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Aviation History
1939
1939 - 1823.PDF
598 JUNE 15, COMMERC AVIATION THE WEEK AT CROYDON "A. Viator " on the New Air France Paris Services; the Dropping - back of Bricks ; Terminal Buildings; and Other Matters of the Moment TO-MORROW Air France will start an " every hour on the hour" service to Paris with the well-known, reliable and comfortable Bloch aircraft. This is thought to be a drive to secure passenger traffic which might otherwise revert to Irnperial-cum-British Air ways now that they have virtually combined, and in view of the fact that the Ensign class are expected to be in service very shortly. It is a good scheme, anyway, be cause you know where you are with an hourly service, especially if it's on the hour and you can, for example, turn up at Croydon any old time and fill in the odd minutes with a drink. The services will start at 09.00 hours and go on until 19.00 hours, and you don't need time-tables to remember that. I am told that Air France threw a good cocktail party on Monday to celebrate the inauguration of the new Paris Services. I hope it was as good, as interesting and as enjoyable as the altogether delightful Imperial Airways party I went to on that same night at the Cambridge Theatre, where excellent films dealing with British Air Transport were shown. This Croydon contact lighting is a good thing, but let us pray for fine weather during its construction, for it is never pleasant to have to land in QBI at an unfamiliar airport—in this case, presumably, Heston, for the normal Croydon traffic. Here is a case where the Air Ministry ought to put men to work day and night all the hours there are, in order to get the job finished quickly. Qood for Undercarriages Normally, everyone is tolerant of Works and Bricks— who have their rights—erecting permanent (or semi-ditto) encampments about the place, planting a small area with tea and tobacco plants and waiting for the crop to ripen and be gathered and cured before making their preliminary 'levenses, which very naturally forms the prelude to any job of work. Something pretty and novel in the way of a folk dance was invented recently by these two worthies, by the way. One of them—Bricks, by his colour, I guess— was on the edge of the tarmac, stamping his feet and pirouetting. Everyone was entranced until it was dis covered that it was his way of detecting loose bricks in the neat edging of same, which streamlines in a steep declivity into the Colas, or whatever it is. Ask some of the local undercart experts about this particular declivity —they'll tell you. Anyway, having found a loose brick, Bricks took it up with the aid of his jemmy, looked at it, shook his head, showed it to Works (who said Tchk! Tchk!) and carefully replaced it in its socket. He then danced it into position and went home. Works stayed there brooding until the evening dew gave him a twinge and then merged somewhat sorrowfully into the crepuscle. A jolly but (to me, anyway) unfamilar gadget was used the other day on one of the Frobisher class which was not so willing to start up so far as one engine was concerned. It was a thing like a walking stick with knobs on, one end of which was inserted into the reluctant engine's digestive system. Then a gadget on the ground was violently turned with a barrel-organ sort of handle, sparks flew and lo! the motor started. Seems to me you want the same thing with a push bike attachment so that the starter-upper could pedal instead of hand-grinding. Ettrick, one of the boosted-Tiger Ensigns, was delivered early last week, officially for service, but had no furniture inside, though the curtains were up. The furniture was delivered at Croydon—in plain vans. Severely Horticultural Great fun is being had by villa dwellers who are rightly positioned, according to the way of the wind, on the air port borders. Owing, may be, to the failure of last year's mushroom crop on the aerodrome, it was recently decided to spread fertiliser and the time selected was when there was a nice northerly wind. This blew the best of the stuff away and deposited a fine silt thereof in various gardens. Not only have giant beans been grown, but giant docks, teazles, convolvuli and snoopbine, to say nothing of Shep herd's smock and Lady's purse. In London the other day, I saw something of the new Imperial Airways headquarters, which are truly magnifi cent, though there does seem to be a certain amount of difficulty in getting the big coaches in and out of the coaching platform, or whatever you call it. Experts say the whole building is already too small, and truly it is difficult to keep pace with the growth of commercial flying. I hear that K.L.M. is also erecting a new head office in a particularly pleasant part of The Hague opposite one of the jolliest hotels there. Why not? The correspondence column of Flight last week contained a letter accusing me of an incorrect statement that Miss Mona Friedlander's 2nd Class Navigator's ticket was the only one in the possession of a woman. Just a moment, though. My statement was that I believed it to be the case, and my statement was therefore correct, because that was exactly what I did believe. As to my belief, I n°w stand corrected and am happy indeed to know that no fewer than four other charming ladies possess these delight ful illuminated addresses. I am informed that Air Dispatch, Ltd., has a lady pdot in training and that she is at present doing Army Co-op. night work. I say I am informed. I haven't seen her Of flown with her.
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