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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 0775.PDF
MARCH 16, 1939 FLIGHT. 275- TOPICS of the DAY Pride of Ownership AFTER reading a few weeks ago in an American magazine that 600 (six • hundred) little machines, the majority of them privately owned, flew to Miami last January without a single casualty, I cannot help wondering again what it is that prevents an increase in private ownership in this country. If a fleet of this magnitude were to attend any flying rally in this country it would be necessary for all the owners here to get their machines out of pawn. Apart from weather difficulties and the fact that Europe is not quite so suited as the U.S. to flying by the amateur, it is still difficult to see exactly why more machines are not being bought. I have one pet theory which accounts for a good deal. Whereas the American pilot does not appear to mind flying a machine which is exactly similar to four or five hundred others, the amateur over here is peculiarly snobbish. If he buys an aeroplane he wants it to be different and better, and something of which to be proud. Otherwise, even if he can afford it, he goes without, and suffers the discomforts involved in hiring, begging or borrowing aeroplanes from different sources. Nobody really minds flying about in a somewhat bedraggled and ancient light aeroplane if this machine has only been hired or borrowed; one can always be jocularly disclaiming. This theory would at least partly explain the failure of the very little aeroplanes to make much progress. If a prospective owner is ready to lay out several hundred pounds on a machine, he or she will probably find no difficulty in obtaining a few more hundreds with which to buy something better. Also, of course, only one or two of the very small machines have performances and capa cities which would make them in any way useful for serious cross-country flying. If one is only going to tear round an aerodrome, or fly between two places not more than fifty miles apart, it is both cheaper and less worrying to make use of club machines. It is significant that far more machines costing between /i.ooo and ^2,000 have been sold than those priced at /400 or ,under. Cheapness, as such, is apparently not wanted. The manufacturer who produces something really good and " different " round about the £1,000 mark would probably stand a much better chance of selling his machine than another who is offering a more or less similar, but very ordinary and uninteresting aeroplane, for £500. First cost, too, has little bearing on the matter, and the owner is much more afraid of high maintenance costs and, in particular, of being made, in a mild way, to look a fool. And one does look a fool if, after buying some strange but worthy machine for £300, the firm concerned goes out of business next week, leaving the owner with a doubt fully saleable flying machine of no particular merit. Safety First YW HEN thinking in terms of cash it should also be remembered that most of the world's money is in the hands of people over the age of fifty. A machine which is to sell in quantity, therefore, must not only be different but also be extremely safe and easy to fly. If once the older generation can be encouraged to take this flying busi ness seriously and not to treat it as a quick and unpleasant means to an end, the whole appearance of the aircraft market will change. And it is up to the manufacturers to produce something that is easy and safe, while, if neces- ^rv. continuing to make less easy, more manoeuvrable and altogether more exciting aeroplanes (one at a time) for the younger generation. As a proof of this constant demand for more safety, the. case of the Autogiro type of machine can be given. The man in the steet still most firmly believes that the gyro plane will eventually arrive and that he will then be able to fly from one back garden to another. On the whole, the interest in the type has been out of all proportion to the number of such machines in existence at any single moment. Luckily, development work on rotating wing aircraft continues, and the mythical man-in-the-street may yet see his ideals realised. In the meantime, the logical use of slots and flaps, and the application of the tricycle or level- landing type of undercarriage may help the cause. Three weeks or so ago I had a chance of flying round in the prototype General Aircraft Cygnet, complete with tri cycle undercarriage and twin fins and rudders. It is early yet to make any remarks about the machine as a machine, since it is still being used for test purposes and suffers the defects of a hack which is always being taken apart and put together again. In a month or so it will be a different story. But the important, or tricycle, part certainly works very well indeed. Even to the comparatively experienced pilot, it is a great relief to be able to taxy furiously along the ground •—well out of wind, if necessary—and to start flying merely • by pulling mechanically on the control column. This fly ing need not be started until there is any amount of reserve speed. During the landing one merely holds the machine off in a very haphazard sort of manner, and when the ground appears to be about where it should be and the speed down to, say, 60 m.p.h., the stick is just forgotten. If a landing is being made in a very small space the brake le\'er can be left in the full-on position during the approach and if, after all this, there is still a chance that the machine will run into the hedge, it can be turned more or less violently after it has settled down properly. The important points are that meticulous care need no longer be applied to this business of flying, while to the layman everything can become much more natural and normal—much less, in fact, like a tight-rope-walking act. If landing ease is demanded first and foremost, it may not always even be necessary to go to the extent of fitting a three-wheel undercarriage. If the elevator control is limited and the undercarriage height and position arranged so that a still-air-borne landing can be made without the risk of ballooning, a good deal has been achieved. Such an arrangement applies to the Tipsy two-seater, and may reasonably be expected to reduce the pre-solo landing prac tice time by a third or even by a half.
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