south and west of England. The first named company is new in name, ,though not in fact. Some time ago, it will be remembered, Railway Air Services took an interest in Channel Air Ferries,, and G.W.S.A.L. covers the field previously held separately by R.A.S. and Channel Air Ferries. They have received five years' licences for services between Shoreham (Brighton) and Manchester, with landings at Ryde, Southampton, Bristol and Birmingham ; for a service between Shoreham and Bristol with landings at Ryde and Bournemouth ; and for a service between Shoreham and Bournemouth with landings at Ryde. A seven years' licence has been offered for the Penzance-Scilly Islands service, and another for the route between Heston and Ryde, with landings at Croydon. Additionally a three years' licence, for the summer months only, has been given to G.W.S.A.L. for a service between Bristol and Land's End with landings at Exeter and Plymouth. Western Airways, now, of course, owned by the Straight Corporation, have received three-year licences for services between Bristol and Swansea with landings at Cardiff, and for an experimental service between Swansea and a landing ground at Hayle, in West Cornwall—with intermediate land ings at Bristol and Newquay. The licence for the Cardiff and Weston-super-Mare ferry service is for seven -years. Finally, Lundy and Atlantic Coast Air Lines have received a seven year's licence for their service between Barnstaple and Lundy Island. Eight a Day "DKOVIDED that the necessary flying equipment is avail- -*• able, Imperial Airways will, probably, in co-operation with British Airways, be running eight return services to Paris during this summer. The new schedule, which involves a departure from Victoria every two hours between 8 a.m. and 10 p.m. and a similar departure from the offices in Paris every two hours between 6.15 a.m. and 8.15 p.m., should come into force early in April. The whole thing depends, it seems, on the use of D.H. Albatross, or "F" class, machines for which a London-Paris flying time of 1 hr. 10 min. can safely be allowed. In fact, the machines of this type usually cover the distance in very little more than an hour. A fortnight ago Imperial Airways ordered two more of these machines and both of them should be in service within about three months. The first is actually. flying, but there is naturally a good deal of interior work to be done before it can be put on the route. Even with five D.H.gi's it would be possible for Imperial Airways to run the expected every-two-hours-on-the-hour service to Paris as well as one to Zurich—though it is possible that the Budapest run will for various reasons take prior place. Knowing that Imperial Airways have been somewhat short 01 up-to-date flying equipment, the Air Ministry have arranged to let them use the two Albatross machines which were originally destined for Atlantic crossings. This does not mean that the landplane experiments have been inde- M«te y postponed, but merely that the machines will be more usetul on European services." Still at Work W^ffi ^e continuation of the war in China it has been the + Cult.to rtlscover exactly what is still being done by Natinnv? ^J" airllne companies in that country—China poration tl0n CorP°ration and the Eurasia Aviation Cor- Shanehlf-+ndr2f I937 CNAC- moved their headquarters from this \-ntl Lh"ngklng. and at present maintains services from Se over five routes. These are to Kunming (Yunnan) ; to Ichang (the western Hupeh trading town beside the Yangtze) ; to Chengtu (the capital of Szechuan) ; to Kiating (the commercial centre of Szechuan) ; and to Hong Kong. The latter service has been operated somewhat irregularly since one of the C.N.A.C. machines was shot down by Japanese fighters last September. The machines used by the C.N.A.C. include Douglas D.C.2S, Stinson Trimotors, Loening amphibians and Consolidated Com modores. Preparations are now being made for the opening of two new routes, one between Chungking and Hanoi (in French Indo-China) and the other between Chungking and Tihua (the provincial capital of Sinkiang or Chinese Turkestan). The former service is concerned with the pool arrangements with Imperial Airways. It is understood that Imperials will re arrange their Rangoon-Hongkong line to run via Kunming, while C.N.A.C. will operate bi-weekly from Chungking to Rangoon, stops being made at Kunming, Lashio and Man- dalay. C.N.A.C. already maintain a bi-*veekly night service between Hongkcng and Chungking. The Eurasia Aviation Corporation, which was established jointly by the Chinese Government and the German D.L.H. in 1931, has probably suffered more severely from the present conditions, only two-thirds of the pre-war route length now being operated. The present services include those between Chungking, Kweilin and Kunming; between Chungking and Kunmins;; between Kunming and Ninghsia; between Chung king and Chengtu; between Kunming and Lanchow; between Chungking and Hanoi; and between Changking and Hong Kong. When the company was originally formed the idea was to extend the services westward until such a time as a through run could be organised between Germany and Shang hai. Because of the unsuitable conditions in Sinkiang, how ever, the final destination of the E.A.C., Urga, has never been reached. Check and Re-check NOWADAYS there are a tremendous number of details to be looked after by the pilots of any modern transport aeroplane. It is usual, therefore, when a crew is becoming accustomed to a machine, to type out the sequence of opera tions and the various checks for the take-off and approach, and to paste up this list in some prominent place in the control cabin. Later on it is supposed that the pilot will remember everything, and no further reminders are therefore offered. The operational tell-tale panel on the Curtiss Wright 20 as it appears in experimental form. It is placed immediately below the Sperry panel and, consequently, in full view of both the first and second pilots. In the new Curtiss Wright 20 a complete and automatic tell tale panel has been incorporated in the dashboard. In its essentials this consists of a series of lights which are electrically connected to the various operating parts of the machine in such a way that their functioning is duly indicated. Be fore making an approach to land, for instance, the pilot presses one of the ten pre-selector switches—marked, in the case, "land." Lights show on the tell-tale panel to indicate those operations which have to be carried out. As the land ing gear is lowered, the appropriate light goes out and the same applies to the flaps and trimming items. When the panel is completely dark, therefore, no further adjustments are neces sary. Somewhat similar series of lights are used for checking the functioning of the power units, so that the various readings of temperature and pressure, as well as mixture condition and airscrew pitch, can be checked in sequence. Such a tell-tale panel should relieve the pilot of a good deal of responsibility and so reduce his mental fatigue in normal flight..
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