FlightGlobal.com
Home
Premium
Archive
Video
Images
Forum
Atlas
Blogs
Jobs
Shop
RSS
Email Newsletters
You are in:
Home
Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1035.PDF
360 FLIGHT. APRIL 6, 1939 COMMERCIAL AVIATION READY FOR THE CROSSING: The Boeing 314 Yankee Clipper cutting things fine while making an approach at Baltimore after flying over from San Francisco. The machine at the landing stage is the Sikorsky S.42B Bermuda Clipper, which is now being assisted on the Bermuda service by the second of the 314s, Atlantic Clipper. At (he time of going to press Yankee Clipper was at Biscarosse. THE WEEK AT CROYDON lA. Viator" on Service Cloud Flying, the Refugee Scene, the Omniscience of Cricket, and an Admonition from the Powers-that-be PILOTS oi the airlines are to go in terror of their lives regularly every Tuesday afternoon from now to the end of August: Royal Air Force machines will be flying in cloud and bad visibility at most heights which matter and the air transport pilot is the very first to agree to this, dangerous though it is bound to be, if he is convinced that it must necessarily be done all. over the air routes. But must it? If this Service flying is done in cloud and bad visibility, does it really matter what sort of country is beneath them? If not, why not ship the whole outfit to some stretch of sky where there is little or no risk of collision with commercial craft? I am informed that there are very good lines in cloud formation in other places and if you need extra-quality cloud with some body to it some of our manufacturing centres run a line which in taste, smell and colour closely resembles vapourised stout. Ah well! What can't be cured must be endured ; but can one endure a 350 m.p.h. fighter going straight through the cabin, in one side and out the other? 1. I doubt if the newspapers have done anyone much service by booming the story of the returning refugees who created such a disturbance at Croydon last week that the pilot of a Danish machine refused, for safety, to carry them. Sqft-hearted people came forward and arranged to guarantee these people, I understand, because of the sob stories in the papers. But wait a moment. I have seen many a party of refugees accept the decision of the authori ties with pale, set faces and I have seen them embark with control and dignity. Nobody came forward to help them, because they did not kick and scream and refuse to walk. This means putting a premium on hysteria and on an utter loss of control by parties of men who behave like small children confronted by a bogy. Are these the sort of people we want to help, as much as we want to help the finer, less hysterical types? We shall get lots more kicking and screaming now, of course, because the news will have spread that those who so behave are permitted to stay here. Oh, these English! Just when the last crisis was really thickening up and in some countries you couldn't hear the road drills for rattling sabres, I was informed (with reverence) of a cricket team setting off in Falcon from Croydon for Marseilles, where they would pick up an Empire boat and fly on to Alexandria. Games had been arranged with Alexandria and with Alexandria Airport team, largely composed of Imperial Airways people and with other teams and play was to take place at Aboukir. There would have been a crisis all right if anything had interfered with the teams, whose journey, I am happy to announce, was excellent. Works and Bricks get more cunning every week. They don't dig pits for aeroplanes now, but for motor cars. They do this is front of the main building, where a shrub bery was and a car park will be. One well-known Airport official stepped from his car on to a bit of tinfoil cleverly disguised with sprinkled earth and suddenly disappeared into our quite extensive drainage system without a word of farewell. Otherwise W. and B. policy remains the same, which is loudly to disclaim any further territorial ambitions on the aerodrome and then to grab a big area and mark it off with flags so that we cannot use it. An Air Ministry department has taken me to task some what after the manner of the Archbishop of Auchtermuchty admonishing an errant choirboy. I am impressed by the manner but not by the matter of this reproof, for I am accused of criticising the Air Ministry for doing nothing about the 300ft. chimney near Croydon Aerodrome, which I said was a serious menace to life. I am told that I should not have made this criticism, because the scheme has been washed out for some time. Secret Service Now, the department in question has access to official secrets while I have not, and therefore I would emphasise that no air traffic company, Imperial, British Airways, K.L.M., Air France, Swissair, or any other operating at Croydon, has been advised by the Air Ministry that the chimney scheme has been abandoned. The last any com pany heard from the Ministry was a circular letter, lacking even the human touch of a handwritten signature, stating that the chimney would be built and offering no hint that the Ministry would fight this monstrous proposal. The letter was dated January 17, 1939, and ended with the gelatinous remark: "In view of the proximity of the proposed chimney to existing air routes, it is thought that your company would wish to be informed of the scheme." Not only that, but several companies promptly wrote vigorous letters of protest and I know one company which has not, up to the time of writing, had the courtesy of a reply from the Ministry. No wonder, then, that I wrote last week under the firm impression that nothing had been done. And by the same token I am convinced that nothing would have been done if the companies had not taken a strong line. Now I, expect I shall be excommunicated by another department of the Ministry for announcing the abandonment of the chimney scheme before it ha,s filtered through to the com panies officially. But cheer up, chums of the Air Ministry, we all make mistakes at times. Why! bless you, I made one myself last week. In referring to the Stockholm-Moscow service I forgot to mention that it does not start until May
Sign up to
Flight Digital Magazine
Flight Print Magazine
Airline Business Magazine
E-newsletters
RSS
Events
